Shalom Rayhamen is the Nigerian software developer behind Lagos Life, the multiplayer browser game that became a viral hit in October 2026. Some Nigerian technology publications identify her as Shalom Mathew, while the game itself credits Shalom Rayhamen and links to her X account, @Shalom_HeyEliy.
What made her an internet sensation was not simply that she made a popular game. It was the unusual timing: Rayhamen started coding a Nigerian life simulator late on 30 September, released it on Independence Day, and saw it spread across Nigerian social media before she expected anyone to care. On 9 October, her company Vatar was reported to have raised $500,000 at a $10 million valuation. Condia confirmed the reported round.
Her career before Lagos Life is what makes the story more substantial than a one-night success narrative.
Shalom Rayhamen at a glance
| Detail | What is publicly documented |
|---|---|
| Public name | Shalom Rayhamen |
| Also reported as | Shalom Mathew; Ijeoma Shalom Rayhamen in some reporting |
| Age | 26 in her October 2026 first-person Zikoko interview |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Work | Software engineer, game creator and startup founder |
| Known for | Creating Lagos Life |
| Other project | Eliy |
| Company | Vatar, the business building Lagos Life and future virtual worlds |
| Public profile | @Shalom_HeyEliy on X |
Where is Shalom Rayhamen from?
Rayhamen is Nigerian and described growing up in Port Harcourt in a first-person interview published by Zikoko on 7 October 2026. She later learned to code while spending time in Abia State, where her mother lived. Those details come from her own career account, rather than a biography site guessing her hometown.
She is now widely described as a UK-based Nigerian developer. Her story is an example of how someone can build software for Nigerian users even while working abroad.
How did she learn software development?
In her Zikoko interview, Rayhamen said she began a six-month coding internship in 2018, when she was 18. The circumstances were not ideal: she used a Chromebook that was difficult to work with, and unreliable electricity and internet made learning frustrating. She later relied on self-study and tech hubs for access to power, internet and a working environment.
The useful part of this timeline is that her technical career did not begin in October 2026. The overnight game came after years spent learning frontend and backend development, working for clients and building personal projects.
What was her first paid software job?
Rayhamen said that in 2020 she worked on the frontend of a medical booking product and received ₦60,000. She used the money to improve her equipment. It was one of the first moments when she felt software development could become more than a hobby.
In 2021, according to the same first-person account, an opportunity came through a connection on Facebook and led to a remote job paying $1,000 per month. She cites sharing her work and helping other people learn to code as part of how that connection happened.
Why did she move to the United Kingdom?
Rayhamen said she obtained a UK Global Talent visa in 2023, following years of work in software engineering. That claim is from her own account; Holyprofweb has not independently examined immigration records.
Condia subsequently described her as a Nigerian software engineer living in the UK when she released Lagos Life.
How did she come up with Lagos Life?
Her childhood interest in The Sims 3 gave her the basic idea. She liked creating characters, homes and virtual lives but wondered what that kind of world would feel like with Nigerian culture, transport, jobs and social expectations.
The immediate push came when she saw Lagos Run, the danfo-driving browser game built by Opeyemi Adeniran. That project made a localised Nigerian game feel both possible and timely.
Rayhamen has said she did not want to sit on an idea until somebody else built it. She started working that night.
Did she really build Lagos Life in eight hours?
In her first-person account, Rayhamen said she worked through the night and finished an initial version at about 5 a.m., then posted the link around 7 a.m. on 1 October. Condia described the initial development as taking less than 12 hours with AI assistance.
That refers to the first version, not a claim that the entire current multiplayer platform, staff operation and business were built to their present form in eight hours. The game has been changed rapidly since launch.
Did she use AI to create the game?
Yes, according to Rayhamen’s own comments to Nigerian technology reporters. She used AI tools for development support, research and problem-solving while drawing on existing software skills.
The distinction matters: using AI did not remove the engineering tasks of designing a game loop, connecting player accounts, managing shared state and responding when users found problems. A successful viral launch created more operational work than a small personal project could have predicted.
How many people have played Lagos Life?
Within a few days, the game’s own published figures crossed one million players. By 9 October, Rayhamen and news reports were citing more than 4.7 million players. These are time-stamped, developer-reported numbers, not independently audited unique-user statistics.
The more durable part of the story is not one precise live counter. It is that a small Nigerian-led team demonstrated substantial interest in games reflecting local experiences, accessible directly from a browser.
What is Vatar, and who founded it?
Vatar is the company formed around Lagos Life and ambitions to build additional social worlds. Reporting published on 9 October identifies Rayhamen as co-founder and chief executive. The other named co-founders are Owen Rayhamen, chief product officer, and Anderson Oriahi, chief business development officer.
Some reports give slightly different incorporation dates, so the safest verifiable point is that the company was established during the first week of October 2026, very soon after the game’s release.
Who invested $500,000 in Lagos Life?
Condia, TechPoint and TheCable reported a $500,000 angel or pre-seed financing at a stated $10 million private company valuation. Named participants include Flutterwave chief executive Olugbenga Agboola, through Resilience17; Oo Nwoye; Terra Industries co-founder Nathan Nwachuku; and Mono co-founder Abdulhamid Hassan.
A $10 million valuation is the value attributed to the private company in that fundraising, not the amount deposited into the company’s bank account. Equally, it is not Shalom Rayhamen’s personal net worth.
How does Shalom Rayhamen make money from Lagos Life?
The game is free to start, but Rayhamen described several monetisation routes: optional in-game currency top-ups, virtual billboard advertising, music promotion in simulated venues and commercial partnerships. This works because players spend time in a shared city where brands can appear as part of the fictional environment.
Rayhamen publicly reported approximately $46,900 in revenue in the first four days. Later reporting cited more than $170,000 in earned and contracted business. These are founder-reported amounts; they are not verified profit and may include contracted revenue not yet collected.
Running a large multiplayer service also involves infrastructure, moderation, support and staff costs. A viral sales number alone does not reveal profit.
Is Shalom the only person working on Lagos Life?
She built the original release herself, but it has moved beyond a solo experiment. Condia reported a small core team, with additional support across product, operations, customer service and marketing. The founders of Vatar are also named publicly.
That is a normal transition for a product whose audience suddenly grows faster than its infrastructure or internal processes.
What does her story mean for Nigerian game developers?
The lesson is not that anyone can generate a game with one AI prompt and become a multimillionaire. Rayhamen had years of experience, a culturally specific idea, a frictionless browser launch and unusually strong timing. She also released something people could immediately talk about with friends.
Other Nigerian developers have followed with danfo games, life simulations based in other cities and local quiz or party games. Together they show a growing appetite for games that speak in the language and cultural references of their intended audience.
Where can you play her game?
Our separate Lagos Life game guide explains the official link, signup, jobs, rent, in-game money and safety checks. The official game itself is hosted at lagoslife.app.
Verification notes and sources
Reviewed 9 October 2026. Personal career details attributed to Rayhamen are based on her published first-person account; company funding and operating figures are based on attributed reporting. Holyprofweb has not verified her personal assets, salaries beyond the examples she publicly gave, or private records.