---
title: "Why KippaPay (The Product) shut down"
description: "Nigerian fintech Kippa discontinued KippaPay, its agency-banking/payment-gateway product for merchants, in November 2023, laying off about 40 employees who supported it, after naira devaluation squeezed margins on the POS hardware-dependent business."
canonical_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/kippapay-the-product"
markdown_url: "https://liners.com/graveyard/kippapay-the-product.md"
type: "graveyard"
language: "en"
image: "/graveyard/kippapay-the-product/certificate.png"
published_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
updated_at: "2026-07-31T17:41:07.836Z"
---

# Why KippaPay (The Product) shut down

Nigerian fintech Kippa discontinued KippaPay, its agency-banking/payment-gateway product for merchants, in November 2023, laying off about 40 employees who supported it, after naira devaluation squeezed margins on the POS hardware-dependent business.

## Breadcrumbs

- [Graveyard](/graveyard)
- [KippaPay (The Product)](/graveyard/kippapay-the-product)

## Summary

Here lies KippaPay. It handed Nigerian merchants POS terminals to take payments, pay bills, and move money. Then the naira slid and took the hardware margins with it; six months on, its parent pulled the plug and let the terminals go quiet.

Nigerian fintech Kippa discontinued KippaPay, its agency-banking/payment-gateway product for merchants, in November 2023, laying off about 40 employees who supported it, after naira devaluation squeezed margins on the POS hardware-dependent business.

## Product history

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Fate | Sunset |
| Primary cause | ExternalShock |
| Stage at shutdown | Series A |
| Lifespan in days | 1003 |

## Autopsy report

## What the product attempted

KippaPay let merchants accept payments from customers, pay bills, move money and manage their businesses through a POS-based agency-banking product, part of Kippa's push to expand beyond bookkeeping into payments infrastructure for small Nigerian businesses.

## What worked

Kippa raised $8.4 million in September 2022 (from Goodwater Capital, TEN13 VC, Rocketship VC and Saison Capital) earmarked for agency-banking expansion, and CEO Kennedy Ekezie said the company had hit its annual revenue targets by Q1 2023.

## Early warning signs

Naira devaluation over roughly six months ahead of the shutdown eroded margins on the hardware-dependent POS business and hurt merchant customers' own businesses, per the company's account.

## What happened

Kippa announced on October 19, 2023 that it would discontinue KippaPay for merchants effective November 15, 2023, and lay off the roughly 40 employees supporting the product by November 30, 2023, with CEO Kennedy Ekezie stating: 'The devaluation of the naira ate deeply into our margins, and customers' businesses suffered over six months.' Kippa also planned to shut its Kippa Start business-registration product and refocus on its core bookkeeping app.

## Sources

- [Exclusive: Kippa Lays Off 40 Employees as it Shelves Kippa Pay](https://techcabal.com/2023/10/19/exclusive-kippa-lays-off-40-employees-as-it-shelves-kippa-pay?ref=startupgraveyard.africa): TechCabal
- [Kippa shuts offline payment product, to lay off employees in December](https://techpoint.africa/news/nigerian-fintech-startup-kippa-to-shut-down-offline-payment-product-to-lay-off-employees-in-december/): Techpoint Africa
- [Nigerian fintech, Kippa, shuts down payments product, to lay off workers](https://nairametrics.com/2023/10/19/nigerian-fintech-kippa-shuts-down-payments-product-to-lay-off-workers/): Nairametrics
- [Kippa, fintech startup, discontinues agency banking, plans layoffs in December](https://www.thecable.ng/kippa-fintech-startup-discontinues-agency-banking-plans-layoffs-in-december/): The Cable

## Related pages

- [KippaPay (The Product) alternatives](/kippapay-the-product/alternatives)
- [Liners Graveyard](/graveyard)

## Access and citation

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