Ecommerce site OLX was a big name in Kenya and other leading markets in Africa.
The Nasper’s owned platform, however, was acquired by Nigerian online marketplace, Jiji. OLX adjusted its service offerings and even changed its name to Jiji to match up with its new owners. The transaction picked other subsidiaries too, including OLX operations in Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Cars45 is a tech platform that allows sellers and buyers of African used cars to understand conditions and value and exchange cars quickly and safely.
In the same spirit, Jiji, which is also supported by Lemma Group, has since acquired Cars45 in a deal that seeks to consolidate its position as the leading online marketplace in its native Nigeria and the continent.
The agreement will see Jiji merge the operations of Cars45 in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria.
The merger of operations promises a new level of trade experience for auto buyers and sellers across the three countries. Joining the Jiji family will allow Cars45 users to benefit from Jiji’s market-leading products in online classifieds.
In turn, Cars45 brings a unique O2O car buying and selling service, where cars can safely be sold instantly to dealers or via a consumer marketplace to other consumers.
Following the closing of agreement, the operations of Cars45 and Jiji will merge to create a single organisation which will offer unique services for car sellers, buyers and dealers in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.
We are looking forward to creating a new advanced experience for Cars45 users. Undoubtedly, our collaboration on future products and services will bring additional value to the consumers. For Jiji, it’s the first bold step into the transactional business model and an important foundation for building the future of the company – Anton Volyansky, CEO and co-founder of Jiji.
Cars45’s key value for Jiji is a network of inspection centers, where all cars are inspected by 202+ parameters. This provides a detailed report on a car’s condition with information from various databases: police, registration, etc. All of this ultimately aligns with Jiji’s focus on customers safety and overall quality user experience – David Ojo, CFO and Member of the Strategic Board at Jiji.
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 – Soumobroto Ganguly, CEO of Cars45.
