Investors Lose $100m As 15 Startups Shut Down After Raising Funds

Nigeria’s tech ecosystem is reeling from a wave of high-profile startup shutdowns, with at least 15 venture-backed companies closing shop after collectively raising over $100 million in funding.
From fintech and edtech to healthtech and logistics, startups that once dazzled investors and attracted top global talent have found themselves unable to scale, unable to secure follow-on capital, and ultimately unable to survive.
The 15 Nigerian startups collectively raised over $100 million before shutting down They are; Okra raising $16.5 million in total funding before its shutdown in May 2025; 54gene raised $45 million across three funding rounds (some reports cite over $45 million, earlier estimates noted $70 million+) before beginning the winding-down process in 2023 and Vibra secured $6 million in a pre-Series A round before closing in 2024.
Others are Zazuu raised $2 million in July 2023 before shutting down later that year; Pivo raised a total of $2.6 million, a $100K pre-seed and $2 million seed, before shutting down in 2024; ThePeer raised $2.1 million before closing in April 2024; Lazerpay secured $1.1 million before its shutdown in April 2023 and Bundle Africa raised $450,000 in a pre-seed round prior to its shutdown
The other startups, including Edukoya, Quizac, Cova, Joovlin, HerRyde, Hytch, and OkadaBooks, had fundraising rounds that were not publicly disclosed.
In total, these confirmed figures total approximately $76.15 million, with actual amounts likely exceeding $100 million once undisclosed funding is factored in.
The most stunning of these is the shutdown of Okra, a fintech infrastructure company co-founded by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside, which positioned itself at the forefront of open banking in Nigeria.
Backed by Silicon Valley investors, Okra raised $16.5 million with a vision to power seamless access to financial data across Africa. It was hailed as a transformative platform, one with the potential to become the continent’s version of Plaid. At its peak, Okra attracted high-level talent from global giants like Google, PayPal, and Mastercard.
However, in May 2025, the company confirmed it was winding down its operations, with co-founder Fara Ashiru, announcing her transition to UK-based Kernel as head of engineering. Although Okra hinted that its payments business might still have a future, and that only its cloud service product Nebula had been shut down, the startup’s overall silence and inability to return more than $5.5 million to investors marked a sobering turn in what was once considered a breakout African tech story.
Okra’s collapse is not isolated. Several other Nigerian startups have folded in the last 18 months, including 54gene, a healthtech venture that raised over $70 million across multiple rounds before announcing it was winding down in 2023.
Lazerpay, founded by 19-year-old Njoku Emmanuel, shut its doors in April 2023 after raising $1.1 million. “Despite our team’s tireless efforts to secure the necessary funding to keep Lazerpay going, we were unable to close a successful fundraising round. We fought hard to keep the lights on as long as possible, but unfortunately, we are now at a point where we need to shut down,” Emmanuel said in a press release.
Another victim of the funding drought was Zazuu, a cross-border payments platform that raised $2 million in July 2023 but was forced to shut down just four months later due to its inability to secure additional capital.
ThePeer, Cova, Pivo, Edukoya, Quizac, Joovlin, and HerRyde also closed operations after failing to raise new funds or attain sustainable growth.
OkadaBooks, a pioneer in African digital publishing founded in 2013, was not spared. Despite participating in Google’s Launchpad Accelerator in 2017 and building a loyal readership, the company announced its shutdown in November 2023. “We explored various avenues to keep our virtual bookshelves alive but, unfortunately, the challenges we face are insurmountable,” CEO Okechukwu Ofili wrote in a farewell message on social media.
Across the board, the common thread is an inability to raise follow-on funding, which many experts have identified as the primary reason behind the shutdowns.
Chairman of Signal Alliance Technology Holdings (SATH), Collins Onuegbu, noted that “the dwindling of funding from investors was the main reason why these startups folded up.” According to Onuegbu, startups typically thrive when they are able to raise successive rounds of capital to support their growth. But with investor confidence plummeting, many Nigerian ventures could not survive the crunch. If it becomes difficult for startups to raise additional money to grow their business, then they would run into problems,” he explained.
Data from Africa: The Big Deal supports this grim assessment. The African startup scene witnessed a 37 percent drop in funding in 2023, down to $4.1 billion from $6.5 billion in 2022. Nigeria was hit even harder, with startup investment dropping by 77 percent, from $2 billion between July 2021 and June 2022 to just $470 million in the following 12 months.
This contraction in funding has not only contributed to the collapse of existing startups but has also discouraged new ones from entering the market.
Onuegbu warned that going forward, only startups with business models that require less capital to scale will be able to raise funds, as investors are now more cautious and focused on due diligence, cash flow, and operational sustainability.
But funding alone is not the issue, according to technology and innovation policy advisor Jide Awe, founder of Jidaw.com. Awe believes that many Nigerian startups are also victims of internal flaws, including poor governance, unrealistic business strategies, and a growth-at-all-costs mindset. “One critical problem is the growth-at-all-costs mindset, where startups chase growth and fundraising while neglecting profitability and sustainability,” he said.
Awe added that many founders were lured by vanity metrics and visibility, without building scalable products that solve must-have local problems, adding that high burn rates, overhiring, and lack of operational discipline were common features among the failed startups.
Awe also pointed to external factors such as the “japa” syndrome, where skilled talent emigrates in search of better opportunities, alongside Nigeria’s infrastructural problems, regulatory uncertainty, FX volatility, and low consumer purchasing power. “Many startups also fail to realistically account for inflation, naira volatility, poverty levels, and low financial literacy. Corporate governance is another critical area. Lack of transparency and accountability leads to waste and undermines sustainability,” he noted.
Awe urged founders to re-focus on viability rather than hype. “Startups should invest in realistic market research and user validation before scaling. The goal should be scalable products people are willing to pay for,” he said. He advised that creative funding strategies that reduce reliance on foreign capital, early and constructive engagement with regulators, and strong internal governance structures would be key to weathering future storms, adding that, “Corporate integrity is not optional. Even the most inspiring founders need deep operational discipline to survive in Nigeria’s tough environment.”
Despite the turbulence, experts remain optimistic that the downturn could usher in a more disciplined, resilient phase in Nigeria’s startup journey. With deeper market understanding, ethical leadership, and business models grounded in local realities, the future of tech entrepreneurship in Nigeria may yet recover and thrive.
Veteran entrepreneur and chairman of Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, echoed a message of resilience and vision, “The current challenges in the economy are not new. We have witnessed similar cycles in the past. But our economy has always shown resilience to rebound,” he said, referencing the global economic downturn further worsened by geopolitical conflicts.
Ekeh advised young African founders to remain spiritually strong, work with vision and discipline, and remember that passion alone is not enough, even as he advised that, “Hype is good and gets you noticed, but you must work very hard behind the scenes to fill up the blank spaces with substance. Your passion must pay your bills.”