Even with the suspension of the founder early this year and the subsequent appointment of Kenneth Kinshua as the CEO to turn things around at Ghanaian startup, Dash, it was too late. The vision of Prince Boakye Boampong, former CEO and founder of Dash, to create interoperability between the numerous financial wallets in Africa, have been dashed. It is finally shutting down, according to a Weetracker report.
Dash was founded by Prince Boakye Boampong in 2019 and had raised about $86.1 million since inception. This was raised over five years and the last raise of $32.8 million was done in March 2022. As at the last raise, Dash was valued slightly over $200 million and it was the second-largest deal of its kind after PalmPay’s $40 million in 2019
Dash was set up to make financial transactions across mobile money and traditional bank accounts for consumer snd businesses very easy. The CEO in 2022 claimed its total processing volume topped $1 billion and had acquired a million users from Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria even though this was disputed as its growth figures significantly differed from what it usually sees around how other consumer fintechs scale in Africa.
Reports gathered states that the decision to shut down the company was communicated early this week after a company-wide meeting held virtually. It was learnt that eight months after the suspension of the CEO, Prince Boakye Boampong, the company was finally letting go of startup’s remaining 70+ employees and winding down.
The report stated that the CEO’s financial improprieties and the executives mismanagement were responsible for the company’s downfall.
The shut down of this company is rather unfortunate but it follows the recent trend of startups with bright futures and funds raised, having to close shop, throwing investors and employees into disarray. Investors are left wondering what they missed out on when giving monies to these startups. It was reported last month that 54Gene was shutting down after raising $45 million in two years.
