There are indications that Raru, the online shopping site started by the founders of what later became Takealot, have gone under, eight years after its founding. Evidence from the e-retailer’s website, at raru.co.za, was displaying the following message to visitors on Friday: “Due to unfortunate circumstances, we have no choice but to stop taking orders. More information will be provided in due course.”

Raru was the brainchild of the entrepreneurs who founded Take2 (and before that, The Shopping Matrix). They later sold Take2 to former Naspers executive Kim Reid and US investment firm Tiger Global Management in 2010.

The following year, Take2 was rebranded as Takealot.com and the business has since gone on to become the most successful e-retailer in South Africa.

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It was reported at the time of the acquisition that the Take2 founders — Neil Smith, Waine Smith and Jose Pereira – agreed to a three-year restraint of trade. They then founded Raru in 2014, when their restraints expired, to focus on the sale of electronics, games, music and movies – products they’d specialised in at Take2.

The message that greeted visitors to raru.co.za on Friday

There have been signs of trouble at Raru for several weeks, with a report by the consumer forum website MyBroadband suggesting that Raru customers had become frustrated that the company wasn’t timeously fulfilling their orders or processing refunds.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry