Investors in collapsed e-commerce startup Copia Kenya are unlikely to recover anything as the company heads into liquidation after its assets were found to be insufficient to meet its liabilities.
“As of March this year, Copia’s realisable assets stood at Sh206.6 million, while its liabilities ‘substantially exceed that amount,’ according to court filings by the company’s administrators seen by the Business Daily.
The company had raised $123 million (Sh15.9 billion) across eight funding rounds, making it one of Kenya’s most-funded technology startups.
Its investors include the Kenyan venture capital firm Enza Capital, UK-based Lightrock, the US International Development Finance Corporation, Netherlands-based Goodwell Investments and Dutch family-backed impact investor DOB Equity.
Copia was founded in 2012 by former Silicon Valley executives Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis. Its model used digitally enabled, locally based agents as order and delivery points, allowing rural consumers to order products through the platform.
The startup expanded rapidly and attracted substantial investor backing before its funding difficulties forced it to scale back operations.
After Copia’s collapse, Ms Turner and Mr Lewis jointly started another e-commerce firm known as Stahili, owned by Copia’s US-based holding company, Copia Holding Company. Stahili is described as an online consumer-data analysis company.
Copia failed to secure additional funding as 2024 began, laid off over 1,000 workers and was placed under administration in May that year.
The administrators, Julius Ngonga and Makenzi Muthusi, of audit firm KPMG, later proposed liquidating the firm, saying the firm could no longer be sustained as a going concern.
But the move has been delayed after two suppliers moved to court to challenge the liquidation, arguing that it would add administrative costs without improving the outcome for unsecured creditors – businesses or lenders that provide money, goods or services without holding a legal claim over specific assets as collateral.
The High Court has struck out the case and appointed Mr Ngonga and Mr Muthusi as joint liquidators of the collapsed startup.
‘Julius Mumo Ngonga and Anthony Makenzi Muthusi are hereby appointed as the Joint Liquidators of Copia Kenya Limited (In Liquidation),’ the court said in a liquidation order dated September 17, 2026.
Under liquidation, the appointed liquidator identifies and sells a company’s assets and distributes the proceeds to creditors according to the law.
Secured creditors, such as banks holding collateral, are paid first, followed by preferential creditors including employees.
Unsecured creditors are paid thereafter, but they receive nothing if assets are insufficient.
A company’s investors are paid last because the law treats them as equity claimants, not creditors.
They only receive a payout if there is a surplus after all liquidation costs and liabilities are fully satisfied, which means Copia’s assets will not cover the billions of shillings investors had pumped into the e-commerce firm.
After preferential claims and liquidation costs, including liquidators’ remuneration, statutory advertising and professional fees, Copia’s unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive any distribution. The administrators have estimated creditors’ claims and administration costs at Sh169.5 million, leaving little for paying creditors with preferential (priority) claims.
Tuffsteel Limited is owed Sh13.3 million for goods and services supplied to the company, while Jastan Traders Limited is owed Sh793,022.
Tuffsteel had opposed the proposed liquidation without full disclosure and accountability over Copia’s assets and liabilities, the asset realisation process undertaken during administration, any disposal or transfer of assets, the company’s financial records and the conduct of its directors and administrators.
The supplier also argued that there was a risk of the company’s assets being dissipated, concealed, transferred or improperly disposed of, and sought orders restricting such transactions pending a full accounting and verification process. Jastan also opposed liquidation unless safeguards were put in place to protect unsecured creditors and ensure their claims were properly accounted for.
The court, however, found no evidence of wrongdoing by the administrators.
‘Neither affidavit identifies specific evidence demonstrating that the Joint Administrators acted fraudulently, dishonestly, in bad faith or in breach of any express provision of the Insolvency Act,’ the High Court said.