Copia, an ecommerce platform aimed at low-income households, is reported to have laid off roughly 50 employees.
According to persons familiar with the matter, the company laid off the stated number of employees as the tech industry continues to witness tens of thousands of lay-offs worldwide.
Copia has been on an expansion route since raising USD 50 million in a Series C round in 2021, with plans to operate in Nigeria and Ghana. It has since expanded into the Ugandan market. Copia has also been looking into other commercial opportunities, such as the establishment of sugar and rice manufacturing plants. It has previously stated that the facilities will be critical to increasing its output of affordable sugar and rice for the Kenyan market.
No Previous History Of Financial Struggles
Copia has been performing well, according to earlier statements. It claimed it provides more than 4,000 goods, for instance, to the Kenyan and Ugandan markets. The company also claimed that it might be able to ship these goods to customers without incurring any logistics costs.
The business continues by stating that it has fulfilled over 13 million orders across the two regions. More than 38,000 agents make up its agent network. The majority of these intermediaries are store owners who act as delivery locations.
A formal certification from the Kenya Veterinary Board (KVB) has also been granted to the business, allowing it to provide a larger range of services to its expanding base of agricultural industry clients.
The nascent startup ecosystem in Kenya seems embattled. In a space of four months before October 2022, about six funded startups had, in full or in part, bitten the dust. Kune Food is one of them; the startup shut down after raising tens of millions of shillings. It had already let go of 70% of its workforce before leaving the company in June 2022. Sendy also disclosed that it has stopped providing supply services. The company had to fire 20% of its workforce as a result, thus this had a cost as well. It is now concentrating on providing fulfilment services. Twiga Foods also reduced staff. A total of 210 employees, or 21% of the workforce, were affected by the layoffs.
Copia ecommerce
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard