Kepple Africa Ventures to Revoke its Investment in Wapi Pay

Japanese VC firm Kepple Africa Ventures says it will revoke its investment in Kenyan fintech startup Wapi Pay.

This is after reports on Monday alleged that Wapi Pay founders, brothers Eddie Ndichu and Paul Ndichu, were allegedly accused of assaulting two women in Nairobi’s Ole Sereni Hotel.

‘’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.’’ General Partner Satoshi Shinad said in a tweet that has also been published on its website.

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.

— Satoshi Shinada (@KeppleNigeria1) October 18, 2021

Kepple Africa is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on Africa. Founded by Ryosuke Yamawaki and Takahiro Kanzaki in December 2018.

It has offices in Nairobi and Lagos and makes seed investments of between US$50,000 and US$150,000 in early-stage tech startups in Africa.

The company has invested in 96 companies in 11 countries. In Kenya, it has invested in other Kenyan companies such as Ongair, Sendy, and Mawingu Networks.

In 2020, Wapi Pay raised Ksh 239 Million in pre-seed funding to scale up global payments and remittances between Africa and Asia. 

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Wapi Pay is headquartered in Nairobi but registered in Singapore. It is currently in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Taiwan and Vietnam  where it is working with local banks and platforms.

Consequently, on Tuesday, Wapi Pay issued a statement saying the alleged video circulating on social media did not depict the true event that transpired Sunday night.

Here is the video of the said incident. The victims say the assault was also captured on CCTV. Over to you @IG_NPS @DCI_Kenya @NPSOfficial_KE pic.twitter.com/6wNugoFutf

— The People’s Watchman (@bonifacemwangi) October 18, 2021

“Wapi Pay founders Paul and Eddie want to use this medium to express their deepest regrets to the incident that occurred,” the statement read.

”As one of the leading Kenyan-founded startup companies, focusing on delivering financial services innovation to the mass market, Wapi Pay is built on, and practices, a culture of respect to employees and customers and does not tolerate any form of discrimination or encourage any form of gender-based violence,” the statement further read.

https://twitter.com/wapi_pay/status/1450328158910259202?s=20