Africa’s Unicorn Chipper Cash Reportedly Hit With Two Options As SVB Collapses

One of Africa's seven unicorns, Chipper Cash is reportedly considering selling the company or seeking new investors according to a report from Bloomberg.

Bloomberg said the conversations are private, but Chipper Cash told the publication that it never sought to be acquired. According to a response sent to Bloomberg from Chipper Cash, “It’s been fairly common practice for us to receive various M&A proposals from different parties, which we evaluate to varying degrees. “That being said, we have never sought to be acquired.”

In 2021, the startup raised $150 million in a Series C extension round that valued it at over $2 billion. Since then, it has been hurt by events related to two of its investors — FTX and Silicon Valley Bank. Last year, FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, shut down after a withdrawal crunch, a similar situation to what happened at SVB last week.

In a statement, the company said its exposure was only $1 million and that it would not affect its operations. "We had a very limited amount of money (only about $1M) held in our SVB account at the time the bank was taken over by the California regulator," Serunjogi, founder, explained, adding that SVB's funds were delivered immediately. "What is happening now doesn’t change that," he wrote. "Additionally, SVB wasn’t the only investor in that round."

Since December 2022, Chipper Cash has laid off more than 150 employees, with the most recent coming in February 2023. Serunjogi also emphasized that SVB's failure did not interrupt customer operations and that the firm has multiple other banking partners in the United States. “SVB’s collapse is not responsible for these developments, and the company could continue as it is.”