Dash, a Ghanaian fintech company that connects mobile wallets and bank accounts across Africa, has announced it is shutting down operations. The startup’s closure was first reported by WeeTracker.
Dash was founded in 2019 by Prince Boakye Boampong. He wanted to make it easy to send money across borders in Africa by connecting mobile money and bank accounts. Investors liked this idea and backed Dash with lots of money. In total, Dash raised $86.1 million over 5 years from investors like Insight Partners.
Things started well for Dash. In 2021, they claimed they processed $1 billion in transactions and had 1 million users in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. However, some reporters found problems with these numbers. They thought Dash was exaggerating how much business they really had.
In February 2022, Prince was removed as CEO. An investigation found he lied about the amount of users and money processed. He was fired and replaced. But it was already too late.
Audits of Dash’s finances found there was $25 million missing that could not be accounted for. With costs of $500,000 per month and no money coming in, Dash was spending too much. Prince was also paid a high salary of $50,000 per month. Allegations say he took $8 million for personal use like houses and cars.
The new CEO could not save Dash. Without real users or revenue, but still big monthly bills, Dash had to close up shop. Prince’s lies about success may have gotten investors excited initially, but ultimately prevented the company from becoming the pan-African payments solution it aimed to be. Other startups can learn from Dash’s mistakes.
