Kippa

About Kippa

Kippa is a Nigerian financial technology company targeting the substantial market of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. Founded in June 2021 by brothers Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph and Duke Ekezie-Joseph, along with Jephtah Chidozie-Uche, the firm provides a suite of digital tools designed to digitize and streamline business operations for merchants. The founders' inspiration stemmed from observing their father's business struggles due to a lack of proper record-keeping, a common issue for many Nigerian businesses. CEO Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph is a graduate of the University of Calabar and holds a master's degree in Economics from Peking University. His prior experience includes working at ByteDance, where he was part of the team that introduced TikTok to the African market. President Duke Ekezie-Joseph previously worked in finance at KPMG and Citi, while CTO Jephtah Chidozie-Uche is a software engineer with extensive experience in product architecture.

The company's core offering is a mobile application that provides bookkeeping solutions, allowing merchants to digitally track income and expenses, manage inventory, create invoices, and issue receipts. A key feature is the automated debt reminder system, designed to help businesses recover outstanding payments more efficiently. Kippa's business model is centered on providing these initial tools for free to onboard a large user base, with plans to generate revenue through financial services. This strategy includes earning commissions or interest from lending and working capital solutions offered to its merchants. Since its launch, the company has expanded its product suite significantly. In April 2022, Kippa introduced 'Kippa Payments', a digital payment solution that enables users to send and receive payments, and automatically syncs transaction data with their bookkeeping records. Furthermore, the company launched 'Kippa Start,' a service that assists informal businesses with formal registration at a low cost, bridging a critical gap in the market. Having secured a Super-Agent license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kippa empowers its merchants to act as financial agents, offering services like cash deposits, withdrawals, and bill payments to their local communities.

Kippa has demonstrated significant traction, reporting over 500,000 merchants on its platform and an annualized transaction volume exceeding $3 billion by September 2022. The company's growth has been supported by substantial venture capital investment. It raised a $3.2 million pre-seed round in November 2021, followed by an $8.4 million seed round in September 2022, bringing its total funding to $11.6 million. These funds are allocated towards product development, team expansion, and scaling its financial service offerings across Nigeria with a pan-African vision.