JOVAGO.COM AND JUMIA.COM SET TO BENEFIT FROM MAJOR INVESTMENT BY ORANGE IN PARENT COMPANY
(Posted 08th April 2016)
Africa Internet Group, the largest e-commerce platform in Africa and parent company of Jumia and Jovago, earlier today announced a partnership with Orange to accelerate the growth of the company and seize development opportunities on the continent.
In line with the partnership, Orange – one of the leading telecommunication operators in Africa – will make a EUR 75 million equity investment in the Africa Internet Group. Orange will become a shareholder of Africa Internet Group alongside existing shareholders MTN, Rocket Internet, Millicom, AXA and Goldman Sachs.
‘We are thrilled by Orange’s equity investment and are eager to translate our strategic partnership into unique offers for our customers. Jumia, Jovago 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‘ said Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, founders and co-CEOs of Jumia and Africa Internet Group.
‘We are very excited by all the opportunities we will develop in partnership between Jovago and Orange to further offer great services to our customers and hotel partners like mobile payment‘ added Mr. Paul Midy, CEO of Jovago.com
MTN Group Chief Digital Officer, Herman Singh also added his voice when he said ‘MTN welcomes Orange as a shareholder. We are delighted that this partnership gives Africa Internet Group greater support in territories where MTN does not operate. The investment also validates the proven business model and underscores MTN’s focus on e-commerce as a strategic pillar of our digital business‘.
Jumia and Jovago have built a strong presence in several key African markets where it will now be able to further improve its offering and customer experience thanks to this partnership, in particular in key countries such as Morocco and Egypt.
Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet said that the partnership will allow Jumia to further improve its position as the leading ecommerce platform in Africa, and we anticipate significant synergies with Orange in markets which have tremendous potential.
Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange, commented as follows: ‘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‘.
Facts about Jovago
Jovago.com is an online hotel booking service with offices in Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi (Kenya), Dakar (Senegal) founded by Africa Internet Group and has MTN and Millicom as investors. Jovago.com, Africa’s No.1 booking website, facilitates the booking process for its users to provide them with the best hotel booking experience with fast, transparent and easy-to-use services. Jovago.com has over 25,000 local hotel listings across Africa and over 200,000 hotels around the world.
Facts about Jumia & Africa Internet Group
Jumia is Africa’s leading online e-commerce platform with a presence in 11 countries. Since launching in 2012, the company has transformed the way that African consumers shop by offering them the opportunity to buy everything from fashion items to consumer electronics to home appliances all online. Jumia is part of a larger ecosystem of online and mobile consumer services which includes Kaymu (shopping community), hellofood (food delivery), Jovago (hotel booking) and classified ads Vendito (general merchandise), Lamudi (real estate), Everjobs (jobs) and Carmudi (vehicles).
Facts about Orange
Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 40 billion euros in 2015 and 156,000 employees worldwide at December 31, 2015, including 97,000 employees in France. Present in 28 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 263 million customers worldwide at December 31, 2015, including 201 million mobile customers and 18 million fixed broadband customers. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan "Essentials2020" which places customer experience at the heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks.
