Copia Kenya announces restructuring

Copia Kenya, a mass market consumer e-commerce/fintech platform in Kenya, announces a significant corporate restructuring. The company has hired Makenzi Muthusi and Julius Ngonga from KPMG to manage the administrative process, the main goal of which is to maintain the continuity of the company’s operations.

Copia Global, the parent company of Copia Kenya, has been unable to attract capital on terms that are affordable to all existing stakeholders, donors and investors. Copia Global ceases operations, leaving Copia Kenya in a new position to raise capital directly.

The administrator will work with management to raise capital from new investors for the Kenyan operations. The capital markets environment has been extremely challenging over the past two years, with significant reductions in capital flowing into Africa and especially the e-commerce space. According to Partech, between 2022 and 2023, African venture capital fell by 46%, participating investors fell by 50% and e-commerce financing in particular fell by 53%. Meanwhile, debt is a growing alternative source of capital for African tech startups, accounting for more than a third of all capital raised last year.

In line with the Administrator’s mandate, Copia Kenya’s management team will implement a plan to deliver a lower burn rate, an accelerated path to profitability and a focus on an increasingly digital consumer. While maintaining jobs is a key goal for the administration, staff redundancies are likely to be necessary in the near future to ensure Copia is sized and positioned for new digital opportunities and to create the conditions for growth.

While Copia Kenya has been a technology company from its inception, it is now able to transition all aspects of its business to digital technology; from the customer interface, through communication with the agent, to implementation. Mobile internet has become more affordable over the past two years, as shown by a recent study by the company that found that 65% of Copia customers now have smartphones and can access the Copia consumer app. Mobile connectivity and access to life-changing applications are transformative for this underserved community, the last digital frontier.