Orange clinches €75 million equity interest in Africa Internet Group

Orange has announced the acquisition of a €75 million equity interest in Africa Internet Group, joining AXA, Goldman Sachs and longstanding investors MTN Group, Millicom and Rocket Internet.

Through this investment, which will be accompanied by a series of strategic partnerships between the subsidiaries of the two groups, Orange will help Jumia and other websites run by Africa Internet Group to accelerate their growth and seize development opportunities in Africa.

“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,” said Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange.

Orange invests $85M in Africa’s first billion dollar tech firm https://t.co/LEE5sKHjLn #orange #internet #africa pic.twitter.com/U4ET26kTKO

— Bradley J Potts (@BradPotts) April 6, 2016

Since Jumia’s creation in Nigeria in 2012, Africa Internet Group has seen significant and continuous growth with ten online consumer businesses operating today in 23 African countries, enabling more than 50,000 local and international companies to do business with African consumers.

Jumia, the original platform, allows businesses to market their products and services online to Africa’s emerging middle class. Other services offered by Africa Internet Group include an e-commerce marketplace (Kaymu), websites offering food delivery (Hellofood) and hotel booking (Jovago), as well as online classified ads for general merchandise (Vendito), real estate (Lamudi), jobs (Everjobs) and vehicles (Carmudi).

Orange is present in 28 countries, and 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.

The company is listed both on Euronext Paris and on the New York Stock Exchange.