Jiji is one of the largest marketplaces for classifieds in Africa. Earlier today, the company announced the acquisition of Cars45 for an undisclosed amount. This comes as part of plans to expand beyond the classified business.
According to a statement in an interviewbetweenTechcrunch and Vladimir Mnogoletniy–the Co-founder and board member of Jiji,vehicle listing is the second most visited category on the platform. He explained that the company is looking for opportunities beyond its classified business. In his interview with Techcrunch, he said that “we have leading positions in all markets we’re present in and are definitely the classifieds leader in the region. Also, we are probably the largest e-commercecompany in Africa by GMV”.
The whole idea behind Jiji’s acquisition of Cars45 is to grow the vehicle category of the classified business. Jiji plans on eradicating the problem of trust and safety that has been quite an issue with the vehicles category on the platform. With the acquisition of Cars45, Jijiplans on delivering consumers with a whole new buying and selling experience through its transactional marketplace model.
As a way of consolidating its position in the industry, Cars45 will merge all its operations across Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya with Jiji. “We will integrate this into one company because this acquisition has a lot of benefits for both. It’s a very common practice when marketplace and transactional business models work together as one project”, Anton Volyansky – CEO and CEO of Jiji said. Explaining what the integration meant, he said that “for instance, a seller of a car, it’s convenient to sell both ways via a marketplace or auction model. So, it would be like a seamless process for selling the car”.
Speaking on the development and assuring users across both platforms that the acquisition is a good call, David Ojo – CEO of Jiji emphasizedCar45’s network of inspection centers that ensure that cars are in stable conditions before they are sold to buyers. According to him, the transactional models used by Car45 ensure quality checks and detailed reports on the condition of the cars before they are sold.
Jiji’s acquisition of Cars45 makes it the first time the business is going out of its classified businessmodel. CEO Anton Volyanskydescribed the acquisition as both a step and the foundation for building the company’s future.
“We are proud to have built a trusted buying and selling experience in autos. It makes sense to combine online and offline expertise. Merging with Jiji is aimed at creating a new kind of automotive retail experience for users in Africa. We are confident of jointly building an African Champion in the O2O Automotive Sector. Together we look forward to making transactions transparent and convenient for our customers, dealers, and franchisees across all our current and future markets”, SoumobrotoGanguly – CEO of Cars45, said.
Jiji’s acquisition of Cars45 promises to be of great benefit for both businesses as separate entities and as one joint company.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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