Cova, a Nigerian wealth-tech start-up co-founded by the former CEO and founder of Printivo, Olu’yomi Ojo, alongside Yomi Osamiluyi, is set to close down. The co-founders attributed the shutdown to “several factors” in an email sent to users on Tuesday, January 23.
“This was an extremely difficult decision, one that was not made lightly,” read the email. Cova will cease operations on Feb. 10, 2024. Meanwhile, subscription refunds will be made on or before Feb. 13.
In his business memoir ‘Vantage’, launched in August 2023, Olumide Soyombo, one of Nigeria’s top angel investors, mentioned that two years into Cova’s operations, the co-founders realized the product was not gaining any traction, despite its importance.
Ojo, in an undated email to investors, as documented in Soyombo’s memoir (Ref: Pages 248 & 249), stated, “We have carefully evaluated our financial situation and concluded that, although we have about a year of runway left in the bank, it is better to act in the interest of Cova investors and stakeholders than to burn through the cash. It would be unfair to continue spending the funds without a clear path to profitability or decent revenue.”
Ojo and Osamiluyi co-founded Cova in December 2021 to serve as a “single source of truth” for every asset that its users own. Cova raised at least $800,000 from investors, including Soyombo. “[Cova] gives you the power to aggregate, manage and track everything, even while you’re alive, and also helps your people discover and claim your assets when you’re gone,” says Ojo.
Up until its imminent shutdown, Cova provided subscription options ranging from $10 to $100 per month or annually. Users had the capability to link their Cova profile to both local and international bank accounts, savings applications such as Piggyvest and Cowrywise, investment platforms like Risevest and Bamboo, as well as crypto-wallets. The platform further allowed users to monitor their landed properties.
In 2022, co-founder of Cova, Ojo, mentioned that the platform’s user base numbered in the “thousands” worldwide. However, the ability to synchronize bank accounts was exclusively available to users based in Nigeria, the UK, and the US.
Responding to some of the startup’s challenges in its first year, Ojo said “Customers keep needing more. For instance, we have users already asking for deeper integration. They have multiple bank accounts in different countries, and they want to connect them to COVA.” He also stated that trust has been a challenge: “What we do is still new, and people are not yet used to it. So they have many questions, and we have to earn their trust. We also have people who don’t want to think of death as an event to prepare for, especially in African countries.”
While some start-ups are now making it compulsory to provide next-of-kin details to facilitate asset transfer after a user’s demise, other African start-ups, like Twinku, are offering a comprehensive asset management platform.
1This Cova is not the same as the Cameroonian insurtech startup, Cova that was backed by Google Black Founders Fund Africa in 2022.
