Autochek has today announced the acquisition of CoinAfrique, a classified ads platform in French-speaking Africa. According to the company, this acquisition will help it expand its auto financing services to Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and other French-speaking African countries.
Autochek has been on an aggressive expansion plan in Africa. In September last year, the company acquired Cheki Kenya and Cheki Uganda from ROAM Africa for an undisclosed amount. The company went ahead to introduce a new car loan marketplace on its platforms to lure in new customers. It seems like Autochek will be focusing on auto financing to drive growth across the continent.
With the acquisition of CoinAfrique, Autochek plans to extend its auto financing product to other markets. The company says that 50% of business transacted on the CoinAfrique platform takes place in the automotive category. This is huge for Autocheck as CoinAfrique sees 60,000 new ads posted every month on its platform. If half of those happen to be in the Automotive category and just a small percentage end up using its auto financing products, the company stands to make a lot of money.
In a statement, the company said, “CoinAfrique’s wider classifieds business will continue to operate across the various product categories, with a deep integration of Autochek’s auto financing product to drive access to credit for automotive purchases.”
Autochek has not revealed how much they spent on this acquisition and we do not have any other details on this deal.
Autochek is building the financial infrastructure to 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. It has existing operations across North, West and East Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda), a partner-led retail footprint in over 1,500 dealer and workshop locations, and more than 70 banking partners including Access Bank, BNP Paribas, Ecobank, UBA, Bank of Africa and NCBA Bank.
Back in October 2021, Autochek got $13.1 million in Seed Funding to help with expansion in Africa. When it got the funding, the company said it would use the capital to bolster its core auto loan processing platform and deepen its footprint in West Africa. This seems to be the result and I expect more acquisitions in the coming months.
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