/Graveyard/Africa Courier Express (ACE)

Africa Courier Express (ACE)

Connecting Merchants to Africa.

🇳🇬 Nigeria Logistics & Supply ChainShut down

Epitaph

“Here lies Africa Courier Express. It built last-mile delivery and pay-on-delivery collection across five Nigerian cities. But bad roads, costly vehicles, and cash-collection risk wore it down while its founders steered toward a new fintech, Lidya. No rider was assigned for the last leg.”

Overview

Born: 2013 (Year)
Died: March 2018 (Month)
Lifespan: 5 years
Fate: Shut down
Headquarters: 🇳🇬 Nigeria
Category: Logistics & Supply Chain
Stage at death: Seed
Primary cause: Infrastructure dependency
Contributing causes: Business model or unit economics, Acquisition or strategy change

Death certificate

Timeline

2013Founded
Africa Courier Express launches as a last-mile logistics and Pay-on-Delivery service, founded by Tunde Kehinde, Ercin Eksin and Hilary Achebe

Autopsy report

Why did Africa Courier Express (ACE) shut down?

Africa Courier Express, a last-mile delivery and Pay-on-Delivery logistics startup founded in 2013 by ex-Jumia executives Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin (with Hilary Achebe), wound down as its founders redirected their focus into a new fintech venture, Lidya, after being hit by Nigeria's poor road infrastructure, high vehicle costs, and the security risks of collecting cash on delivery.

What Africa Courier Express (ACE) attempted

ACE built a tech-enabled last-mile delivery and Pay-on-Delivery (cash collection) logistics service for African ecommerce, scaling to five cities under ex-Jumia executives Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin.

What worked

ACE scaled operations to five Nigerian cities and raised about $3.3M in seed funding, including from EchoVC.

Early warning signs

Nigeria's poor road infrastructure, high vehicle maintenance costs, and the security risks inherent in collecting cash through the Pay-on-Delivery model created persistent operational friction as the company scaled.

What happened

After scaling last-mile delivery and cash-collection operations to five cities, ACE ran into the structural realities of Nigerian logistics — bad roads, costly vehicle upkeep, and cash-handling security risk. Founders Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin subsequently launched a new fintech company, Lidya, offering credit to African businesses, and shifted their focus and resources there as ACE's operations were wound down. Exact timing of the wind-down is not clearly corroborated across sources: one 2024 retrospective (LaunchBase Africa) describes ACE's failure but references operations continuing to 2023, while contemporaneous Techpoint coverage of the founders' move to Lidya appears to date to around 2016, earlier than the batch-recorded March 2018 pivot date — so the precise closure date could not be confirmed.

Lessons for future builders

Physical logistics depends on roads, vehicle costs and cash-handling risk you do not control, not the software layer — the ground realities that ended ACE. Model those costs into unit economics before scaling city by city.