---
title: "Why Africa Courier Express (ACE) shut down"
description: "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."
canonical_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/africa-courier-express-ace"
markdown_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/africa-courier-express-ace.md"
type: "graveyard"
language: "en"
image: "/graveyard/africa-courier-express-ace/certificate.png"
published_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
updated_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
---

# Why 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.

## Breadcrumbs

- [Graveyard](/graveyard)
- [Africa Courier Express (ACE)](/graveyard/africa-courier-express-ace)

## Summary

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.

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.

## Product history

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Fate | ShutDown |
| Primary cause | InfrastructureDependency |
| Stage at shutdown | Seed |
| Lifespan in days | 1885 |

## Autopsy report

## What the product 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.

## Sources

- [Tracking Startup Failures in Africa: From Millions in Funding to Silent Shutdowns](https://launchbaseafrica.com/2024/09/05/tracking-startup-failures-in-africa-from-millions-in-funding-to-silent-shutdowns/): Launch Base Africa
- [Africa Courier Express Founders join the e-payments league with Lidya](https://techpoint.africa/general/nigerian-logistics-disruptors-joins-payments-league-with-lidya/): Techpoint Africa
- [7 prominent entrepreneurs who have moved on from the Nigerian eCommerce industry](https://techpoint.africa/feature/entrepreneurs-that-nigerian-ecommerce/): Techpoint Africa

## Related pages

- [Africa Courier Express (ACE) alternatives](/africa-courier-express-ace/alternatives)
- [Liners Graveyard](/graveyard)

## Access and citation

- [Canonical HTML page](https://liners.com/graveyard/africa-courier-express-ace)
- [Markdown route index](/sitemap.md)
- [Agent access guide](/llms.txt)