👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Cat and dog fight

54 Collective, an Africa-focused venture capital (VC) firm is shutting down its venture studio as its partnership with the Mastercard Foundation ends on April 30, 2025. The news, shared with employees on Friday, means job cuts are coming, and early-stage founders will lose a key launchpad for support. The venture studio has been instrumental in helping startups refine their ideas, secure initial funding, and gain operational guidance. Without it, many entrepreneurs will have to look elsewhere for backing, which could make an already tough funding environment even more competitive.

Startups that have gone through the studio now face uncertainty. While 54 Collective’s $40 million venture fund, UAF1, is still active, it’s unclear whether it will step in to fill the gap left by the studio’s closure. Many founders relied on the structured support of the studio, and without it, some may struggle to find the same level of mentorship and resources.

The Mastercard Foundation has been a major backer of 54 Collective. In 2023, the foundation, alongside Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, an impact fund within the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, invested $114 million to help the venture studio “address gender imbalances” and close the funding gap to early-stage startups. The studio wrote checks of up to $250,000 and provided additional $150,000 in equity-free capital to startups that met the requirements. However, with Mastercard stopping funding, it may reflect a priority change for the foundation which has historically backed impact-driven projects. For example, in 2021, it backed Astia Fund—an early-stage venture fund investing in women-led startups.

54 Collective had an ambitious goal to invest in 105 startups over the next five years. But neither Mastercard Foundation nor 54Collective has provided specific details on why the partnership isn’t being renewed.

This is a setback for founders looking for hands-on support in the early stages of building their companies. With fewer venture studios operating on the continent, the pressure is on investors and accelerators to step up and fill the gap. For now, startups in 54 Collective’s programs are waiting to see how this transition affects them, and whether any safety nets will be put in place.

In yesterday’s newsletter, we told you that logistics startup Sendstack is pivoting to a hardware play with new GPS trackers, projecting $1 million in revenue. However, further changes are underway: co-founder and COO, Ifeoma Nwobu, has resigned. This leaves CEO Emeka Mba-Kalu to lead the company toward its goals single-handedly.

Cofounder breakups are not uncommon, affecting approximately 35% of companies. They occur for various reasons, including but not limited to: misalignment of vision and unequal distribution of responsibilities and equity. These separations shouldn’t be viewed as failures; startups operate in high-pressure environments with rapid changes, and, like many marriages under stress, it’s understandable if someone needs to step away.

Nwobu’s departure is notable, as she has been the public face of the three-year-old startup for some time. You may recall her viral pitch at the Norrsken Accelerator, where she appeared confident and clear-sighted about the company’s ambitious mission to build the logistics infrastructure of the future.

Since then, the company’s strategic direction has shifted twice. Initially, Sendstack aimed to provide last-mile delivery through an aggregator platform. At the time, Nwobu, originally a growth lead, became a co-founder in August 2021. 

The company subsequently discontinued its last-mile delivery platform, pivoting to fleet management software, and now, from a purely software focus, has transitioned to include hardware tracker. 

Despite these changes, Sendstack CEO seems more focused and ambitious than ever—the company projects a $1 million revenue this year, four times what it made in the past three years.

A cat-and-dog fight between Nairobi County and Kenya Power, the state-owned energy company, has escalated into a full-blown crisis, with the county cutting off fiber optic cables on Kenya Power’s utility poles. This drastic move has disrupted internet services for thousands of Nairobi residents, businesses, schools, and malls, plunging parts of Kilimani and surrounding areas into a digital blackout.

The root of the conflict lies in a bitter financial dispute. Nairobi County owes Kenya Power a staggering $23.1 million (KES 3 billion) in unpaid electricity bills, a debt that was reportedly reconciled in 2024. However, the county government claims Kenya Power owes it even more in unpaid land rates, wayleave fees, and parking charges. This tit-for-tat over unpaid bills has created a deadlock, with neither side willing to back down.

The standoff took a dramatic turn this week. On Monday, county officials dumped garbage outside Kenya Power’s offices in Ngara. By Tuesday, they escalated the confrontation by pouring raw sewage at the company’s headquarters, barring staff from entering. Later that day, county workers vandalized fiber optic cables on Kenya Power’s poles, severing internet access and drawing sharp criticism from the Communications Authority (CA). The CA warned that such actions violate legal and regulatory frameworks, as ICT infrastructure falls under national jurisdiction.

Kenya Power insists the county’s electricity bill is long overdue, with partial payment agreements from November 2024 going unfulfilled. Meanwhile, Nairobi County argues that Kenya Power’s unpaid fees exceed the disputed electricity bill, framing the issue as a matter of unresolved balances rather than outright non-payment.

With businesses and residents caught in the crossfire, pressure is mounting for a resolution. The Communications Authority’s intervention hints at potential regulatory consequences for Nairobi County, but for now, the capital remains a battleground where a financial dispute has spiraled into chaos, leaving thousands in the dark.

Unity Bank is in the spotlight after reporting a ₦62.6 billion ($41.7 million) loss for 2023—a sharp reversal from the ₦941 million ($627,500) profit it posted in 2022. The lender’s financial struggles have been years in the making, and the latest figures only deepen concerns about its future viability.

A closer look at the bank’s 2023 audited financials paints a grim picture. Although its gross earnings grew to ₦59.36 billion ($40 million) from ₦57.15 billion ($38 million) in 2022, those gains were overshadowed by growing expenses and bad loans. Why? A capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of -76.14%.The CBN expects a minimum CAR of 10% for national banks. 

Unity Bank’s balance sheet doesn’t look any better, with ₦845.6 billion ($564 million) in liabilities versus ₦518.7 billion ($346 million) in assets, creating a ₦326.9 billion ($218 million) gap.

KPMG, the auditors, didn’t sugarcoat things either. They flagged “significant doubt” about Unity Bank’s ability to stay afloat without hefty recapitalisation. The same auditors first raised questions over the bank’s financial health in 2022 after its total liabilities exceeded its total assets by ₦274.9 billion ($183 million).

In a bid to stay afloat, Unity Bank merged with Providus Bank in August 2024—a move many consider a lifeline for the struggling bank. The merger came with a ₦700 billion ($466 million) facility from the CBN, offering some breathing room. The bank also secured a ₦50 billion ($33 million) short-term loan.

In stark contrast to Unity Bank’s loss in 2023, several mid-tier Nigerian banks achieved significant profit growth in the same year. Sterling Bank reported a profit after tax of ₦21.6 billion ($14 million) in 2023, while Wema Bank reported a profit before tax of ₦43.59 billion ($29 million).

Ahead of the 2026 recapitalisation deadline, Unity Bank faces mounting pressure to close its capital gap and restore market confidence. Its performance over the next two years will be pivotal in determining whether the merger with Providus Bank becomes a turning point or just a temporary lifeline. For now, all eyes remain on Unity Bank.