Sendy, a Kenyan logistics start-up that, among other things, allowed merchants to buy FMCGs directly from producers, is closing down operations and considering selling its assets.
Sendy co-founder Meshack Alloys acknowledged the sale to TechCrunch without providing any other information, stating: “We are in the middle of an acquisition process. So yes, Sendy is being acquired. We will issue a formal joint statement in two weeks or so time. In the meantime, we are unable to comment on further details at this time.”
TechCrunch reported that the business ran out of money two months ago and has been struggling to slash expenses for the previous year in order to stay viable.
It made an announcement to reduce its personnel by 10% in July of last year. Alloys said that this was in response to “current realities impacting tech companies globally.”
But since then, Sendy’s staff has been further reduced in order to save costs (by shuttering a product line and leaving a market).
The Kenyan business shut down its supply service and fired 54 people in October of last year. In February of this year, it stopped offering end-to-end fulfilment in Nigeria, a market it had entered two years earlier.
The Kenyan business, which had a late-year valuation of over $80 million, had been in talks with a number of investors to raise more money a few months prior at a lower valuation of $40 million to $60 million.
Sendy has been struggling to raise money for the previous two to three months, including money to pay salaries. As a result, it is now trying to sell some of its assets after one of its major investors pulled out of the deal.
Sendy was co-founded in 2015 by Alloys, Evanson Biwott, Don Okoth, and Malaika Judd
