Lazerpay to layoff employees as its proposed seed fund's lead investor withdraws

Nigerian crypto and web3 company, Lazerpay has joined the growing list of African startups that are downsizing their workforce following the ongoing economic downturn.

According to a statement to its investors, Njoku Emmanuel, founder and CEO of Lazerpay said that the company was unable to complete its seed round that it started raising earlier this year after the proposed lead investor for the round withdrew its interest due to the "market conditions and disagreement on terms".

Njoku clarified that the layoff is unrelated to the FTX collapse. "Lazerpay did not hold any assets in FTX and, consequently, is unaffected. Our customers' funds are safe, and the company will keep processing payments as normal," he said.

Prior to the announcement of the layoff, Lazerpay management reportedly stopped receiving salaries, while its employees' salaries were reduced. However, due to the failed deal between the company at its proposed lead investors, the company could not continue with the aforementioned strategy.

Launched in 2021, Lazerpay works like Stripe, but for crypto. Businesses can use its channels to accept crypto payments from their customers: integrate a collections widget in their apps and collect payments through a link.

"What we are doing is helping Africans accept payments in crypto, but we have plans for much more. We want to drive financial inclusion and interoperability in Africa. We are building a gateway where Africans will be able to send and receive crypto using their local currencies," Njoku said in a previous interview.

"For example, a Kenyan buyer can send Ksh to a Ghanaian seller, but the seller receives USDT instead of cedis, all without going to the bank or speaking to a middleman. People will be able to send USDT through their local currencies, and Lazerpay's role will be converting the local currency to crypto—USDT—so everyone can hold the real value of their monies," he added.