Lazerpay
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Lazerpay was a Nigerian crypto and Web3 payments startup founded in October 2021 by teenager Emmanuel Njoku together with Abdulfatai Suleiman and Prosper Ubi. It offered an API that let developers integrate crypto payments into their platforms, enabling merchants to accept stablecoin payments and transact in Naira, Cedis, Kenyan Shillings, Rwandan Shillings, US Dollars and UAE Dirham. In 17 months of operation it onboarded over 3,000 businesses and processed more than $1 million in transactions.
02 / Lazerpay FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
The company could not raise follow-on funding: a proposed lead investor pulled out earlier in 2022, forcing layoffs in November 2022, and the crypto winter, deepened by the FTX collapse that hit backer Nestcoin, dried up the fundraising market. Founder Emmanuel Njoku said the team fought to keep the lights on as long as possible but could not close a successful funding round, making the shutdown unavoidable.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
Web3 payments company Lazerpay shut down in 2023 after it was unable to raise enough capital to continue.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Downsized its workforce in November 2022 after failing to secure funding.
- 02
On April 13, 2023 founder and CEO Emmanuel Njoku announced the decision to cease operations.
- 03
Merchants were advised to withdraw funds via bank or crypto payout before April 30, 2023, when operations officially ended.
- 04
The company opened offers from anyone interested in purchasing its IP.
- 05
No public loss or restructuring figures were disclosed.