A lot has happened since the start of the week.
Technology and payments firm Wapi Pay, which is based in Nairobi but registered in Singapore, and operates globally, is still in the news cycle, but in a bad light.
It is alleged that its co-founders, brothers Eddie and Paul Ndichu attacked women in Nairobi’s Ole Sereni Hotel. The attack was recorded by a member of the public and has been making rounds on social media.
Typical to such cases, the alleged perpetrators are public faces, so the widespread outrage is expected because such people are role models to many, and should be morally upright to inspire the people who look up to them.
Wapi Pay has since released a statement defending the attack at the Hotel.
Part of the statement reads as follows:
To be clear, Paul and Eddie got involved in an attempt to neutralize a confrontation between two women and to defend themselves from certain aggression.
Obviously, the statement is doing more harm than good because it does not accurately report the happenings of the confrontation recorded on video.
That aside, and just the other week, Wapi Pay had raised an excess of KES 240 million in a recent fund drive. The fundraising was led by EchoVC & China-based global fund MSA Capital, which has also invested in other Asian unicorns, including NIO and Meituan. Kepple Africa Ventures also took part in this investment.
However, Kepple Africa has announced it is relinquishing all the rights of its investment stake in the firm.
‘In light of the alleged assault on women by the founders of our portfolio company Wapi Pay, we Kepple Africa Ventures hereby announce that we have zero tolerance on such conduct and announce that we will relinquish all the rights of our investment stake in Wapi Pay.’ – says Kepple Africa in a statement.
Wapi Pay runs its operations in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It also works with local banks and platforms in the said countries.
It is not clear if other funders will pull out of the pre-seed non-equity round that should have propelled the payments platform to greater heights.
