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Ukrainian tech investor Anton Volyansky’s classifieds marketplace, Jiji, has announced its acquisition of Cars45, a move that grants it entry into transactional marketplaces.
Jiji is a Nigerian online marketplace that provides buyers and sellers with an avenue to meet and exchange goods and services. The company was founded in 2014 in Lagos, Nigeria, by Volyansky, the company’s CEO.
For Volyansky, the deal with Cars45 is a step in a broader plan to acquire companies with similar business models that will give it exposure to the transactional marketplace.
“In terms of classifieds, we’re looking at opportunities, but we are already a leader in Africa, so I think there’s very limited space for whom to acquire,” he said. “However, we’re primarily interested in deals like Cars45, where we bring our leadership positions from classifieds and acquire very close business models that give us exposure to the transactional marketplace. So for us, a major interest will be to acquire adjacent business models.”
Listed products on Jiji include real estate, electrical gadgets, machines and more. Vehicle listing are the second-most popular category on Jiji.
In a statement on TechCrunch, Vladimir Mnogoletniy, co-founder and board member, claimed that the cars category has more than $3 billion in listings out of the platform’s total listings exceeding $10 billion.
The acquisition will see Cars45 grow Jiji’s vehicles category.
Cars45 is a leading automotive trading platform that allows people to buy, sell and swap cars with ease, with inspection points nationwide. Based in Nigeria, it also has a footprint in Ghana and Kenya.
In 2017, Cars45 raised a $5-million Series-A round from Balderton Capital, EchoVC Partners, Frontier Car Group, New Enterprise Associates and TPG Growth, which was deployed as part of its expansion plan.
