The French insurance company Axa will become a shareholder in the South African firm Africa internet Group (AIG), owner of Africa’s major e-commerce platforms such as Jumia, Kaymu (online shopping), Hellofood (food delivery), Jovago (tourism reservation), Lamudi (small housing ads), Everjobs (job ads) anc Carmudi (car sales).

Axa acquired 8% of AIG for €75 million. Other shareholders of the African e-commerce giant include MTN, German Rocket Internet which transfers successful websites outside of their country of origin, and Luxembourg group Millicom which invests in telecom and media.

Axa’s investment in AIG aims for the French insurer to become the sole distributor of products and services on the various online and mobile platforms owned by the African firm, namely Jumia and the others above mentioned. The transaction is to be completed during the Q1 2016.

For Axa, this is an opportunity to boost its presence on the African market. “We believe that connected companies and e-commerce platforms will rapidly grow in Africa as middle class emerges and penetration rates for internet and mobile keep growing,” says the statement which cites Sacha Poignonnec and Jérémy Hodara, founders and co-CEO of Jumia and AIG.

The same release reports that Jumia “increased its volume of transactions (GMV) by 265% during the first 9 months of 2015 to €206 million”. According to Axa’s CEO Denis Duverne, there is a lot to gain from AIG’s customers’ database as well as from the e-commerce technology used by the company. AIG is present in 23 African countries.

Assongmo Necdem