Kirabo Is Shutting Down and Returning $9M to Investors — Its Founders Explain Why

Kirabo did not run out of money. That is what makes its shutdown unusual. The Kampala-based HR software company told employees on Thursday that it will wind down operations by October and return approximately $9 million of its remaining $11.3 million cash balance to investors.

The founders' reasoning, laid out in a letter to shareholders reviewed by Afrikons, is unsentimental. Kirabo signed 210 customers in four years and retained them well — net revenue retention above 110% — but average contract value plateaued at $2,900 a year and never moved. At that price, the sales cost to reach the scale investors had underwritten exceeded any plausible outcome. The team ran the model at four different growth assumptions. All four ended in the same place.

"We could have spent three more years and $11 million proving something we already knew in month thirty," said co-founder Aisha Nabirye. "The honest thing was to give the money back while it was still money."

The decision has become a talking point among East African investors precisely because it is so rare — founders far more often grind toward a soft landing that returns nothing. Two of Kirabo's backers have publicly said they will fund the team's next company. The wind-down leaves 34 employees looking for work, with three months of severance and, according to the letter, introductions already made.