Breaking News: Nigerian Startup Cova Ceases Operations
In the world of Nigerian startups, there’s been some sad news lately. Cova, a health tech startup that helped people keep track of all their assets in one place, is shutting down. This decision came from the co-founders, Olu’yomi Ojo and Yomi Osamiluyi, who sent an email to users explaining the difficult choice they had to make. Cova will stop working on February 10, 2024, and users will get their subscription money back by February 13.
CEO of Cova, Oluyomi Ojo
It’s always tough when a business has to close its doors, especially one that seems to offer such a useful service. But sometimes, there are reasons behind these decisions that we might not see at first glance. In the case of Cova, it seems like the main problem was that they just couldn’t get enough people to use their product.
According to Olumide Soyombo, a big investor in Nigerian startups, Cova was a great idea, but after two years, it still wasn’t catching on like they hoped it would. Even though they had plenty of money left in the bank to keep going for another year, Olu’yomi Ojo decided it was better to stop now than to waste more money without making any progress toward actually making a profit.
A photo of Ojo’s letter to Cova’s investors.
When they started Cova back in December 2021, Ojo and Osamiluyi wanted to make it easy for people to keep track of everything they owned, from bank accounts to investments to property. They raised a lot of money from investors, including Olumide Soyombo, and they thought they had a winning idea on their hands.
The way Cova worked was pretty simple. Users could sign up for a subscription, paying anywhere from $10 to $100 a month or year. Then, they could connect all their different accounts – bank accounts, savings apps, investment platforms, and even crypto wallets – to their Cova profile. That way, everything would be in one place, making it easier to manage and keep track of.
Cova co founder, Yomi Osamiluyi, CTO
But even though it sounded good on paper, not enough people were using Cova to make it a success. They had users in Nigeria, the UK, and the US, but they never managed to attract as many customers as they needed. And even the ones they did have, like Ojo mentioned, kept asking for more features and deeper integration with their accounts.
Trust was another big issue for Cova. People weren’t quite sure if they wanted to trust a new startup with all their financial information, especially when it came to sensitive topics like death and inheritance. Even though Cova was trying to help people plan for the future and make sure their assets were taken care of, not everyone was comfortable with the idea.
It’s a shame that Cova didn’t work out in the end, but sometimes that’s just how things go in the world of startups. Not every idea is a winner, no matter how much potential it might seem to have at the beginning. And even though it’s disappointing for the founders and the investors, it’s all part of the learning process.
But the story doesn’t end here. Even though Cova is shutting down, there are other startups out there trying to solve the same problem. Some of them, like Twinku, are also offering all-in-one asset management platforms. And who knows – maybe one of them will be the next big success story in Nigerian tech.
