Alerzo, the Nigerian B2B e-commerce startup that once promised to rewire the country’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) distribution network, is quietly winding down several of its Singapore-based special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
The dissolutions, published in Singapore’s Government Gazette in late April 2026, arrive just two months after a Nigerian federal court granted a Mareva injunction freezing the company’s accounts over a ₦4.38bn ($2.8m) debt owed to Moniepoint Microfinance Bank.
While Alerzo’s primary holding company — Alerzo Pte. Ltd. — remains active, the targeted striking-off of its financing and investment subsidiaries points to a significant corporate restructuring, or potentially a strategic ring-fencing of liabilities, as the startup fights for survival in a punishing macroeconomic climate.
According to official notices published between April 21 and April 27, 2026, multiple entities tied to Alerzo’s corporate structure have been dissolved or slated for striking off.
These include Alerzo Bridge Financing Pte. Ltd., Alerzo Capital Pte. Ltd., Alerzo New SPV Pte. Ltd., and Alerzo Series A Pte. Ltd. Additionally, under the Variable Capital Companies (VCC) Act, a sub-fund named Alerzo 1A was formally dissolved on April 20.
SPVs are commonly used by startups and investors to structure funding rounds, isolate risk, or warehouse capital. In Singapore, they are often paired with VCCs — a flexible fund structure introduced in 2020 that allows asset managers to create umbrella funds with ring-fenced sub-funds.
In Singapore, striking off this type of company requires a declaration that the entity has ceased operations, has zero assets, and carries no outstanding liabilities. The timing of these closures — occurring within weeks of a major asset freeze in its primary operating market — suggests a defensive posture.
Corporate restructuring experts note that dissolving bridge financing and SPV structures shortly after a legal crisis breaks can be a mechanism for risk isolation. By winding down these entities, a parent company can sever legal links between its international financing arms and embattled local operations, while simultaneously reducing the high compliance costs associated with maintaining regulated vehicles in Singapore.
Crucially, Alerzo Pte. Ltd., the main holding vehicle named as a co-defendant in the Nigerian lawsuit, has not filed for bankruptcy and remains on the active register.
Assets on the block
The restructuring in Singapore is playing out against the backdrop of a fierce legal battle in Lagos.
Court documents from the Federal High Court reveal that Alerzo Limited secured a ₦5bn working capital loan from Moniepoint Microfinance Bank in January 2025. The facility carried an 18-month tenor with standard immediate-recall provisions in the event of default.
By November 2025 — less than a year after the drawdown — Moniepoint issued a formal demand for full repayment, alleging that the startup had defaulted. By December 2025, the outstanding balance had reached ₦4.38bn, exclusive of accruing interest.
In February 2026, Justice Daniel Osiagor granted Moniepoint’s application for a Mareva injunction (a freezing order). The directive legally bars financial institutions from releasing funds or assets belonging to Alerzo and its co-defendants up to the value of the claim.
The suit names Alerzo Limited, its founder and CEO Adewale Opaleye, three individual guarantors, and the active Singapore parent, Alerzo Pte. Ltd. Moniepoint’s legal team informed the court that it had encountered significant difficulties serving court processes to the guarantors, who were allegedly unreachable at their known addresses, prompting the court to authorise substituted service.
The legal pressure coincides with mounting public scrutiny over Alerzo’s operational health.
In February 2026, footage circulated across Nigerian social media showing rows of Alerzo-branded delivery motorcycles and buses parked in a dusty compound in Ibadan, Oyo State, with an off-camera voice inviting the public to purchase the vehicles.
Opaleye swiftly pushed back against the narrative of a fire sale, telling local media that the vehicles in the video were merely “scrapped units” rather than the company’s active fleet. He maintained that Alerzo still has more than 400 vehicles in operation across the southwest and insisted the sale was entirely unconnected to the Moniepoint litigation.
However, with a Mareva injunction now severely restricting the company’s financial mobility, the burden of proof rests heavily on Alerzo to demonstrate it can maintain operations and service its remaining retailer network.
The economics of last-mile distribution
Alerzo’s current distress is a stark illustration of the structural vulnerabilities inherent in the African B2B e-commerce model — a sector that attracted hundreds of millions of venture dollars between 2020 and 2022.
Founded in 2018, Alerzo aimed to digitise the fragmented, informal retail supply chain that dominates Nigerian commerce. The model required aggregating demand from thousands of neighbourhood shops and fulfilling orders directly from manufacturers. To execute this, the company had to deploy substantial capital into heavy logistics: warehouses, delivery fleets, inventory purchasing, and credit lines.
The strategy relies on a stable macroeconomic environment where massive transaction volumes can offset razor-thin margins. Instead, Nigeria delivered an economic shock. Following the removal of the central bank’s multiple exchange rate regime in mid-2023, the naira lost more than 60% of its value against the dollar.
For import-dependent FMCG supply chains, the impact was immediate. The cost of goods skyrocketed, while purchasing power at the grassroots level collapsed. Retailers could not absorb the price hikes, and B2B platforms — earning in depreciating naira while servicing dollar-denominated venture expectations — were caught in the squeeze.
Alerzo, which raised over $20m from investors including Nosara Capital, FJ Labs, and Galaxy Digital, had already initiated an undisclosed number of layoffs by late 2023, citing the escalating costs of fuel, vehicle maintenance, and warehousing. With venture capital flows to African startups tightening sharply, the runway required to wait out the macro storm simply evaporated for many high-burn logistics models.
Alerzo is not alone in its struggles. Its trajectory mirrors a broader correction across the Nigerian startup ecosystem, where companies that raised heavily during the zero-interest-rate boom are now confronting severe headwinds.
The B2B and logistics sectors have been particularly hard hit. Automotive tech startup Mecho Autotech, which raised nearly $4.8m, is now defunct. Medsaf, a B2B pharmaceutical marketplace, and Edukoya, an edtech heavily reliant on aggressive scaling, have similarly stumbled or shut down. Even well-capitalised outliers like 54gene, once valued at over $150m, collapsed in 2023 following management upheaval and a failure to pivot post-pandemic.
What happens next
The fate of Alerzo now hinges on a complex web of legal and financial maneuvers.
In Singapore, the publication of the striking-off notices triggers a 60-day window during which creditors could theoretically lodge an objection if they believe the dissolved SPVs harbour unresolved debts or assets relevant to the Nigerian dispute.
In Lagos, a substantive motion remains pending to determine whether the asset freeze will be maintained as the debt recovery suit proceeds to its merits.
Opaleye’s public statements indicate he is not ready to concede defeat. However, navigating a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, a judicial freeze on working capital, and the loss of international financing vehicles will test the limits of Alerzo’s resilience. Whether the company can restructure its debts and salvage its core operations, or whether the current legal pressure accelerates a full wind-down, will become clear in the coming months.