A Kenyan courtroom has ordered Marketforce Applied sciences, as soon as a rising star in Africa’s B2B e-commerce sector, to pay KES 2.1 million ($16,000) to a former worker for wrongful termination. The ruling comes practically a 12 months after the Y Combinator-backed startup shut down RejaReja, its flagship B2B market, leaving its future unsure. Its co-founder, Tesh Mbaabu, has since moved on to launch a social commerce platform, Chpter.
Tom Maina Chege, a former product supervisor who labored at Marketforce from January 2022 to August 2023, filed the case in October 2023. Chege, whose month-to-month gross wage was KES 200,000 ($1,550), was laid off in July 2023, together with his termination taking impact in August. He argued that the redundancy was illegal, as “the discover interval of 30 days didn’t lapse earlier than the redundancy took impact”, and Marketforce didn’t notify the Labour Workplace, a requirement underneath Part 40 of the Employment Act, 2007.
Chege sought KES 1,560,870 ($12,000) in compensation for unpaid go away, discover pay, severance pay, wage arrears, and basic damages, based on courtroom paperwork seen by TechCabal.
After Marketforce didn’t defend the go well with, Choose C.N. Baari dominated that the redundancy was procedurally and substantively unfair. The courtroom awarded Chege KES 1,316,547 ($10,000) in terminal dues and KES 800,000 ($6,000) in compensation and authorized prices.
“[Marketforce] didn’t try to adjust to the seven steps set out in Part 40(1) of the Employment Act, 2007,” the ruling said.
Employees exits and pay cuts
The judgment sheds mild on Marketforce’s inside troubles, which three former staff say started with mass workers exits in late 2022 and 2023. The corporate misplaced key staff, which affected operations and strained relationships with main distributors.
“Marketforce had a credit score line with main producers, which enabled them to get inventory and pay later,” a former worker who requested to not be named instructed TechCabal. “This was ended after we began having points, and staff who have been the glue holding the deal left.”
On the similar time, Marketforce confronted extreme money circulation issues, leading to wage delays and pay cuts of as much as 50% for non-tech staff. Regardless of elevating over $40 million from buyers reminiscent of Mirror Ventures, Greenhouse Capital, and Century Oak Capital, the corporate’s abrupt exit from the B2B e-commerce house in 2024 left its present standing unclear.
Whereas Marketforce’s destiny hangs within the stability, co-founder Tesh Mbaabu has shifted his focus to Chpter, a platform serving to companies promote through social media. In September 2024, Chpter closed a $1.2 million pre-seed spherical led by Pani, an Africa-focused funding agency co-founded by former Cellulant CEO Ken Njoroge. The corporate can also be a part of the Safaricom Spark and Norrsken Accelerators.
Whether or not Marketforce can revive itself and stage a comeback stays to be seen.