---
title: "Why DealDey shut down"
description: "Nigerian daily-deals ecommerce pioneer DealDey, acquired by Ringier Africa Deals Group (RADG) in 2016 after raising $5M from Kinnevik, went dark on social media and customer support around December 2018 amid merchant complaints of unpaid balances, with the shutdown publicly confirmed by Techpoint Africa in January 2019."
canonical_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/dealdey"
markdown_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/dealdey.md"
type: "graveyard"
language: "en"
image: "/graveyard/dealdey/certificate.png"
published_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
updated_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
---

# Why DealDey shut down

Nigerian daily-deals ecommerce pioneer DealDey, acquired by Ringier Africa Deals Group (RADG) in 2016 after raising $5M from Kinnevik, went dark on social media and customer support around December 2018 amid merchant complaints of unpaid balances, with the shutdown publicly confirmed by Techpoint Africa in January 2019.

## Breadcrumbs

- [Graveyard](/graveyard)
- [DealDey](/graveyard/dealdey)

## Summary

Here lies DealDey. It brought Nigerians daily discounts on goods, services, and event tickets, once among the country's largest online sellers. After the acquisition it went quiet on merchants and customers alike, and the deals finally ran out. The last offer went unclaimed.

Nigerian daily-deals ecommerce pioneer DealDey, acquired by Ringier Africa Deals Group (RADG) in 2016 after raising $5M from Kinnevik, went dark on social media and customer support around December 2018 amid merchant complaints of unpaid balances, with the shutdown publicly confirmed by Techpoint Africa in January 2019.

## Product history

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Fate | AcquiredDiscontinued |
| Primary cause | BusinessModel |
| Stage at shutdown | Series B (post-acquisition by Ringier/RADG) |
| Lifespan in days | 2922 |

## Autopsy report

## What the product attempted

Founded in 2011 by Sim Shagaya, DealDey aggregated discounted goods, services, and event tickets on a daily-deals ecommerce platform, becoming one of Nigeria's largest ecommerce players by 2015.

## What worked

DealDey grew into one of Nigeria's largest ecommerce platforms by 2015, raised $5M from Kinnevik that year, and was acquired for $5M by Ringier Africa Deals Group (RADG) in 2016.

## Early warning signs

Roughly 60% of the workforce was laid off following the Kinnevik investment; merchants publicly complained about unpaid balances; customer support and social media accounts went unresponsive to mails, calls, and DMs for about a month before the shutdown was confirmed.

## What happened

After being acquired by RADG in 2016, DealDey continued operating but went quiet on social media and customer support around early December 2018 (its last public post was a concert-ticket promotion on December 7, 2018). Merchants complained of unpaid balances and unresponsive support. After weeks of unanswered customer inquiries, Techpoint Africa confirmed on January 8, 2019 that the company had shut down, with offices closed and staff let go.

## Sources

- [Nigerian e-commerce platform, DealDey shuts down](https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2019/01/nigerian-e-commerce-platform-dealdey-shuts-down?ref=startupgraveyard.africa): Techpoint Africa
- [DealDey Announces Shutdown of Operations in Nigeria](https://bizwatchnigeria.ng/dealdey-announces-shutdown-of-operations-in-nigeria/): Bizwatchnigeria
- [DealDey Becomes the Latest Nigerian Online Business to Crash](https://technext24.com/2019/01/09/dealdey-becomes-latest-nigerian-online-business-crash-unconfirmed-reports-suggest/): Technext
- [Ringer's Dealdey Shut Down Operation in Nigeria](https://brandspurng.com/2019/01/13/ringers-dealdey-shut-down-operation-in-nigeria/): Brandspurng

## Related pages

- [DealDey alternatives](/dealdey/alternatives)
- [Liners Graveyard](/graveyard)

## Access and citation

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