More than one month ago, we gathered the e-commerce platform Sky.Garden. which links up electronics merchants to buyers in the same way Amazon works, was planning to close shop.
The reasons for the development were many. First, the startup reported that it did not have sufficient funds to continue running its business. Its MD Martin Majlund added that there was an overall feeling that VC funding was and is slowing down, and those pursuing new investments are doing so carefully, and slowly.
This, according to the MD, was thanks to the Ukraine crisis, inflation, and an overall jump in the price of products and services.
Compounded, the issues implied that the firm could not stay afloat, so it issued a warning to employees that they would be let go by mid-October 2022, unless, of course, a miracle investment was injected into its portfolio.
There was a disclaimer to all these developments, though. The MD said that the firm was still solvent, and there were ongoing talks with potential investors. Sky.Garden had previously managed to raise USD 4 million in a Series A round in 2021, four years after the startup was founded. This totaled USD 5.2 million of the overall funds raised from investors.
It would appear that the MD was positive about the talks he was pursuing because he has revealed today the Sky.Garden is not going anywhere. Martin says that the company has found an acquirer for the IP, meaning it will continue to run but under new owners and management.
The workers who were to leave the organization will be retained too, so there will be no job cuts here with this acquisition.
“So what happened? Great tech, great people, great (although very volatile) market didn’t make up for bad timing, macroeconomic contractions & a lot of “slow no’s”. 2022 has been a shitty year running a B2C tech company in East Africa but I’m pleased that we managed to secure the vision of Sky Garden to live on whilst retaining jobs,” says Martin Majlund.
In a post on LinkedIn, Martin says that he will be leaving the organization for his next venture, which he has not revealed.
At the same time, the new owners of the e-commerce platform have not been named, so we will have to wait while we find more information about them.
For now, Sky.Garden lives.
