South African telecommunications group MTN, along with investment firm Rocket Internet and investment bank Goldman Sachs, have announced they are pumping €300m, or more than R5bn, in new funding into Africa Internet Group (AIG), the parent company of fast-growing African e-commerce platform Jumia.
Goldman Sachs is a new investor in AIG, while MTN and Rocket Internet invested already in previous fund-raising rounds. The new capital raising includes a previously announced funding commitment from global insurance and asset management firm AXA.
“The funds will significantly strengthen the balance sheet of AIG, enabling the company to leverage the significant growth of Jumia and to capitalise on the significant opportunities in Africa,” AIG said in a statement.
“This investment is a recognition of the success that Jumia has already achieved and provides us with a strategic flexibility to further support our efforts to offer the best shopping experience to our customers,” said Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, founders and co-CEOs of Jumia and AIG in the statement.
AIG said the money will be used by Jumia to support its continued growth and to “execute on attractive development opportunities in Africa along with AIG’s other e-commerce platforms”.
Jumia is AIG’s principal subsidiary and has a presence in 11 African markets.
Other activities of AIG include online shopping community Kaymu as well as marketplaces in food delivery (Hellofood), travel (Jovago) and classifieds operations in real estate (Lamudi), jobs (Everjobs) and cars (Carmudi). — © 2016 NewsCentral Media
