Kenyan-based venture Jiji on Monday announced the acquisition of Ghanaian-based classifieds website Tonaton.
Tonaton, a subsidiary of Saltside, was the main Jiji competitor in Ghana at the time of its purchase by Jiji earlier last month. However, Tonaton has quickly grown in popularity thanks to innovations that make it easier for users to buy and sell online, a strategy aligned with Jiji’s mission. As a result, both Jiji’s and Tonaton’s apps are consistently ranked as the top shopping apps in the Google Play Store in the countries where they operate.
Jiji already holds leadership positions in Kenya and Ghana. Additionally, the marketplace operates in Uganda and Tanzania, with some 12 million users making up a monthly active base among all geographies. The amount of the transaction was undisclosed.
Jiji and Tonaton users will now have access to a larger network of buyers and sellers, which will significantly increase trading opportunity and aggregate user base in what is seen as a major market consolidation in the classifieds sector.
With Jiji’s move to a large-scale presence in the African continent, and following its acquisition of OLX in 2019 and its recent acquisition of Cars45 in 2021, the deal sees the company well-positioned to tap into a larger share of the African market.
According to Anton Volianskyi the CEO of Jiji said that they are inching closer to becoming a regional leader in classifieds.
“Jiji is the largest e-commerce company in Africa by GMV (more than $10 billion), leading in small to high-involvement key categories such as cars and real estate. We hold the rank of the best app in e-commerce proudly with a rating of 4.5/5, a gauge of satisfaction from our millions and millions of daily users,”
Yuliy Shenfeld, Jiji’s Director of African Operations, added that Jiji achieved great success with only a limited presence in Ghana; more than 2 million people visit the website each month.
“Over the past eight years, Tonatonhas built a strong team of more than 70 people that will hugely contribute to our future growth. The combination of Jiji’s technology and talent with that of Tonaton will help ensure our continued success in the fast-paced e-commerce industry.”
