Zazuu, Africa-focused fintech, shut down operation

Zazuu, an Africa-focused fintech company, announced Friday it has shut down operations.

Announcing it in a LinkedIn post on Friday, the startup attributed the shutdown to its inability to secure a growth funding round.

Founded in 2018 by four Nigerian entrepreneurs, Kay Akinwunmi (CEO), Korede Fanilola (COO), Tosin Ekolie (CTO), and Tola Alade (CDO), Zazuu is an end-to-end money transfer marketplace that lowers the cost of remittance payments into Sub-Saharan Africa.

The company said it is the world’s first cross-border payment marketplace that allows customers to find the best rates across multiple financial providers, view the real costs of a transfer before sending, and track a transfer from source to recipient.

“To our friends and supporters, we have some difficult news to share. Zazuu will be closing its doors,” the company said.

“When we started Zazuu, our mission was to make international money transfers fair for Africans. With the support of our investors and team, we made huge strides securing regulatory approvals, building our products, and laying the groundwork for future growth.”

However, the company said due to a tough funding climate, it failed to secure a growth funding round despite exploring every option before making the decision.

“Massive thanks to our brilliant team, our customers who stuck with us, our investors, and partners who bought into our vision. Your belief in us kept us going.

“Sure, it stings. But we’re walking away with our heads high, proud of what we built and the lessons learned. We’re still all about making financial services fair and accessible for all. We are so grateful to have shared this experience with you,” the startup said.

The startup, in July last year, announced it secured $2 million to deepen its cross-border payment offering and also build the world’s first non-biased payment platform.

The fundraising round, according to the startup, saw participation from Launch Africa, Founders Factory Africa, HoaQ Club, Tinie Tempah, Jason Njoku, CEO IrokoTV, Babs Ogundeyi, CEO Kuda Bank, and other angel investors.

When it raised the funding last year, the company said it would continue to grow its user base, hire more talent and scale its pay with Zazuu feature that allows users to complete transactions in-app.

“The plan for us is growth. We want to scale our solution as quickly as possible. We’re working on getting licenses that allow us to offer our service to users in other European countries before the end of the year. We’ll also be concurrently improving the product with new features that ensure that everyone sending money to Africa gets the best money transfer experience,” Mr Fanilola, the company’s COO, said at the time.