Lipa Later, a Kenyan buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech, has been positioned underneath administration efficient March 24, 2025, after months of economic struggles and failed fundraising efforts. Pleasure Vipinchandra Bhatt from Moore JVB Consulting LLP has been appointed administrator, in response to a gazette discover seen by TechCabal.
This newest improvement caps a turbulent 12 months for Lipa Later, which has struggled to safe contemporary funding since its final capital injection—a $3.4 million debt increase in September 2023—leaving it unable to pay staff and suppliers.
Coming into into administration means the corporate’s administrators have misplaced management of its property and operations, with decision-making authority shifting to the appointed administrator. Collectors have till April 23 to submit claims as the corporate’s future hangs within the stability.
“We’re at the moment participating all key stakeholders of the corporate to elicit their cooperation with the intention to obtain the absolute best consequence for the corporate,” Bhatt mentioned.
At the very least 5 staff advised TechCabal they’d not acquired salaries for a number of months as of December 2024. Lipa Later additionally owed a number of suppliers, together with London-based consultancy Africa Foresight Group (AFG), which sued the corporate in 2024 over an unpaid $13,516 consultancy payment, in response to court docket paperwork seen by TechCabal.
The dispute with AFG, which was contracted in April 2022 to organize a market report, escalated after Lipa Later withheld cost, claiming the work was substandard. In a December 2024 ruling, Kenya’s Excessive Courtroom dismissed Lipa Later’s protection, stating the corporate had admitted to the debt in inner correspondence.
“It’s subsequently clear to me that the quantity demanded within the statutory demand is, actually, not disputed, and the debtor (Lipa Later) is estopped from claiming so having admitted to the debt,” Justice Mong’are mentioned within the ruling.
The court docket additionally dominated that Lipa Later failed to fulfill the authorized threshold of exhibiting a real and substantial dispute over the debt.
From investor darling to monetary misery
Lipa Later had beforehand sturdy investor backing, elevating $12 million in seed funding in January 2022 from Cauris, Lateral Frontiers, and others, alongside undisclosed debt from the identical buyers. Earlier rounds noticed seed investments from Orbit Startups in 2021 and Founders Manufacturing unit Africa in 2019.
Regardless of early investor confidence, the corporate failed to boost extra funding in 2024. One prime govt, who wished to not be named for discussing confidential data, claimed the corporate was near securing a deal in This fall 2024, nevertheless it by no means materialised.
The corporate’s monetary place got here underneath scrutiny in December 2023 when it acquired struggling e-commerce platform Sky.Backyard for KES 250 million ($1.9 million). The deal raised issues about Lipa Later’s monetary well being, because it was already grappling with mounting obligations on the time.
Lipa Later’s destiny now rests on whether or not its administrator can restructure its operations or discover a purchaser prepared to take an opportunity on its BNPL mannequin.