Less than a Year Old Web3 Startup Purple Pay Shuts Down Purple Pay is a startup which aimed at offering cross-border payments using the blockchain technology. The startup aimed to solve the regulatory concerns by creating KYC-compliant protocol through ZK-enabled decentralized identity, to combat money-laundering activities
By Paromita Gupta •
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Founded in January this year, Web3 startup Purple Pay announced it was winding up its operations. Co-founder Saumya Saxena took to X to share the news, "Knowing when to shut shop is the hardest part. When do you say, this is it, after all?"
Last year at Eth India, we came up with the idea of building Purple Pay. In around 12 months, right before Eth India we decided to shut it down.
— Saumya Saxena (@Saxenasaheb) December 5, 2023
Knowing when to shut shop is the hardest part. When do you say, this is it, after all? pic.twitter.com/iLsq5ZjkdG
The concept for the startup was founded by Saxena and Arunank Divya Sharan at ETHIndia which took place on December 2 – 4, 2022 in Bengaluru. Purple Pay is a startup which aims at offering cross-border payments using the blockchain technology. According to the LinkedIn profile, the startup aimed to solve the regulatory concerns by creating a KYC-compliant protocol through ZK-enabled decentralized identity, to combat money-laundering activities.
So, what didn't go in the favour of the startup? Saxena shares three reasons for it, "Compliant transactions aren't a top-of-the-mind problem - Most use crypto to invest/speculate and not to transact. The market for those who want to make purchases is small - The space is cluttered with too many VC-funded players with cash to burn."
Over the course of its short lifetime, the startup got incubated by Sony and Astar, made a revenue of USD 15k from servicing a USD 1.5 M transaction, and got USD 70k+ through grants/hackathons from Polygon, Wormhole, 0x, Eth India, Jump Pit.
Calling the Web3 ecosystem in the country supportive, he shared that while people, ecosystem support (Grants and partnerships) and branding and marketing were done right, the hurdle was thesis, timing and market. He further shared that the product built was more focused on the vision of VCs and thought leaders, "We spent so much time building product and understanding ZK KYC only to find there's very limited demand for it from our users - RWA clients and DeFi projects."
Giving clarity to all associated parties, Saxena shared that the team would be open-sourcing Purple Pay so that interested individuals can use/build on top of it.
