• Copia Global, the Kenyan B2C eCommerce startup, is abandoning efforts to revive its business and is looking to liquidate assets, offer severance packages to employees, and pay creditors.

• The liquidation means the company will end operations, sever ties with employees, and sell assets, including delivery trucks, warehouses, and office equipment.

In an email to staff, as seen by TechCabal, Copia's administrator stated that the company had hoped to operate on a smaller scale to continue running until it could recover. 

“However, this has regrettably not been successful, and it is apparent that the company’s options are limited to the third objective of administration as provided for in the Insolvency Act of 2015: realisation of assets to settle creditors’ claims.”

Employees are set to receive severance packages on 4 July, and the company will meet its creditors on 14 July for guidance on “their respective claims.”

This decision comes almost a month after Copia Global laid off all its remaining 1,500 employees and issued termination letters in May 2024. Before this, it had cut 1,000 jobs.

Copia Global entered administration in the same May, appointing Makenzi Muthusi and Julius Ngonga from KPMG as administrators to handle the process after it failed to attract new capital on terms agreeable to all involved.

Subsequently, Copia suspended orders in six Kenyan markets in central and eastern Kenya and placed the employees in those regions on leave.

Meanwhile, in July 2021, Copia expanded to Uganda. However, after two years, it suspended operations there and halted further expansion into Africa, citing "economic downturn and constrained capital markets,” choosing to focus on its Kenyan markets.

Laying off and going into administration, following Copia's struggles and failure to secure new investors come after raising a $20 million Series C extension round in December 2023, with participation from investors, including Enza Capital, Goodwell Investments, the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and Sorenson Foundation. In January 2022, Copia Global secured $50 million in a Series C funding round.

In addition to the funding rounds, Copia entered a 5-year partnership with Visa to provide users access to a digital wallet that integrates financial services with online shopping.