Kenyan e-Commerce startup Copia goes into administration after failing to raise funding

Copia Global, the Kenyan last-mile delivery and e-Commerce platform has entered into administration, citing incapability to attract capital, making it unable to run its operations. To this effect, the startup has hired Makenzi Muthusi and Julius Ngonga of KPMG to lead the administration process.

Under the mandate of the Administrator, Copia Kenya management team will implement a plan with a lower burn rate, an accelerated path to profitability and a focus on the increasingly digital consumer. 

In statement, the company said: ''Copia Global, the parent company of Copia Kenya, was unable to attract capital on terms that were amenable to all existing stakeholders, funders and investors. Copia Global is now winding down, leaving the Copia Kenya business in a new position to raise capital directly. The Administrator will work with management to raise capital from new investors for the Kenya business.  While preserving jobs is a key goal through administration, unfortunately, a retrenchment of staff will likely be necessary in the near future to right size and right shape Copia to the new digital opportunity and create a position for growth. 

So far, the startup has raised around $123 million across eight funding rounds but says the capital markets environment has been extremely difficult in the last two years, with a significant reduction in capital flowing into Africa generally and the e-commerce space specifically. 

Notably, at the begining of 2021, Copia raised $50m to ramp up its African expansion and In 2022, the startup unveiled a manufacturing unit to enhance its output of affordable sugar and rice  to the Kenyan market. Come July last year, the company laid off 25% (around 350 members) of the permanent workforce. This came just a few months after it sent home another 50 employees. In April, the same year Copia announced that the economic downturn and constrained capital markets had forced it to suspend its African expansion plans, a move that saw the firm suspend its operations in Uganda just a few months after entering the country. 

Founded in 2013 by Silicon Valley veterans Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis, Copia was the first mobile retail platform built with the potential to serve 750 million middle to low-income African consumers. The startup leveraged a network of digitally enabled local agents to connect with customers in the manner of their choice, including in person, by phone, text messaging, USSD or smartphone app.

Copia now joins a growing list of Kenyan startups that have closed shop after failing to raise fresh capital.

copia.co.ke

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