Lipa Later firm downsize, send home good number of their staff, almost three quarters

Following the purchase of the Sky Garden e-commerce platform for KES 250 million, the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company Lipa Later is now in danger of going out of business. The Lipa Later firm is now sending three quarters of its workers home.

Sky Garden has a total of one hundred employees, whereas Lipa Later has close to three hundred. Following the implementation of new taxes and an increase in existing taxes, the business has decided to reduce the size of its workforce.

However, Lipa Later will be leaving the firm at the end of the month. The company has already sent out termination letters to one hundred of its workers.

SkyGarden completed a $4 million Series A round of funding in 2021, prior to the company’s activities becoming difficult to manage due to a lack of available funds.

The company successfully closed a transaction for 600,000 dollars before purchasing Lipa later in November 2022, bringing the total amount of cash from investors to 5.2 million dollars.

The firm’s former managing director, Martin Majlund, who left the company at the height of its problems, revealed that 2022 was a challenging year to oversee business-to-consumer operations in East Africa, which is why the company is requesting fresh investment.