Jumia


Jumia is an online marketplace in Africa for electronics, and fashion among others.The company is also a logistics service, which enables the shipment and delivery of packages from sellers to consumers, and a payment service, which facilitates transactions among participants active and Jumia's platform in selected markets. It has partnered with more than 50,000 local African companies and individuals and is a direct competitor to zuwanu.com in Senegal and Konga in Nigeria. Started in 2012 in Lagos, the company currently has a presence across more than 10 African countries.

History

In 2012, Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, ex-McKinsey consultants, founded Jumia along with Tunde Kehinde and Raphael Kofi Afaedor.
Jumia was launched in Lagos in 2012 and expanded to five other countries : Egypt, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Kenya and South Africa. In 2014, the company launched offices in Tunisia, Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon, Algeria and Uganda, and by 2018 it was present in 14 African countries. In Egypt, Jumia has been trying to categorize itself as one of the leading e-commerce websites.
In June 2013, Jumia launched Jumia Travel, a hotel booking platform, and Jumia Food, a food delivery platform. Jumia Deals was launched in April 2015. In 2017, Jumia launched Jumia One, an app that enables customers to pay bills such as airtime. The same year, Jumia launched Jumia Pay, a secure payment for people to shop on all Jumia services. This was followed by the Jumia lending program, an initiative that allows its vendors to access business loans. Jumia would later partner with Amadeus technology to launch a platform that enables people to book flights.
In South Africa, Jumia operates under the brand name Zando, focusing only on online fashion retail.
At the end of 2015, the founders of Jumia appointed Juliet Anammah as the CEO of Jumia Nigeria so that they could concentrate on global control of the company. Massimiliano Spalazzi took over from Juliet as CEO in Nigeria in January 2020 and Juliet was appointed as the chairwoman of Jumia Nigeria and the Head of Institutional Affairs, Africa.
In 2015, Jumia generated $234 million in revenue, which stands for a 265% growth from 2014.
In 2016, Jumia became the continent’s first unicorn being valued over 1 billion USD.
In late November 2018, Jumia partnered with cryptocurrency company Telcoin to enhance payment service capabilities throughout their areas of operation. The same month, Jumia and Carrefour signed a partnership to sell online products in Africa.
In April 2019, Jumia went public on the New York Stock Exchange and raised $196 million in net proceeds. The share price, initially offered at $14.50, rose more than 200% in the first three trading sessions. The first analyst papers release 21 days after the IPO rated the company at stock targets between 27 and 40 USD. After reaching a peak of nearly $50 on May 1, 2019, the share value has declined to under $5/share by year's end.
In November 2019, Jumia announced the suspension of its e-commerce operations in Cameroon effective on 18 November. The company concluded that its transactional portal is currently not suitable to the current environment in Cameroon.
As part of the portfolio optimization effort, Jumia later ceased operations in Tanzania effective on November 27, 2019. While Jumia operations in Tanzania provided many opportunities for customers and vendors, the company said it needed to focus its resources on other markets that can bring the best value and help Jumia thrive. The decision, the company affirmed, would help it achieve greater success in the future.
On 9 December 2019, Jumia suspended Jumia Food in Rwanda, making it the 3rd country in two months as part of a continuous monitoring of the business environment and operating costs in the markets in which it operates. Jumia however vowed to continue doing business online in those countries on the classifieds portals, previously called Jumia Deals.
On 9 December 2019, Travelstart entered into a distribution and commercial agreement with Jumia Travel, Jumia’s hotel booking platform, to power the latter’s pan-African online travel booking portal. Under the agreement, Travelstart took control of the sales, fulfilment and customer service aspects of Jumia Travel online booking websites in all its operating territories.
On March 16, 2020, Jumia announced a major partnership with Reckitt Benckiser, a global health products manufacturer, to provide a steady supply of hygiene products at affordable pricing and help hamper the spread of the Coronavirus.
Jumia Nigeria's ecommerce website, Jumia.com.ng, is ranked number 1,503 in global internet engagement and the thirteenth most visited website in Nigeria in late April 2020, according to Alexa.com - a global internet traffic ranking firm. It is the sixth most-visited local website in Nigeria, as of April 2020, following a recent listing by IABC Africa Media.

Fraud allegations

In May 2019, the short-seller Andrew Left of Citron Research referenced Jumia as a "securities fraud", citing material discrepancies regarding key financial metrics among a confidential investor presentation and Jumia’s F-1 filing to the SEC from its April, 2019 IPO. Andrew Left is known on Wall Street for making several claims of fraud and has faced calls to be investigated.
Jumia's share price sank more than 50% in one week, after the report was published.

Investors

In 2012, Kasuwa was launched with the support of Rocket Internet, MTN, and Millicom, and was later renamed Jumia Group. In March 2016, Jumia Group secured over €300M of funding from MTN, Rocket Internet, AXA, Goldman Sachs, Orange and CDC.
As of 2019, the largest shareholder was MTN Group.
In December 2018, Pernod Ricard invested in Jumia.
In March 2019, Jumia received 50 million euros in investments from Mastercard.

Awards and recognition