List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! - Investment (2) - Nairaland
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| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Bigkoko(op): 8:47am On Dec 06, 2023 |
Still on Pivo.... Indept study shows that once African techies gets funded, the motivation dies down! Because as part of far reaching agreements for the funds, they knew they are no longer the owners of the idea & business, but mere figure heads kept fat for the kill. This is why lousy mouth board members could vote to fire Open Ai CEO. A chap fronting for a Tiger Group in China proposed buying my company for $80k USD cash, then retaining me for two years as MD/CEO and co-founder to move the company to projected heights and i wont have to set up another LLC similar to my initiative for the period. Now, $80k USD is mouth watering for a young African in his late thirties, but i said No! $500K, 50% equity or nothing. Ndi ara. Do i look like the Open AI guy that got fired by a members who sat all day long sipping coffee without smelling the street? This is why i have not raised funds from Western Capitalist fronts. They have no idea how the African; Nigerian markets works. More funds is no guarantee of a successful Venture! They fund you, then they dictate how you should run your idea. Africa is not the West where Institutions work and Institutionalized corruptions & bureaucracy is negligible! This is one reason why Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing via Innoson Group Inc has been around while more funded businesses like **** have faltered! Companies like IVM & Bigkoko will continue to be around because, they organically grow through hard work, not through easy funding. With the Igbo Apprentice System properly incorporated into ways of running a businesses, it will be difficult to shut down. Ask people wey sabi run Companies! No go fund swegbessss! Discover Africa with Bigkoko ~ your Local Tech Company! Business & Financial Technology for all. Kigali. Abuja. Stockholm. Lusaka
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| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Bigkoko(op): 10:34am On Dec 06, 2023 |
Roll with the Master! During one morning session with my staff. Yes, i always try to make them see things the way i do, not just sit their ass in the office and drink coffee all day long. As my business is privately and personally funded, their acts or inaction could be the difference between continuity or shut down. I told them, " Until strangers, some fellow you dont know, call you to take money in exchange for the service you offer, and these strangers, been able to form a critical Mass of consumers, until then, don't ever think you have a business!" They were all starring at me like a ghost! After the meeting i fired someone! With the barrage of failed Start ups hiding the airwaves from Dash to Zazzu now Pivo, all taking up huge investment funds from 3rd parties, i just remember these words: Easy to start, difficult to make money with it! If you can not make money from it, you must shut, it's a promise that never fails. Pivo...una sorry ohhh. $2M USD down the drain just like that |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Bigkoko(op): 5:44pm On Jan 24, 2024 |
Breaking: Nigerian startup Cova shuts down! Cova, a Nigerian wealthtech startup that enables users to track their assets in one place, is shutting down. Nigerian wealthtech startup; Cova co-founded by ex-CEO and founder at Printivo, Olu'yomi Ojo and Yomi Osamiluyi, is shutting down due to "several factors", the co-founders said in an email to users on Tuesday (January 24). "This was an extremely difficult decision, one that was not made lightly," read the email. Cova will cease operations on Feb. 10, 2024. Meanwhile, subscription refunds will be made on or before Feb. 13. In his business memoir Vantage (launched in August 2023), Olumide Soyombo, one of Nigeria's leading angel investors, said that although Cova was providing an important solution, two years into its existence, the co-founders noticed that the product "was not gaining any traction". Ojo, in an undated email to investors, as documented in Soyombo's memoir (Ref: Pages 248 & 249), stated, "We have carefully evaluated our financial situation and concluded that, although we have about a year of runway left in the bank, it is better to act in the interest of Cova investors and stakeholders than to burn through the cash. It would be unfair to continue spending the funds without a clear path to profitability or decent revenue." A screenshot of Ojo's letter to Cova's investors. Ojo and Osamiluyi co-founded Cova in December 2021 to serve as a "single source of truth" for every asset that its users own. Cova raised at least $800,000 from investors, including Soyombo. "[Cova] gives you the power to aggregate, manage and track everything, even while you’re alive, and also helps your people discover and claim your assets when you’re gone," says Ojo. Until now, Cova offered subscriptions from $10 to $100 per month or year. Users could connect their Cova profile to local and international bank accounts, savings apps like Piggyvest and Cowrywise, investment platforms like Risevest and Bamboo, and crypto-wallets. The platform also enabled users to keep track of landed properties. In 2022, Cova co-founder Ojo stated that its user base was in the "thousands" globally, but only those in Nigeria, the UK and the US could sync bank accounts. Cova co-founders: Olu'yomi Ojo (CEO) & Yomi Osamiluyi (CTO) Responding to some of the startup's challenges in its first year, Ojo said "Customers keep needing more. For instance, we have users already asking for deeper integration. They have multiple bank accounts in different countries, and they want to connect them to COVA." He also stated that trust has been a challenge: "What we do is still new, and people are not yet used to it. So they have many questions, and we have to earn their trust. We also have people who don’t want to think of death as an event to prepare for, especially in African countries." 💡 This Cova is not the same as the Cameroonian insurtech startup, Cova that was backed by Google Black Founders Fund Africa in 2022. While a few startups are now requiring next-of-kin details to ensure asset transfer after the death of the user, other African startups like Twinku are also providing an all-in-one asset management platform. |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by BigkokoRep: 6:44am On Apr 23, 2024 |
Peers....the latest to bite the Dust. Michael Okoh and Chike Ononye, Co-founder of The Peer! When The Peer, a Nigeria-based API startup, shut down in April, the business still had up to twenty months of runway. The shutdown, which its founders blamed on an inability to find product-market fit, means investors will get some of their money back. According to one investor familiar with their finances, the startup is expected to return about $350,000 of the $2.3 million it raised to investors. The company’s burn rate was less than $20,000 monthly, the same person said. The Peer’s decision to shut down early— a counterintuitive idea in a world where startups are encouraged to hang in there—may sometimes lead to better outcomes. At least fifteen high-profile African startups closed their doors in 2023 as macroeconomic conditions worsened and VC funding declined. Those shutdowns often meant investors’ funds went to zero. Before shutting down, the startup experimented with other products and business lines, such as fraud prevention, but it was not convinced that any pivot should be made with investor money, one person with direct knowledge of the matter said. TLcom Capital closes $154 million fund for early-stage African startups Some of The Peer’s investors include Chipper Cash, Flutterwave, Sunu Ventures, Byld Ventures, Timon Capital, Raba Partnership, Musha Ventures, RaliCap, Uncovered Fund, and angel investors like Ezra Olubi and Prosper Otemuyiwa. Founded in 2021 by Chike Ononye and Michael Okoh to connect business wallets, The Peer raised $220,000 in a pre-seed round and an additional $2.1 million in a June 2022 seed round that valued the company at $5 million. Investors were told they would receive 20% of their funds back (around $460,000), but one person said The Peer’s seed round was less than the $2.1 million announced, implying a lower refund. The Peer’s cofounders did not respond to multiple requests for comments. Although the product held promise—an investor in its seed round likened it to Flutterwave—it failed to find scale and generate meaningful revenue. The Peer generated less than $1,000 in revenue after processing more than $500,000 in the first three quarters of 2023, according to someone familiar with the startup’s finances. The Peer’s APIs allowed customers to move money between wallets. For example, a Foodcourt (food delivery business) customer could move money from their wallet to fund a Paga (fintech) wallet or make payments online with funds from their Foodcourt wallet with The Peer’s payment gateway. To deliver the product, The Peer had to convince several businesses to integrate its payment product. An industry veteran who asked not to be named told TechCabal that those conversations and subsequent integrations could take months. African markets aren’t ready for wallet-to-wallet transactions at scale, said one person familiar with The Peer’s business. That person also cited challenges with compliance and an absence of consistent support from the startup’s fintech partners. Meanwhile, the businesses they hoped to sell to often had many options, including more established payment companies like Paystack and Flutterwave. In a blog post, The Peer’s co-founders said they “could not align the startup’s product with the market’s needs.” “The overall acceptance of wallets as a viable payment option didn’t grow as rapidly as we had hoped,” they wrote. Before the startup shut down, it held talks with several startups for a possible acquisition, but an acquisition never materialised. “I think their product came too early for the market,” an industry expert said.
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| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by y3mi(m): 9:55pm On Apr 26, 2024 |
Bigkoko:I've been following this thread closely for quite a long time and in as much as I'm in absolute agreement with you on certain points such as 1. adapting elements of business formulars native to Africa local realities to tech startups instead of Western frameworks, ie go local, provide local solutions for local problems leveraging available techs. I dig. Exactly way I think too. 2. Startups always hunting for foreign funds to scale and whatever is tantamount to death of passion, enthusiasm and zeal to actualize vision, it only enable laxity, redundancy and ostentatious indiscipline. Absolutely concur. However, your thread clearly stated "List of Fintechs that bite the dust" but you've posted Agro-techs, food-tech, logistic techs etc where it is not hard for anyone to discern it but a disco-room of your making just to gloat over any business startup that has faced the guillotine. Dont get me wrong as it has also been a thing of concern and worry to me for years as to why Nigeria and west Africa has become a graveyard for the emergence and sudden capitulations of so many tech startups, particularly Fintechs, untill I learned lots of shady stuffs were behind the reason of their kick starting, but still a lot would be displeased with your gleeful remarks on how you promote yours at the pleasure of theirs sinking before taking flight. Meta just lost $200B in stock and values, the Facebook parebt company are hitting harsh times. Apple is a bit not left out. The most recent of the Fintechs is ThePeer as reported by TechCabal in the link below https://techcabal.com/2024/04/23/investors-request-audit-the-peer/ It's not about tribalism or always mismanagement, it could be one of a several factors. Those factors are what should be discussed in great length in thread like this. Not to gloat over defunct tech or ones currently facing the noose. Most of the founders/co-founders tend to siphone investors money. But why do these VC and AI continue to pour their cash on startups offering the same old recycled paytech solutions with no USP, true novelty, innovations or business logic? |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by BigkokoRep: 6:57am On May 07, 2024 |
It's called "Kill them before they grow!" Easy money kills a business faster than govt policy. They know, before hand, that once they bring money, the founders losses focus and relax and with time the business collapse and there objectives achieved. That's with a healthy cut too. Those monies are often insured so the actually loss nothing. Recently, I received an offer to see my niche to a Chinese businessman for $50k USD, with down payment of $10k USD per year...with the condition that I don't startup a similar business for 5 years! Can you imagine? What's my niche, a diasporas focused, Gift Remittance service. I politely declined, just like I often decline other partnership offers. y3mi: |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by BigkokoRep: 7:30am On May 22, 2024 |
Teen fintech Copper had to abruptly discontinue its banking, debit products By Mary Ann Azevedo Another fintech startup, and its customers, has been gravely impacted by the implosion of banking-as-a-service startup Synapse. Copper Banking, a digital banking service aimed at teens, notified its customers on May 12 that it would be discontinuing bank deposit accounts and debit cards on May 13. In a letter to customers, CEO and co-founder Eddie Behringer said the company had learned the previous week that the banking middleware provider they used, Synapse, was sunsetting its service “imminently.” “Despite our prior planning, this event has forced us to close banking accounts much sooner than expected,” he wrote. Synapse filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy on April 22 with plans to sell its assets to TabaPay for $9.7 million. But that sale fell through and last week a United States Trustee filed an emergency motion asking the judge to convert to a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy. The discontinuation of Copper Banking’s bank accounts and debit cards means that some Copper customers do not have access to their funds. Behringer says that it is working with its banking partners, AMG National Trust Bank and Synapse, to return money to customers as soon as possible. Behringer said that as soon as it heard the news that the TabaPay deal was in jeopardy it began returning customer funds, so only a small, single-digit percentage of its customers did not receive their funds before the service was shut down. Copper now has plans to offer a white-labeled family banking product later this year in partnership with “large banks across America,” which Behringer told TechCrunch in an interview he could not yet name. The company had been planning to move in that direction over the past year, he added, but the process was accelerated due to Synapse’s demise. Copper remains operational, providing its direct-to-consumer financial education product, Earn, to customers, according to Behringer. Earn pays teens credits to play games, take surveys, scan receipts and refer friends; once users hit a certain threshold of credits, they are paid cash for them (500 credits for $5), it says. The goal is to teach kids about finance. It earns money through that by partnering with other institutions. That product, he said, launched just under one year ago and has seen 160% year-over-year revenue growth. It has since provided the “majority” of Copper’s revenue as the company makes money through partnerships with brands that want feedback on their products. The 30-person company remains intact, Behringer said, and is still hiring. He claims that because Earn’s growth is so strong, Copper is still “on track to near profitability this year” and, in addition to the cash it raised from its VC fundraising, has “well over four years of runway.” In April, 2022, Copper raised $29 million in a Series A funding round led by Fiat Ventures. It has raised a total of $42.3 million since its 2019 inception. Other backers include Panoramic Ventures, Insight Partners and Invesco Private Capital. At the time, the company had said it made its revenue primarily from interchange fees. AMG National Trust Bank and Synapse could not be reached for comment at the time of publication. Apparently, Copper’s customers may not be alone. At an emergency hearing last week, as reported by Forbes, a U.S. bankruptcy court judge described Synapse’s troubles as “a situation where tens of millions of people do not have access to potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of their deposits.” And Fintech Business Weekly’s Jason Mikula reported after Friday’s bankruptcy hearing, “Numerous end users of fintechs that have had their ability to access their funds frozen shared the devastating impact it has had on their lives with the court and the hundreds of attendees dialed in to the hearing.” Copper’s problems might be another example in a trend of consumer fintechs shifting to B2B. Earlier this year, TechCrunch reported that Miami-based Onyx Private, a Y Combinator-backed digital bank that provided banking and investment services for high-earning millennials and Gen Zers, had also terminated its consumer bank operations. It said at the time it would be shifting to a “B2B white-label platform-as-a-service model for community banks, regional banks, and credit unions” that want to launch digital apps built for young affluent consumers. |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Bigkoko(op): 5:41am On May 28, 2024 |
Copia Global, an e-commerce platform and the parent company of Copia Kenya has entered administration, in what is another major hit to start ups funded by venture capitalists. In its wake, in excess of 1,060 workers will be fired due to lack of new capital required for its operational sustainability, bringing to the fore the growing challenges being faced by entrepreneurs in the country. The company that has been serving low and middle-income customers through a network of agent seeks to action organizational re-structuring to ensure the sustainability of its operation and or a possible shutting down of its operations. Uncertain times ahead In a notice dated May 16, 2024, the company’s CEO Tim Steel (pictured) termed the future of the company as uncertain and urged workers to undertake a one-month consultancy period. “It is very likely that there will be a reduction of our workforce and it is possible that the payment of salaries could be at risk. The company is required – in compliance with the law -- to give all staff one month notice of potential redundancies and to undertake a one-month consultancy period with all potentially impacted staff,” Steel said in the letter. The firm which has gobbled up in excess of Sh15.4 billion in seed capital was founded by Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis as a B2C e-commerce platform to serve Africa’s middle- and low-income African consumers. The e-commerce company focuses on customers in rural areas that struggle to access the same goods and services in terms of choice, price value and reliability that similar consumers in urban areas or of higher income levels can access. Some of the investors in Copia include Koa Labs, Goodwell Investments, German Investment Corporation (DEG), Perivoli Innovations,Lightrock, Zebu Investment Partners and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Copia joins a growing group of financially crippled companies that have either shut down their operations in the country and or have restructured, sending hundreds of workers to desolation. The backdrop of Copia’s current predicament is framed by its notable performance and funding history. The company was established as a solution to serve mid- and low-income consumers in rural areas garnering attention for its innovative approach. Growing list With a network of over 50,000 local agents, the firm has served over 2 million consumers and fulfilled over 13 million orders, reflecting its penetration into underserved markets. The company’s downfall joins a growing list of companies such as Twiga Foods and Kune Food that laid off all or a substantial part of their workforce amid losses and inability to raise additional capital. With increased appetite for new taxes from business enterprises to facilitate payment of debts, development and recurrent expenditures, the number of young companies sent into the graveyard in the country may continue to increase this year. The logistics sector in Kenya and globally continues to evolve, but in these closures, valuable lessons for both entrepreneurs and investors abound, emphasizing the need to navigate challenges carefully and maintain agility in the face of changing circumstances.
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| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Bigkoko(op): 2:49pm On Jan 10, 2025 |
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024 ~ By Ngozi Chukwu (Tech Cabal). Jan 08 2025. Logistics startup Gokada filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024 According to regulatory filings in Delaware, Gokada, one of Nigeria’s most prominent last-mile delivery companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 18, 2024. Chapter 11 allows an organisation to work out a plan to repay creditors over time, reducing the amount owed or extending the repayment period. This way, the company does not have to liquidate its assets to pay debts. Gokada’s chapter 11 filing follows unsuccessful efforts to raise new funding, including a 2023 campaign on GetEquity, where it attempted to raise $750,000 at a $10 million valuation from retail investors. Despite raising $5.3 million in a 2019 Series A round, Gokada has struggled financially. Per its October filing, the company’s total liabilities are $5.2 million—it owes $1.8 million to 20 of its largest creditors who are not insiders— on assets worth $560,000 ($64,000 in cash.) In October 2024, Gokada stated that its gross revenues year-to-date were $118,988, lower than the $268,779 it reported in 2023. “As a result of not closing the proposed funding, Gokada has remained on the brink of shutting down for the entirety of 2024,” Olutosin Oni, the CEO of the eight-year-old company, wrote to investors in an email seen by TechCabal. Oni, named CEO in 2022, noted that naira depreciation made profitability elusive. “Significant time and effort has been put into making Gokada profitable over the years unfortunately with the severe decline in the value of the Nigerian Naira, we have not yet reached that goal,” Oni told investors in the email seen by TechCabal. Gokada and Oni declined to comment on any part of this story. According to regulatory filings in Delaware, Gokada, one of Nigeria’s most prominent last-mile delivery companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 18, 2024. Chapter 11 allows an organisation to work out a plan to repay creditors over time, reducing the amount owed or extending the repayment period. This way, the company does not have to liquidate its assets to pay debts. Gokada’s chapter 11 filing follows unsuccessful efforts to raise new funding, including a 2023 campaign on GetEquity, where it attempted to raise $750,000 at a $10 million valuation from retail investors. Despite raising $5.3 million in a 2019 Series A round, Gokada has struggled financially. Per its October filing, the company’s total liabilities are $5.2 million—it owes $1.8 million to 20 of its largest creditors who are not insiders— on assets worth $560,000 ($64,000 in cash.) In October 2024, Gokada stated that its gross revenues year-to-date were $118,988, lower than the $268,779 it reported in 2023. “As a result of not closing the proposed funding, Gokada has remained on the brink of shutting down for the entirety of 2024,” Olutosin Oni, the CEO of the eight-year-old company, wrote to investors in an email seen by TechCabal. Oni, named CEO in 2022, noted that naira depreciation made profitability elusive. “Significant time and effort has been put into making Gokada profitable over the years unfortunately with the severe decline in the value of the Nigerian Naira, we have not yet reached that goal,” Oni told investors in the email seen by TechCabal. Gokada and Oni declined to comment on any part of this story. Despite the grim outlook, Gokada is not giving up. The company will use Chapter 11 provisions to restructure its debts and attempt a financial turnaround. While the company has been in significant debt for years, its lead investor, Rise Capital, has been supportive. According to Oni, Rise Capital has been “willing to fund the company independently in order to pay off Gokada’s creditors and keep it operational. Unfortunately, they are no longer able to single-handedly shoulder the economic burden.” October’s bankruptcy filing marks the latest chapter in a journey of restructuring and pivoting. Founded by Fahim Saleh and Deji Oduntan, Gokada gained traction as a bike-hailing service, helping commuters navigate the notorious Lagos traffic jams. By 2019, the company had completed about 1 million trips and raised $5.3 million in Series A raise funding. The company’s financial troubles appear to have begun shortly after announcing its Series A raise. Deji Oduntan resigned as CEO and was replaced by Saleh and Ayodeji Adewunmi, who also left the company in 2019. Tosin Oni became CEO in 2022. Beyond the leadership upheavals, the Lagos state government added to Gokada’s troubles in early 2020 after it banned bike-hailing startups from operating in 15 of the city’s 20 local government areas. It was a major blow to Gokada and several bike-hailing startups. In the face of these setbacks, Gokada adapted. It laid off 70% of its staff and pivoted to logistics (Gsend) and food delivery (GShop). According to Oni, the layoffs were a response to a harsh macroeconomic environment, with the company prioritising efficiency as it navigated negative cash flow. By June 2020, Gokada was reportedly processing over $100 million in annualised transaction value and fulfilled over 1 million food and e-commerce delivery orders for 30,000 merchants on its platform. It also expanded its ride-hailing services to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, and Ogun State, where commercial bikes were not banned. The business model continued to evolve. It went from owning a fleet of motorcycles to an asset-light model, connecting third-party logistics providers with delivery orders on its platform. The shift was intended to cut costs, reducing the financial burden of maintaining a fleet of expensive bikes. By February 2024, Gokada had fully embraced this asset-light approach, owning only 10% of the 5,000 bikes on its platform. Yet, reports of an acquisition by logistics firm Kwik, which never materialised, suggested the business still struggled. GoKada’s bankruptcy filing highlights a crucial lesson in the business world that cutting costs alone cannot guarantee survival. GoKada faces the daunting task of raising funding or finding an acquisition partner to survive.
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| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Ynix(m): 10:38am On Jan 11, 2025 |
Bigkoko:You are not even near voguepay not to talk of paystack and flutterwave |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Bigkoko(op): 9:24am On Jan 12, 2025 |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by SavageResponse(m): 5:42pm On Jan 17, 2025 |
Bigkoko:I'm sure you must have been drunk on Sapele water when you typed this rubbish! |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by CaptainGo: 7:10pm On Jan 17, 2025 |
I'm not sure why you think this is good for your brand. ![]() Except you're impersonating and ruining someone else's brand. |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by jjbest123(m): 5:11pm On Mar 01, 2025 |
Hmmmmm..... Some comments you made on your post,is not good for your business. |
| Re: List Of Fintechs That Bite The Dust Despite Huge Fundings From VC! by Obaaderemi2: 1:06pm On May 01, 2025 |
Tribalism has eaten deep into the faculties of this man. He's boasting about his business which is still in the infancy stage. What does he want the likes of Alerzo and moniepoint, businesses founded by Yorubas, to say since they're miles ahead of his? |
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