The Africa Internet Group is billed as Africa’s first Unicorn. A unicorn refers to a startup that has a valuation of over $1 Billion. AIG, which has a presence in 23 African countries, recently rebranded its startups to Jumia, a move aimed at taking advantage of Jumia’s already established brand equity. In the new order, Jovago changed names to Jumia Travel, while Lamudi became Jumia House. Hello Food rebranded to Jumia Food while car site Carmudi became Jumia Cars. Vendito changed to Jumia Deals while job search site Everjobs changed names to Jumia Jobs.
The company has also been aggressively raising funds, aimed at bolstering its operations. In April, the firm announced it had locked in 300 Million Euros of funding from MTN, Rocket Internet, AXA and Goldman Sachs. AXA announced it would pump in $83 Million into AIG, besides signing an exclusive partnership with AIG’s Jumia to sell insurance products exclusively on the site. In the same month, Orange announced it was investing 75 Million Euros for an undisclosed equity stake in the company. In addition to the investment, Orange announced it would establish partnerships with AIG subsidiaries to accelerate growth in Africa.
The firm has now announced that the UK’s development finance institution CDC Group will invest €50 Million in exchange for an equity stake. The investment brings the total funding AIG has received to $467 Million. CDC sees the investment in AIG as an opportunity to help the company access new markets previously not accessible to the firm. Mark Pay, CDC’s Managing Director, Equity Investments said “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”. This may point to an area where the company will channel these funds.
