Rising from the ashes: Nweze Emeka’s story of building out of multiple failures

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 end 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 says 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 removed 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 says. “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 users 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 friend asked him to help broker Bitcoin sales. Initially, he didn’t even mark up the rates. “A friend told me, ‘You’re supposed to be making 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 got into crypto for survival,” he says candidly. “Sometimes you buy, and the price drops; you’re at a loss. You use 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 users to receive fiat instantly when crypto hits their wallets.

“Africans are emotional when it comes to using products,” he explains. “They just want a situation where a transaction happens without people knowing it happened. The seamlessness is what they buy into.”

Also read: These 3 Kaduna-based founders are reimagining everyday Bitcoin use 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 get 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 needed 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 exchange 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.”

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 users. 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 says. “I was seeing people complain. So I knew this was something that needed to happen.”

That persistence paid off. Today, Vent has nearly 50,000 users, while OliliFood has facilitated billions of naira in food sales across Delta State. Hizo, still young, is expanding fast.

But the scars of failure remain instructive. “Most of my failures were because 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 faster. If you’re going to succeed, succeed faster. 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 need 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 biggest 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 moving more across borders. 

“When these restrictions are lifted and people move freely across Africa, a Pan-African neobank must be there to help them move financially,” he says.

Advice for founders: fail fast, 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 tell you where the money is.”

He cautions against chasing hype. “Most times, we chase clouds, and the noise is louder than our businesses,” he says. “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.