UK’s development financial institution, CDC Group Plc says it is staking a €50 million equity investment in Africa Internet Group (AIG), the parent company of African e-commerce firm, Jumia.
[quote font=”georgia” font_size=”22″ font_style=”italic” align=”left” arrow=”yes”]“Smartphone-driven e-commerce will be one of the most important technological and economic trends in Africa in the next decade. More and more Africans can now access the internet, with half the population expected to be online by 2025. We’re pleased to be supporting a company that can be a financial success and make a big difference to the continent’s development”, Pay says.[/quote]CDC says the fresh capital injection will help AIG, which connects over 50,000 local and international companies with African consumers, improve on its operations and expand into new countries.
Mark Pay, CDC’s Managing Director, Equity Investments says the CDC investment in AIG backs a business playing a leading role in the growing e-commerce market in Africa.
Both expect that the investment will help create thousands of jobs and allow many small businesses to access new markets previously closed to them.
“Smartphone-driven e-commerce will be one of the most important technological and economic trends in Africa in the next decade. More and more Africans can now access the internet, with half the population expected to be online by 2025. We’re pleased to be supporting a company that can be a financial success and make a big difference to the continent’s development”, Pay says.
On his part, Sacha Poignonnec, Co-CEO of Jumia Group says the new deal will be decisive in building a healthy ecosystem around Jumia, developing and accompanying more and more African businesses and entrepreneurs in this shift towards mobile and online.
“Today, Jumia already reaches 50 million people every month and there is no doubt CDC will be a crucial partner in extending that reach over the next months and years.”
In addition to direct employment, AIG operates a network of 30,000 sales agents, the “J-Force”. Currently largely Nigeria-based, the J-Force is expanding into other countries, with numbers of agents expected to grow to over 100,000 by the end of 2017, according to the company.
Other services offered by Africa Internet Group include websites offering food delivery (Hellofood) and hotel booking (Jovago), as well as online classified ads for general merchandise (Vendito), real estate (Lamudi), jobs (EverJobs) and vehicles (Carmudi).
Home
