The Africa Internet Group (AIG) is the first “unicorn” (start-up companies valued at more than $1 billion) from the African continent. AIG is composed of 10 consumer-driven internet businesses covering services from e-commerce, food delivery, cab-hailing services, hotel bookings and more.
Its most successful branch is Jumia, a company similar to Amazon, which can attribute a big part of its growth to its capacity to adapt to local markets. In fact, to overcome Africa’s often challenging infrastructure (such as poor roads), Jumia has set up a fleet of motorbikes. Furthermore, to respond to the needs of heavily cash-centric economies, Jumia accepts cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More payments on delivery – something that Amazon has not yet considered.
Jumia generated $230 million during the first three semesters of 2015, a growth rate of 265% in only a year – proving that it pays to know local markets.
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