Autochek, a digital automotive commerce company led by Nigerian tech entrepreneur Etop Ikpe, has acquired CoinAfrique, a classified ads marketplace in Francophone Africa, as part of a strategic drive to expand its footprint on the continent.
The transaction, which marks another watershed moment for the two-year-old startup, comes nearly two months after it announced the acquisition of Morocco’s KIFAL, thus establishing its presence in the North African vehicle market.
According to the company’s management, the acquisition of CoinAfrique will allow Autochek to leverage its regional customer base in Francophone Africa to accelerate its car financing services, as the classified ads marketplace attracts 60,000 new ads and 1.5 million visits per month, with the car category accounting for 50 percent of the platform’s transactions.
The acquisition will see CoinAfrique’s team join Autochek in running operations in the region, allowing the startup to reach a wider audience.
CoinAfrique will continue to operate across many product categories, while integrating Autochek’s vehicle finance offering to increase credit availability for automotive transactions, according to the key agreement of the deal.
While commenting on the transaction, CoinAfrique CEO Matthias Papet said the alliance formed through the strategic deal would see the firm leverage Autochek’s market-leading loans product and expertise to deliver more transformative experiences for our users.
“We see many opportunities to unlock value for users across all categories on our platform and to expand into new countries,” he said. “We look forward to leveraging Autochek’s market leading loans product and expertise to deliver more transformative experiences for our users.”
Speaking about the acquisition, Ikpe, CEO and co-founder of Autochek, said the company has demonstrated a desire to expand across the continent.
“With many years of business and infrastructure development experience across Europe and Africa, CoinAfrique will be joining the Autochek family, and we look forward to leveraging their expertise to improve the automotive finance value proposition across the continent,” he added.
Ikpe, the former CEO of Cars45, founded Autochek in 2020 as an automotive technology startup that uses analytics-backed technology to expand auto finance penetration across the continent.
Since its inception, the startup has raised more than $16.5 million and is presently building the financial infrastructure that will drive the penetration of auto financing across Africa, powered by a data analytics engine that makes it easier for financial institutions to offer credit to consumers.
