Orange Makes £79m Equity Investment in Africa Internet Group

Africa’s largest online consumer network the Africa Internet Group (AIG) has landed a £79 million equity investment from mobile telco Orange.

Orange Digital Ventures – the mobile operator’s corporate investment arm – join an impressive roster of blue chip companies including AXA, Goldman Sachs, MTN Group, Millicom and Rocket Internet invested in AIG.

Through this new deal, Orange will help Jumia – AIG’s leading e-commerce platform – and other sites to accelerate their growth and seize development opportunities in Africa.

Since Jumia’s creation in Nigeria in 2012, AIG has seen significant and continuous growth with 10 online consumer businesses operating in 23 African countries, enabling more than 50,000 local and international companies to do business with African consumers.

Other services offered by AIG 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).

Chairman and CEO of Orange, Stéphane Richard says: ‘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. In particular, across the 12 countries where we have a common presence, this investment will enable us to significantly develop our ability to market products and services developed by Orange Middle East and Africa over the Internet.’

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, founders and co-CEOs of Jumia and Africa Internet Group, stated: ‘We are thrilled by Orange’s equity investment and are eager to translate our strategic partnership into unique offers for our customers. Jumia and our other online consumer services give millions of African consumers an opportunity to access and transact with local companies in a new and very convenient way. With Orange’s support and expertise, combined with that of our existing long-standing shareholders, we will be able to further improve our service offerings and the customer experience while continuing to invest in our infrastructure’