The High Court in Nairobi placed Copia Kenya Limited into liquidation on September 17, ending 28 months of administration at the e-commerce company that sold household goods to rural Kenyans through local shopkeepers.
Copia Kenya’s parent, Copia Global, raised $123 million before the business ran out of cash.
Justice Rhoda Rutto found that “the objectives of administration have been exhausted,” according to the ruling. She saw no realistic prospect of a rescue and said more time under administration would add delay and expense for creditors. She appointed the administrators, Julius Mumo Ngonga and Anthony Makenzi Muthusi of KPMG Advisory Services, as joint liquidators.
The decision affects former staff, suppliers and shop agents who depended on the company. It also raises the question of what it costs to deliver goods to customers whose orders are small.
Court finds no route back to trading
Copia Kenya entered administration in May 2024 after Copia Global could not raise fresh capital. The administration was due to lapse in May 2025. The court extended it more than once, most recently to June 23, 2026.
On March 17, the administrators asked the court to convert the process into liquidation. They told the court the company’s liabilities exceed its assets and that it cannot continue as a going concern. A creditors’ committee discussed the proposal on December 10, 2025, and some members asked for more time.
Two unsecured creditors, Tuffsteel Limited and Jastan Traders Limited, opposed the application. The court noted that neither offered a restructuring plan, an investor or a refinancing deal. Tuffsteel accepted that liquidation might be unavoidable. Both creditors objected to how it would be run.
Creditors lose their request for a forensic audit
Tuffsteel asked the court to freeze the company’s assets, order an inventory within 14 days and appoint a forensic auditor. The audit would have covered the three years before administration, with attention to related party deals and payments to directors. It also opposed KPMG’s administrators acting as liquidators, arguing they would review their own work.
Jastan raised the sale of Copia’s brand, intellectual property and transactional data to Copia Holdings Limited. It asked for an independent review of the price. The court said neither creditor produced a valuation or expert opinion showing the sale was below market value. The court “cannot infer impropriety solely from the fact of the transaction,” Rutto wrote.
The administrators argued that the power to investigate transactions at an undervalue belongs to a liquidator. The court said liquidation carries its own transparency rules, alongside court supervision.
Rutto also found nothing in the Insolvency Act that bars an administrator from becoming liquidator. She said creditors keep the right to challenge an administrator’s conduct under sections 591 and 592. The court dismissed Tuffsteel’s application and ordered each side to pay its own costs.
What remains for creditors
As of February 28, administrators estimated the Copia Kenya realisable assets at KES 206.6 million ($1.6 million). They put creditors and administration costs at KES 169.5 million ($1.3 million), according to the administrators’ report dated March 12.
Jastan read those figures as a limited surplus before preferential claims. The administrators said liabilities still exceed assets. They told the court that even in the best case only preferential creditors may receive a distribution. Kenyan insolvency law ranks secured and preferential claims ahead of unsecured ones.
Tuffsteel claims KES 13.3 million ($103,000) for goods and services. Jastan claims KES 793,022 ($6,000) for delivery and logistics work in March and April 2024, excluding interest. Jastan also asked the court to keep payments of preferential employee claims moving. The ruling does not say how much employees are owed.
How the model ran out of road
Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis founded Copia in 2013. Shop owners acted as agents. They took orders by USSD, phone or app and served as collection points. In 2019, Khusoko reported that Copia Kenya was the only e-commerce company in the country delivering goods beyond rural towns to interior areas. It had opened a KSh 2 billion, 4,000 square metre distribution hub at Tatu City. CEO Tim Steel said the company’s growth “shows the demand that exists” across rural and urban Kenya.
Investors backed that case. A $26 million Series B led by LGT Lightstone followed in 2019. Partner Shakir Merali said Copia was “leapfrogging retail.” A $50 million Series C came in 2022 and a $20 million extension in December 2023.
The company carried the costs of warehouses, depots, vehicles, technology and agents while customers placed small orders. At its peak it had 50,000 agents, 1,800 employees and more than 2 million customers, according to company figures.
Cuts started in 2023. Khusoko reported in July that layoffs could reach 30 percent of staff, as Copia promised to stay a “lean and sustainable business.” TechCabal counted 350 employees laid off. The company left Uganda that year and suspended expansion to Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Mozambique.
Administration brought a sharper contraction. On June 4, 2024, administrators stopped taking orders in six regions, including Embu and Eldoret. Two days later, 1,060 employees lost their jobs. The company had said it would cut its burn rate and focus on digital customers, which meant scaling back the physical network that reached rural buyers. The administrators’ July 23, 2024 report found the company short of assets and proposed selling them to repay creditors.
What the case means for rural e-commerce
Demand has not disappeared. Kenya’s e-commerce market is worth about $2.6 billion, or KES 336.7 billion, and is projected to reach $4 billion by 2029, WORLDEF reported after the launch of the Kenya E-Commerce Alliance.
Jumia shows the other approach. TechCabal reported that 60 percent of its Kenyan deliveries go to secondary towns and villages. More than 80 percent of its 300 plus pickup stations belong to third party operators. That passes cost and risk to small businesses. TechCabal noted that those operators absorb fuel price rises and poor roads first.
Copia Kenya owned much of the chain between factory and doorstep, and that chain consumed its funding. Its agents, suppliers and former staff now wait on the liquidators’ count of what is left.
