Jiji, the largest online marketplace in Africa, which belongs to Ukrainian IT company Genesis, has announced the acquisition of the car sales platform Cars45. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Cars45, with its transactional business model, is part of Jiji’s long-term strategy toward transactional marketplaces, according to Vladimir Mnogoletniy, CEO of Genesis. The deal will also strengthen Jiji’s position in all the countries where both companies operate and help mitigate some customers’ safety concerns by improving their car-buying and selling, TechCrunch noted.

About Cars45

  • Cars45 is a service for selling and buying cars in Africa that operates in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. The advantage of the site is that it has a network of inspection centers, where cars are inspected by more than 200 parameters.
  • Until 2020, Cars45 was a subsidiary of Germany’s Frontier Car Group, which bought its majority stake for $5 million in 2017.
  • In 2020, OLX Group acquired the service through its OLX Autos brand. Thus, the new deal with OLX Group is the second for Jiji.

About Jiji

  • Genesis launched Jiji in 2014. In 2019, the platform acquired the online classifieds business OLX in Africa, after which it became the largest marketplace with an audience of 400 million people, as Mnogoletniy said.
  • Jiji now operates in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania, with over 400 employees.
  • The site contains over 2 million active listings worth more than $10 billion, with 300,000+ sellers trading. The car category is the second most popular, with more than 300,000 active listings.
  • In May 2021, Jiji became the first major profitable e-commerce company in the region.
  • According to Mnogoletniy, Jiji is the No. 1 brand in the target market.