Morbius Motors, a Kenyan car maker backed by Playfair Capital, has gone into voluntary liquidation after nearly a year of failed rescue efforts. Morbius has struggled to pay suppliers and salaries amid mounting business debt.
“At the general meeting held on August 5, 2024, it was resolved to wind up the company under section 393(1)(b) of the Insolvency Act and to appoint KVSK Sastry as liquidator to wind up the company,” Mobius director Nicholas Guibert said in the notice.
Kenya’s Insolvency Act 2015 states that a company can be wound up if its board of directors resolves “to wound up voluntarily by special resolution”.
Morbius, which has raised $56 million over five rounds of funding, makes low-cost SUVs to target small infrastructure, agriculture and supply chain businesses operating in remote areas that need vehicles that can handle rough roads.
Founded in 2009 by Joel Jackson, a British man working in Kenya, Morbius first developed a stripped-down SUV model “built for African roads” in 2014. The first model was priced at $10,000 (1.3 million Kenyan shillings), below the market price for a standard SUV in Kenya.
The startup built 50 units of its first model. It followed up its first model with the Morbius II in 2018 and the Morbius III in 2021, but failed to capture Kenya’s car market, which is flooded with used imports from the UK, Japan and other Asian countries.
The company’s production is tied to pre-orders with a refundable deposit of $384 (KES50,000), which may mean market adoption of its model has been low.
Morbius began mass production in 2015 with backing from UK-based venture capital firm Playfair Capital, and is also funded by Kenya-based manufacturer Chandaria Industries, the US Government Development Corporation (DFC) and private investment firm Pan African Investments.
