Last month, we reported that Kenya’s eCommerce Startup Sky.Garden would no longer shut down after the CEO, Martin Majlund, announced that the company will continue with new owners and new management.
It has now been revealed that the Lipa later Group are the new owners. Though the commercial details have not been revealed, Lipa Later said in a statement that “this acquisition of Sky.Garden marks an important milestone in the group’s goal to offer innovative solutions that meet the needs of businesses and consumers. This move will enable Lipa Later to expand our customer base and solidify our presence in the market.”
Founded in 2018 by CEO Eric Muli and headquartered in Kenya, Lipa Later is a financial services company that provides Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services among other services.
According to Eric Muli during the onboarding ceremony, he reiterated that the acquisition is timely as the fintech continues to build an end-to-end avenue that connects merchants to customers and vice versa.
“Guided by our objective to empower African businesses and consumers to do more by enabling e-commerce, financial inclusion and shopping all on one centralized and fully integrated platform, our plan has always been to venture into e-commerce with unique value propositions for our consumers. Sky.Garden has done an incredible job and checks all those boxes. Lipa Later is no stranger to the e-commerce industry, having already established a strong presence in the online payment and finance sectors. This acquisition has greatly accelerated our plans of redefining the shopping experience for consumers,” said Lipa Later CEO Eric Muli.
Lipa Later says that Sky.Garden will now be fully owned by Lipa Later Group and will continue to operate using its name.
“Last month, we saw no other option than to file for insolvency,” Martin Majlund, founder of Sky.Garden, stated. “Today, I’m happy to see that Sky Garden will live on with new owners and new management. We built a great product over time, and I believe Lipa Later has the potential to take Sky Garden to the next level. Through this acquisition, the vision of Sky Garden will continue to live on while retaining jobs and businesses on our platform.”
In September this year, Techcrunch reported that the Amazon-style marketplace for third-party merchants was in the balance after the startup failed to close a round of financing.
Majlund said that while the startup was facing a cash crunch, it was still in talks with investors and potential buyers in the hope of saving it from collapse. It had however given its employees 30 days’ notice on the 16th of September.
Lipa Later raised $12 million in January this year to extend its financial services to other countries in Africa.
Lipa Later says that this acquisition is a key step forward in our goal of becoming a leader in the e-commerce space. The acquisition of Sky.Garden by Lipa Later presents a great opportunity for both companies to benefit from each other’s strengths and further the growth of the e-commerce industry.
Lipa Later adds that expansion plans are in place to see Sky.Garden integrated across other Lipa Later countries of operation which include Rwanda, Uganda and Nigeria.
