SweepSouth, SA cleaning services startup, exits Nigeria

Just months after it launched its operations in Nigeria, South African cleaning services platform, SweepSouth, has shut down its Nigerian operation effective from November 25, 2022.

The company hinged its decision to leave Nigeria on the ‘unfavourable global macroeconomic development’.

SweepSouth is the second South African company to announce its exit from Nigeria in the past month. Last month, Game Store announced that it will leave the country by December 25, 2022.

In a notice to its Nigerian customers ahead of the shutdown, SweepSouth said the decision was difficult to make.

“This has been a difficult decision to make considering our passion to serve the Nigerian market. We know this decision will negatively impact our SweepSouth Community and SweepStars,” the company said.

“Due to the unfavourable global macroeconomic environment, the home services industry continues to hit hard. This has meant that our business cannot sustainably operate due to economic pressures being faced at the moment,” it said.

SweepSouth said while it would no longer be operating in Nigeria, it would continue to keep abreast of activities in the Nigerian market and work towards a potential re-entry into the market at a later date.

SweepSouth raised an $11 million investment in September 2022 to facilitate its pan-African expansion. Part of that expansion effort saw the start of its short-lived Nigerian operation.

The company is still operational in South Africa and Egypt, where it acquired FilKhedma, an online marketplace for home maintenance and improvement services such as plumbing, carpentry, electricity, air conditioning, painting and appliances.

Founded in 2014 by Aisha Pandor and her husband, Alen Ribic, and backed by over $15 million from venture capitalists, including Alitheia IDF and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, SweepSouth takes 40,000 bookings per month across its three markets—South Africa, Kenya and Egypt.