Nigerian fintech Kippa set to downsize workforce, operations
Nigerian fintech startup, Kippa, is laying off an unspecified number of its employees, effective this December. This action comes as part of their planned shutdown of the offline payments product, KippaPay. According to LinkedIn data, Kippa currently employs around 75 individuals.
Kennedy Ekezie, the co-founder and CEO of Kippa, expressed the difficulty of this decision while highlighting the positive impact KippaPay has had on their merchants. KippaPay is set to cease its operations on November 15. Ekezie assured that the fintech will provide assistance to its merchants and partners during the transition away from the product and the resolution of any outstanding settlements.
The discontinuation of KippaPay is attributed to a strategic move for profitable product portfolio consolidation. Following the shutdown of its POS/agency banking service, Kippa will refocus on its bookkeeping and business registration offerings.
Key Takeaways
In September 2022, Kippa secured $8.4 million in funding from a group of global investors, which included notable names such as Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC, and Saison Capital, among others. This investment aimed to facilitate an expansion into the agency banking sector, following the acquisition of a super agent license. Agency banking is fiercely competitive, with entrenched players like OPay and Moniepoint dominating the market due to their substantial resources. To bolster its position, Kippa strategically hired former regulators and senior executives from prominent fintech startups, such as OPay, BharatPe, Khatabook, TeamApt, OKCredit, NIBSS, and Unified Payments, among others. At its peak, Kippa boasted around 15,000 agents in its network but encountered challenges in maintaining healthy profit margins.
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