Kippa, a Nigerian fintech startup, has announced plans to shut down its offline payment product, KippaPay, on November 15, 2023. As part of this decision, the core team responsible for the product will be laid off by December 2023. The employees, who make up 70% of the workforce will be provided with severance packages and assisted in getting new jobs.
"This company decision is related to profitable product portfolio consolidation. This decision unfortunately means that the core of our team supporting the KippaPay product will be leaving us in December 2023. This has been an incredibly difficult decision for us to make, but we are incredibly proud of the work this team has done, and the impact KippaPay has had on our merchants," CEO, Kennedy Ekezie, said in a statement.
Since Nigeria's currency devaluation in June 2023, the value of the naira has plummeted, increasing operating costs for businesses that depend on input sourced outside the country. For Kippa, which sources its point-of-sale machines from outside the country, that has created a strain on company resources, and extending its breakeven period by 2.5%, according to Ekezie.
Pending its final shutdown, the company states it will resolve pending settlements for its merchants. Launched in 2020, Kippa provides bookkeeping solutions for more than 500,000 small businesses in Nigeria. In April 2022, it launched KippaPay to enable customers to provide invoices and make payments, and in September 2022, raised $8.4 million from Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC, Saison Capital, Crestone VC, VentureSouq, Horizon Partners, and Vibe Capital.
"Kippa Payments will also enable us to have a deeper understanding of our customers through transactional data, so that we can offer more tailored and bespoke products to over time, unlocking deeper value within the Kippa ecosystem alongside our existing solutions," Jephtah Chidozie-Uche, co-founder and CTO, said at the launch.
