The Ukrainian company Jiji of the Genesis business ecosystem, which develops the largest marketplace in Africa, announces its merger with the leading online marketplace for used cars in the region — Cars45.
For Jiji, the deal is primarily the potential to change the monetization model. According to Anton Volianskyi, CEO and co-founder of Jiji, the company plans to earn by receiving commissions from monetary transactions on the resource. “There is no doubt that our cooperation will bring added value to consumers. For Jiji, this is the first and bold step towards a transactional business model, as well as an important foundation in building the company's future,” said Anton Volianskyi.
According to Jiji CFO David Ojo, Cars45's core value is its network of inspection centers, where cars are inspected against more than 200 parameters, providing quality checks and detailed vehicle status reports across multiple databases.
“We are proud to have provided a secure platform for the safe purchase and sale of vehicles. The merger with Jiji aims to create a new kind of retail auto trade in Africa. Together we can become a leader in the O2O automotive sector,” commented Sumobroto Ganguly, CEO of Cars45.
Today the Jiji company is the largest classified company in Africa, originally from Ukraine.
In 2019, Jiji raised $21 million, and since it was founded in 2014, the company has raised about $50 million in investment.
Investors include Ukrainian Genesis, as well as Horizon Capital, RedSeed, Knuru, Allrise, TAVentures and others. In 2021, Jiji took 7th place in the ranking of the best Ukrainian startups according to Forbes Ukraine.
