A Nigerian mobile recharge and payment solutions startup, Zoto, has reportedly shut down. Zoto’s problems appear to have started in May 2018. That was the time when users began to complain in social media about their inability to transact on the app.
Confirming the shutdown, Oshone Emmanuel Ikazoboh, the co-founder responded to inquiries about Zoto on Twitter: “ not all startups survive, unfortunately.”
@oikazoboh , so I just figured out you are a co-founder of the startup @myzoto .
So what is really happening with them at the moment.
They just seem to disappear without a trace or prewarning.
An answer would be appreciated.
Thanks.— Mmaduekwe Ugochukwu (@xor_el) August 14, 2018
Zoto launched in 2015 originally as a mobile airtime recharge app and, over the years, claimed to have grown its user base to over 1 million users. A while ago, the company had blogged (LINK):
Two years ago, Zoto started out as a mobile recharge app. At the end of our first year, we were celebrating 100k users. June would make it the second year, and we already celebrated 1 million users.
Exponential growth? In some way, yes. But we know there’s more, so we shared a slice of cake and are already looking on to the next target.
That isn’t the purpose of our post here today. Instead, we’d like to talk about the journey so far. The voluntary 7-day work week and sleepless nights, the unexpected crashes, making Android top charts, and that one time we got over 200k users in a few days.