E-commerce giant, Jumia listed on New York Stock Exchange
Jumia, one of Africa’s largest e-commerce brand has officially announced that it is listing on the New York stock market. Analysts have said this could pave the way for other tech start-ups on the continent to follow suit.
Jumia is listing 17.6% of the company at $14.50 a share, giving the company “unicorn” status – a technology start-up worth $1bn-plus.
Jumia, often referred to as Africa’s Amazon has 4 million customers on a continent where just 1% of retail sales are via online.
Jumia was founded in Lagos, Nigeria, by two French entrepreneurs in 2012 and now offers services to most of the African population, in countries such as South Africa, Tanzania, Egypt and Ivory Coast.
Its largest shareholder is MTN, Africa’s biggest telecoms company.
The company said on Friday that the flotation on the New York Stock Exchange would raise $196m (£150m) for shareholders and for future investment. Jumia’s financial advisers had been pitching the shares to investors at between $13-$16 each.
“This achievement has been made possible thanks to the hard work of our teams, the trust of our consumers, as well as the commitment of our sellers and partners. All stakeholders deserve credit for this milestone, and we are just at the beginning of a long and great journey. We are going to continue to focus on our mission and to work even harder to help consumers, sellers, partners and all stakeholders benefit from this technological revolution.” said Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-chief executives.
Jumia operates in 14 countries, including Kenya, Ghana, Algeria, Angola, and Senegal. The website sells everything from electronics to clothes, and there is a hotel and flight booking site, and a takeaway food delivery platform. In Kenya, Jumia has teamed up with French supermarket giant Carrefour to offer online deliveries.
The e-commerce platform directly employs more than 5,000 team members in Africa.
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