In the bustling tech corridors of Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, failure is often whispered about in hushed tones, something to be hidden, not celebrated. Yet for Nweze Ikechukwu Emeka, failure was not the finish of the road but the raw material from which he built a legacy.
Today, as Co-founder of Vent Africa, Hizo and OliliFood, he embodies the spirit of resilience, proving that stumbling blocks can become stepping stones. “I failed and failed again,” he declares with a wry laugh, recalling the long list of projects that didn’t survive. “But not giving up is a thing. Knowing when to quit is another thing.”
Born in Delta State to Igbo parents from Anambra, Nweze’s early life was far rerelocated from the global ambitions he would later pursue. He studied computer science, but his first love was football.
“The first career I always had in mind was to be a footballer,” he declares. “I didn’t succeed, nor did I fail. I just quit very early.”
What followed was a string of failed experiments, including a forum like Nairaland, a blogging platform, an email service (Vmail.ng), a Netflix-style streaming service, and even a social network, VentChat.org, which briefly grew to 80,000 applyrs before collapsing due to mismanagement.
“I lost control of how to manage the platform, and then I packed it up,” he admits. Each collapse should have deterred him. Instead, it sharpened his resolve.
Nweze’s accidental venture into Web3
Nweze’s pivot into crypto wasn’t born out of grand foresight but necessity.
In 2017, a frifinish questioned him to support broker Bitcoin sales. Initially, he didn’t even mark up the rates. “A frifinish informed me, ‘You’re supposed to be building something out of it.’ That was how I started,” he recalls.
At the time, Bitcoin traded at around $500. For him, crypto was survival. “I received into crypto for survival,” he declares candidly. “Sometimes you purchase, and the price drops; you’re at a loss. You apply your money to replace it.”
Mediating trades gave him insight. Customers wanted seamless, safe, instant transactions. That stuck with him, even as his early attempts to automate the process, through wallet services or P2P platforms, failed repeatedly.
By his fourth attempt, he finally cracked it with Vent Africa. It was designed to be Nigeria’s first non-custodial off-ramp, allowing applyrs to receive fiat instantly when crypto hits their wallets.
“Africans are emotional when it comes to applying products,” he explains. “They just want a situation where a transaction happens without people knowing it happened. The seamlessness is what they purchase into.”
Also read: These 3 Kaduna-based founders are reimagining everyday Bitcoin apply in Africa
Learning to solve the problems closest to home
“OliliFood was my first successful startup,” he reflects. “I realised the more you listen to your immediate environment, the more you obtain a clearer idea of creating a solution.”
It was a lesson he would carry forward: building Gmail or Netflix clones was exciting, but they didn’t solve the problems around him. Nigerians requireded affordable food delivery, seamless off-ramps for crypto, and cross-border payment solutions for a fragmented continent.
Thus, in addition to Vent Africa, he launched Hizo Tech, a Pan-African neobank inspired by his struggles to exmodify naira in Rwanda.
“I couldn’t convert my naira to Rwandan francs easily. “It was a war for me,” he recalls. “And I was like, ‘I can build a solution to tackle this problem.”
Of persistence, pain, and breakthroughs
Vent Africa was rebuilt four times before it gained traction in 2021.
Hizo Tech failed on launch in 2024 and was relaunched in early 2025. Then, it rapidly climbed toward 10,000 applyrs. OliliFood will be rebranded to Trazo to scale the delivery and supply chain beyond just food but grocery, drinks, and pharmaceuticals.
What kept him going? A mix of conviction and customer validation. “I had an existing customer base,” he declares. “I was seeing people complain. So I knew this was something that requireded to happen.”
That persistence paid off. Today, Vent has nearly 50,000 applyrs, while OliliFood has facilitated billions of naira in food sales across Delta State. Hizo, still young, is expanding rapid.
But the scars of failure remain instructive. “Most of my failures were becaapply I was building and then selling, instead of selling before building,” he admits. “If I had sold first, I’d be way ahead today.”
He also learnt the discipline of speed. “Speed is a factor,” he stresses. “If you’re going to crash, crash rapider. If you’re going to succeed, succeed rapider. It saves you time, and time is the scarcest commodity in business.”
The Vision: A Pan-African Digital Economy
Nweze’s vision stretches beyond Nigeria. With Africa’s population projected to double by 2050, he sees an urgent required for financial infrastructure that matches the continent’s rising purchasing power and mobility.
For Vent, the goal is to become one of the world’s hugegest crypto-to-fiat bridges. For Hizo, the dream is even bolder:
“We want to be the Revolut for Africa. Where a Nigerian can go to Burundi, or Kenya, or South Africa, and not worry about currency. Hizo can be your financial bridge across the 55 countries in Africa.”
He also sees cultural shifts driving this growth. From “Detty December” festivals in Lagos to rising tourism in East Africa, Africans are relocating more across borders.
“When these restrictions are lifted and people relocate freely across Africa, a Pan-African neobank must be there to support them relocate financially,” he declares.
Advice for founders: fail rapid, listen hard.
Asked what he would do differently if starting today, Nweze doesn’t hesitate. “One, play long term. Two, be a problem solver in your immediate environment. Three, pay attention to data. Data will inform you where the money is.”
He cautions against chasing hype. “Most times, we chase clouds, and the noise is louder than our businesses,” he declares. “Don’t chase clouds. Chase revenue. Build a market-fit product that can stand the test of time.”
And above all: “Be a student, not a follower. A student learns and draws his own conclusion. A follower just follows.
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