Nigerian fintech Company shuts down payments product, Set to lay off workers
Kippa Shuts Down Offline Payment Product, KippaPay: What Led to This Decision?
Kippa, the financial management and payments platform, is discontinuing its offline payment product, KippaPay. Discover the reasons behind this decision, the impact on the company’s team, and the broader context of this move.
In a recent announcement, fintech company Kippa has revealed its decision to discontinue its offline payment product, KippaPay. This product allowed users to send and receive payments from customers and perform extended payment transactions. While the company didn’t disclose the number of staff to be laid off, it did mention that the core of the KippaPay team would exit the company by December.
Profitability Concerns Behind the Decision
Kippa’s founder and CEO, Kennedy Ekezie, characterized this layoff as a difficult but necessary decision, acknowledging the dedication and hard work of the team behind KippaPay. He hinted that the decision to shut down the product was primarily due to concerns about profitability.
Announcing the Withdrawal
In the official statement, Ekezie said, “Today, we announce that we’re pulling back our offline payments product: KippaPay from the market. Over the past 18 months, we launched and grew this arm of our product suite to support merchants with offline payments and agency banking through our POS terminals.”
He went on to express pride in the work the KippaPay team had done and the impact the product had on their merchants. Starting from November 15th, KippaPay will no longer be available for use by merchants. The company is committed to supporting its merchants and partners during this transition and resolving any pending settlements.
Kippa’s Journey So Far
Kippa, a financial management and payments platform for Nigerian small businesses, was founded in June 2021. In November of the same year, the company secured $3.2 million in pre-seed funding. In September 2022, Kippa raised an additional $8.4 million in a new financing round, bringing its total raise to $11.6 million.
Kippa launched KippaPay, its digital payments offering, in April 2022. This product was designed to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa to send and receive payments from within the Kippa app.
Five months after the launch of KippaPay, the Central Bank of Nigeria granted Kippa a Payment Solutions Services Licence to Operate as a Super-Agent. This licence allowed Kippa to issue POS terminals to its over 500,000 merchants across Nigeria’s 774 local governments. These merchants acted as agents, offering financial services such as cash withdrawals and deposits, bank account opening, bills, and utility payments to their customers.
This decision to discontinue KippaPay marks a significant shift in Kippa’s product strategy and highlights the challenges faced by fintech companies in a rapidly evolving market.
