Nigerian Fintech Startup Pivo Africa Shuts Down Operation, A Year After Raising $2 Million Seed Round
Y combinator-backed female-led Nigerian fintech startup, Pivo Africa has shut down operation, a year after raising $2 million in a seed round.
The company’s co-founder and CEO Amadi-Emina speaking on the issue, however, failed to go into details of what led to the shut down of the company.
Meanwhile, sources familiar with the matter disclosed that the startup was shut down due to unresolved founder’s conflict.
The conflict between the founders (CEO & COO), was said to have affected the company’s growth, which affected the culture, and team dynamics, thereby affecting Pivo’s chances of raising capital in the future.
Founded by Nkiru Amadi-Emina (CEO) and ljeoma Akwiwu (COO) in July 2021, the startup offered banking services to small logistics and haulage businesses in Nigeria’s supply chain sector.
After its launch, Pivo raised a $100,000 pre-seed round from investors like Microtraction, FirstChéck Africa, and Rally Cap Ventures. The startup later raised a $2 million seed round in November 2022 from investors which include, Precursor Ventures, Vested World, Y Combinator, FoundersX, and Mercy Corp Ventures, to expand its product offerings to supply chain SMEs.
The startup had two fintech verticals: Pivo Capital, a lending product, and Pivo Business, a business banking product. The company claimed to have disbursed more than $3 million in loans a year after its launch through Pivo Capital and processed more than $4 million through Pivo Business.
The startup provided credit to these businesses, which needed to obtain funds from lenders to finance a transaction before being paid by buyers, only after validating with prospective buyers that the deals were legit. The startup said this approach allowed it to record a 98% repayment rate.
Pivo Africa’s goal was to build an end-to-end financial operating system for supply chains. With its shutdown, the startup joins the list of other startups that have closed shop this year, as the economic downturn and rising funding gap continue.
