Jiji’s Acquisition of Cars45; Here’s what we Know

Jiji has acquired Cars45. The company, which is arguably one of Africa’s largest marketplaces for classified ads, announced the acquisition in a statement that was seen by Business Elites Africa. Details of the purchase amount was not disclosed.

Note that this is a very strategic move by Jiji. According to the company’s Co-founder and Board member, Vladimir Mnogoletniy, vehicles listing is a top category on the Jiji platform with over $3 billion worth of listings. Therefore, this deal is expected to consolidate on the success already recorded in this regard.

“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. 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,” explained Anton Volynsky, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jiji.

The company’s Chief Financial Officer, David Ojo, also spoke about the additional assets the acquisition will guarantee Jiji; specifically Cars45’s widely available physical inspection centres. According to him, the transactional model that is employed by Cars45 helps to ensure that cars are adequately checked for quality. This is one area classifieds marketplaces like Jiji currently do lag behind…until now.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Cars45, Soumobroto Ganguly, commented on the deal saying: “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.”

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