To expand the reach of its auto-financing services in Francophone Africa, Nigeria-based auto-tech business Autochek has announced the purchase of CoinAfrique, the top site for classified ads in that continent.
In order to improve and allow a smooth and secure automotive commerce experience throughout Africa, Autochek intends to develop digital solutions. By developing a single platform for customers’ automotive requirements, from sourcing and financing to after-sale assistance and warranties, the firm employs technology to change the automobile purchasing and selling experience for African consumers.
A key component of the startup’s rapid development strategy has been acquisitions. After purchasing the automobile marketplaces Cheki Nigeria and Cheki Ghana from ROAM Africa, Autochek debuted in September 2020.
In order to advance its operations into the North Africa area, it purchased Moroccan competitor KIFAL Auto in May. With the purchase of CoinAfrique, the business, which last year acquired US $13.1 million in venture capital for West African development, has now expanded into Ivory Coast, Senegal, and other French-speaking nations.
With a presence in 12 French-speaking African nations and a 2016 founding by Matthias Papet and Eric Genetre, CoinAfrique has developed into the leading classified marketplace for Francophone Africa, allowing both businesses and individuals to easily buy and sell cars, electronics, real estate, and other products.
More than two million people have downloaded the CoinAfrique app, and it has 800,000 active users and 60,000 new adverts per month. The purchase of CoinAfrique by Autochel will make it easier for more French-speaking Africans to obtain finance and other value-added services for their automobiles because 50% of the activity conducted on the platform occurs in the automotive sector.
With a strong integration of Autochek’s auto-financing offering to promote access to credit for automotive purchases, CoinAfrique’s larger classifieds company will continue to function across the many product categories. Autochek will include the CoinAfrique team.
“Matthias and Eric are pioneers of the classifieds model in Africa and they have built an outstanding platform with many significant partnerships with car dealers, fintech platforms and other stakeholders in the Francophone automotive sector. They are joining the Autochek family with many years of business and infrastructure development experience across Europe and Africa and we are looking forward to leveraging their expertise to improve the automotive finance value proposition across the continent,” said Etop Ikpe, CEO and co-founder of Autochek.
Papet expressed his excitement for the chance to further the adoption of auto-financing throughout Francophone Africa and to help Autochek’s larger objective throughout Africa.
“We see many opportunities to unlock value for users across all the categories on our platform and to expand into new countries, and we are looking forward to leveraging Autochek’s market-leading loans product and expertise to deliver more transformative experiences for our users,” he said.
