Kippa makes an edtech play<\/b><\/p>\n
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It\u2019s not every day you get to see a fintech become an edtech.<\/span><\/p>\n What? In an interesting turn of events, Kippa, a Nigerian startup which started as a fintech is pivoting to provide edtech services. Kippa\u2019s new edtech play will allow users create new online courses or deliver existing ones in bite-sized formats using AI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why? While Kippa\u2019s pivot might have you howling, its pivot remains unsurprising given the startup\u2019s recent turn of events. Kippa laid off 40 of its employees in 2023 after it shut down its agency banking subsidiary, KippaPay. The startup later transferred KippaPay to Nigerian fintech, Bloc, with some of its employees moving to the startup as a result. Kippa also struggled to make severance payments for its laid-off employees after it suffered a \u20a6\u200e30 million ($33,516) internal fraud.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Before the eventual shutdown of KippaPay, the startup made efforts to resuscitate the ailing business. Kippa tried to unify KippaPay with the bookkeeping app. It also tried to monetize its Invoice service, all of which yielded no results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zoom out: While its effort to salvage the troubled startup continues, Kippa has embraced an edtech play, putting out a new website that would allow users to produce online courses and deliver those courses using messaging tools like WhatsApp and Telegram. It remains uncertain what Kippa will do to its existing fintech customers..<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kippa<\/b> is a Nigerian software and financial services company based in Lagos, Nigeria.[1] The company was founded by brothers Kennedy Ekezie and Duke Ekezie.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kippa was founded in June 2021 by Kennedy Ekezie and Duke Ekezie.[2] The company provides a full-service financial management and payments platforms for small businesses in Nigeria.[3] The company also offers a business incorporation software suite for businesses.[4]<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kippa allows merchants or SMEs to record and track payments made by customers. Kippa offers an automated inventory management and debt collection system. Kippa is currently available only in Nigeria. In September 2022, the company raised $8.4million in seed round to develop products for SMEs.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kippa\u2019s pivot from financial management and bookkeeping is unsurprising given the company\u2019s struggles in the past year. In 2023, the company laid off 40 employees after a difficult decision to shut down Kippa Pay, its agency banking business. At least two ex-employees said the layoffs were surprising.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOne month before the layoff, in a general meeting, one of my colleagues asked the CEO\u2014Kennedy Ekezie\u2014if there would be job cuts, and he said no,\u201d\u00a0 said an ex-employee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI know that the entire engineering team was laid off,\u201d another ex-employee said, claiming that less than ten people are working on the new edtech product.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMonty Dimpka, who was laid off, rejoined as engineering lead for the new product. There is also a web engineer, a finance manager, a customer-facing staff, and a product manager in India working on the product.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n With this transition, Kippa leaves behind discontinued and unreleased projects. Two employees told TechCabal that before the company shut down its agency banking product, there had been plans to unify it with the bookkeeping app. There were also plans to monetize its Invoice service, but none worked out. \u201cI am rooting for them, though. Kennedy is a great guy.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n KippaPay was later transferred to the Nigerian fintech company Bloc, and some of Kippa\u2019s employees moved to Bloc as part of that process.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Simple banking & bookkeeping for your micro business<\/span><\/p>\n Get an Instant Business Bank Account, Simple Bookkeeping, Send Invoices & Receipts, and get an E-commerce website, all in one FREE app!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kippa makes an edtech play It\u2019s not every day you get to see a fintech become an edtech. What? In an interesting turn of events, Kippa, a Nigerian startup which started as a fintech is pivoting to provide edtech services. Kippa\u2019s new edtech play will allow users create new online courses or deliver existing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t