Autochek continues African expansion drive with CoinAfrique acquisition

Nigerian automotive startup, Autochek, has announced the acquisition of CoinAfrique, a major mobile marketplace platform in francophone Africa, for an undisclosed amount. This is in line with the company’s expansion into francophone African countries.

With this acquisition, Autochek will be able to leverage CoinAfrique’s huge database across Francophone Africa to simplify auto financing for consumers and SMEs across the area.

Recall that Autochek announced plans to acquire Cheki Kenya and Uganda from Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM) for an undisclosed sum ten months ago. With the acquisition, the startup has completed its expansion into East Africa. This followed the purchase of Cheki’s businesses in Ghana and Nigeria thus taking over its entire West African market. The company has sealed a North African expansion with the acquisition of Morocco’s KIFAL Auto.

Speaking on the acquisition, Etop Ikpe, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Autochek said that the company has shown that it is eager for expansion opportunities across the continent.

Matthias and Eric have built an outstanding platform with many significant partnerships. 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.

 Etop Ikpe, CEO and co-founder of Autochek

Read Also: Autochek Africa launches brand new car loans marketplace to further deepen mobility

About CoinAfrique

CoinAfrique, co-founded in 2016 by Matthias Papet and Eric Genetre, is a popular online marketplace in French-speaking countries that allows businesses and individuals to purchase and sell vehicles, gadgets, real estate, and other products.

The platform was initially launched in Benin and is now available in over 12 francophone countries. The CoinAfrique app has over 2 million downloads, more than 1.5 million monthly visits, 800,000 monthly active users, and 60,000 new advertisements each month.

The platform conducts more than half of its commercial transactions in the automobile category, making it a feasible platform for Autochek to provide its services to French-speaking Africans.

Speaking on the acquisition, Matthias Papet, CEO and co-founder of CoinAfrique said that his team is excited about the opportunity to drive the penetration of auto financing across Francophone Africa and to support the wider mission across Africa.

According to him:

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.

Matthias Papet, CEO and co-founder of CoinAfrique

The acquisition is strategic for both companies since it allows them to reach a wider audience. CoinAfrique will continue to function across many product categories while integrating Autochek’s vehicle finance offering to increase credit availability for automotive transactions. The automobile sector in Francophone Africa, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire, is expected to expand fast.

About Autochek

Autochek was founded in 2020 by Etop Ikpe and Iyamu Mohammed. Its goal is to build the digital infrastructure for a new system that would better coordinate the automotive market’s sales, servicing, and vehicle records in Nigeria and beyond Africa.

It has since expanded and is now functioning across West and East Africa, using a data analytics engine that will make it easier for financial institutions to give credit to customers. The startup also delivers quality and affordable spare parts through its collaboration with OEM parts.

Read Also: Autochek continues its African expansion with the acquisition of Cheki in Kenya and Uganda

The automotive startup now operates throughout North, East, and West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda). It also has over 1,500 dealer and workshop sites, and over 70 financial partners including Access Bank, BNP Paribas, Ecobank, UBA, Bank of Africa and NCBA Bank.