The Money Is Gone: Copia's Liquidators Have KSh 206.60 Million to Sell
Key Highlights
- The High Court put Copia Kenya into liquidation on 17 September and named two KPMG partners to sell what is left.
- Filings put assets that can be sold at KSh 206.60 million, against about KSh 15.87 billion ($123 million) raised.
- Unsecured creditors should not expect a cheque.
Copia Kenya is being wound up, and the cupboard is almost bare.
Nairobi Business Monthly reporting the High Court order of 17 September 2026, said Julius Mumo Ngonga and Anthony Makenzi Muthusi of KPMG were appointed joint liquidators. Their job is to find what is left, sell it, and pay creditors in the order the law sets. The same filings put assets that can be sold at KSh 206.
60 million as of March 2026. The company had raised about $123 million across eight rounds, about KSh 15.87 billion at KSh 129 to the dollar. In May 2024, when it went into administration, that raise was still the boast. The gap between KSh 15.87 billion in and KSh 206.60 million left is the loss.
Administrators put creditor claims and the cost of the administration at KSh 169.50 million. After preferential claims and the liquidators' own fees, advertising and professional costs, little is expected for ordinary creditors. Two suppliers tried to block the winding-up. Tuffsteel was owed KSh 13.
30 million and Jastan Traders KSh 0.79 million. They argued that liquidation would add cost without improving what unsecured creditors get back. The court dismissed the challenge and found no fraud in the administration.
How a rural shop network ran out of cash
Copia was founded in 2012 by Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis. A local agent took an order on a phone, the goods came from a warehouse, and a rural customer did not have to travel to town. It worked as a story for investors. It did not work as a business once fresh money stopped in early 2024.
More than 1,000 jobs went. Two years of administration did not produce a buyer. Disrupt Africa recorded the court order this week.
The timing sits next to a better quarter for African tech money. Fifty-eight startups raised $582.81 million in the three months to September, about KSh 75.18 billion at the same rate. Copia is the other side of that sentence. A round is not a shop. Once the last cheque is spent, the court counts stock and debtors, and KSh 206.
60 million is what that count produced. Investors who put in the KSh 15.87 billion should not plan on a refund.
In Summary
- What can be sold?
- KSh 206.60 million of assets, as of March 2026.
- What was raised?
- About KSh 15.87 billion ($123 million) across eight rounds.