More than a year after Nigerian fintech Kippa announced a pivot to edtech, the venture’s fate is unclear. The website for the new AI-powered education product is offline, its co-founders have moved on to new roles, and the company has fallen silent.

For a startup that raised $14.3m from prominent investors like Target Global, Saison Capital, and Goodwater Capital, the lack of activity raises questions about the future of a once-promising company in Nigeria’s challenging tech ecosystem.

This ambiguity follows a turbulent period for Kippa, which included shutting down its core agency banking product, significant layoffs, and the departure of its founding team from day-to-day operations.

The Unraveling of a Fintech

Launched in June 2021 by brothers Kennedy Ekezie and Duke Ekezie, along with Jephthah Uche, Kippa’s initial mission was to digitize bookkeeping for Nigeria’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The app was designed to help merchants track transactions, manage inventory, and recover debts.

Riding the wave of fintech investment in Africa, the company expanded its offerings by launching KippaPay, an agency banking business that allowed merchants to act as agents for financial services using point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

However, the venture proved difficult to sustain. Duke Ekezie, who led the KippaPay division, cited its unprofitability as the primary reason for its closure in October 2023. The sharp devaluation of the Nigerian Naira in June 2023 had dramatically increased the cost of importing POS terminals, making the low-margin business model untenable.

The shutdown resulted in the layoff of 40 employees. The move was abrupt, according to former staff. “One month before the layoff, in a general meeting, one of my colleagues asked the CEO — Kennedy Ekezie — if there would be job cuts, and he said no,” one ex-employee told TechCabal.

Following the shutdown, Kippa transferred the operations of KippaPay to Bloc, another Nigerian fintech, in what CEO Kennedy Ekezie described as a “handshake agreement” to ensure continuity for its agents.

A Pivot into Silence

In January 2024, news emerged that Kippa was pivoting to edtech. The new product was an AI-powered platform designed to create and deliver online courses in bite-sized formats through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. A new website was launched to showcase the offering.

The decision to pivot came after the founders decided to pursue separate paths. “We went back to talk to SMEs… Two problems stood out for us,” Duke Ekezie explained. “One of the problems aligned with my long-term goals and ambitions, and the other aligned with Kennedy’s. So we have decided to solve these problems individually.”

Since that announcement, however, progress appears to have stalled completely.

• The website for the new edtech venture is inaccessible, returning a “This site can’t be reached” error.
• Co-founder Kennedy Ekezie has reportedly moved on to a new, US-based venture.
• Co-founder Duke Ekezie now works at New York-based Delta Capital Management.
• The third co-founder and former CTO, Uche Jepthat, left Kippa in November 2022 and has since co-founded Earna, an employee benefits startup.

While Duke Ekezie noted he remains a shareholder and advisor, the operational leadership of the company is vacant, and its strategic direction is unknown.

A Symptom of a Wider Trend?

Kippa’s struggles are not happening in a vacuum. They mirror the harsh realities facing many startups in Nigeria, where a combination of currency devaluation, rising operational costs, and a cooling investment climate has created immense pressure.

The context of recent high-profile startup closures makes Kippa’s silence more concerning:

• Edukoya, another Nigerian edtech startup that had raised $3.5m, shut down earlier this year, highlighting the difficulties of monetizing in the sector Kippa was attempting to enter.
• Okra, a pioneering open-banking fintech that raised over $15m, recently ceased operations, demonstrating that even well-funded B2B infrastructure companies are not immune to market pressures.

With its founders engaged elsewhere and its flagship pivot inactive, Kippa appears to be a company adrift. For the investors, employees, and merchants who bought into its vision, the question remains: what happens to a startup when the founders move on and the pivot leads to a dead end?