Orange just announced the acquisition of a 75 Million Euro equity interest now joining AXA, Goldman Sachs and MTN Group, Millicom and Rocket Internet as the owners of the Africa Internet Group.
Through this investment which will be accompanied by a series of strategic partnerships between the subsidiaries of the two groups, Orange will help Jumia and other websites run by Africa Internet Group such as e-commerce marketplace Kaymu, food delivery website Hellofood, hotel booking website Jovago, online classified ads for general merchandise Vendito, real estate portal Lamudi, jobs portal Everjobs, and vehicles’ marketplace Carmudi to accelerate their growth and seize development opportunities in Africa.
Since the launch of Jumia Nigeria in 2012, Africa Internet Group has seen continuous growth with their 10 online consumer businesses operating today in 23 African countries and enabling upwards of 50,000 local and international companies to do business with African consumers.
Jumia as a business generally serves to allos businesses to market their products and services online to Africa’s emerging middle class.
“We are particularly pleased to announce our entry into the capital of Africa Internet Group. With this strategic investment, Orange now has the capacity to play a leading role in the fast-growing e-commerce market in Africa. This acquisition is combined with the signature of several important partnership agreements that will create value for all parties. In particular, across the twelve countries where we have a common presence, this investment will enable us to significantly develop our ability to market products and services developed by Orange Middle East & Africa over the Internet. This operation, initiated by our corporate investment fund Orange Digital Ventures, is fully aligned with our strategic plan, Essentiels2020, particularly with regards to our ambition to reinvent customer service, develop the digital channels and services offered to customers as well as our ambition to develop our activities in Africa and the Middle East,” commented Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange.
“We are thrilled by Orange’s equity investment and are eager to translate our strategic partnership into unique offers for our customers. Jumia and our other online consumer services give millions of African consumers an opportunity to access and transact with local companies in a new and very convenient way. With Orange’s support and expertise, combined with that of our existing long-standing shareholders, we will be able to further improve our service offerings and the customer experience while continuing to invest in our infrastructure,” commented Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, founders and co-CEOs of Jumia and Africa Internet Group.
