Grace Ashiru
Lazerpay, a crypto payment company based in Nigeria, has said it is closing down because it can’t get any more money. After laying off people in November 2022, the new business had trouble for a while.
Lazerpay, founded in 2021, created an API that allowed developers to incorporate crypto payments onto their platforms, allowing businesses to accept crypto payments.
The start-up’s goal was to improve financial inclusion and interoperability in Africa by letting businesses accept and make payments in Naira, Cedis, Kenyan Shillings, Rwandan Shillings, US Dollars, and UAE Dirhams.
Lazerpay’s founder, Njoku Emmanuel, posted the official statement on Twitter. He said that the company had tried to “keep the lights on for as long as they could, but they’re now at a point where they need to shut down.”
Customers have been told to move their money off the site before April 30, 2023, when Lazerpay will officially stop doing business. In the 17 months the company had been open, it helped more than 3,000 companies. Shola Akinlade of Paystack, Nuwa Capital, Voltron Capital, and Nestcoin all gave money to Lazerpay.
Last year, when FTX went out of business, it had a big effect on African crypto start-ups. For example, Nigeria’s Nestcoin had to lay off staff. Another Nigerian cryptocurrency start-up, Fluidcoins, was bought by Bitfinex last month after it failed to get enough money to keep going.
Even though Lazerpay has shut down, the company has said that it is willing to sell its intellectual property to anyone who wants to use it to build the future of crypto payments.
