Jumia becomes first African startup to list on NYSE

Jumia becomes first African startup to list on NYSE

Jumia, an e-commerce company based in Nigeria and has  a presence in 14 African countries is to become the first African start-up to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The NYSE is the world’s largest securities exchange. It provides a marketplace for buying and selling 9.3 million corporate stocks and other securities a day. The NYSE lists 82 percent of the S&P 500, 90 percent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and 70 of the world’s largest corporations. It is, itself, a publicly-traded company with almost 3,000 employees.

According to BBC, Jumia could go public in the next month.

The online retailer was founded in Lagos by two French entrepreneurs Jérémy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec.

The company made history in 2016 when it got a valuation of just over $1-billion after it raised $326-million from investors who included US investment bank Goldman Sachs, MTN, Rocket Internet and AXA Insurance effectively making it Africa’s first unicorn

To date Jumia, has diversified its services to include a vehicle as well as a property marketplace, food delivery, classifieds, online hotel bookings and a flight marketplace.

The firm has also grown its active consumers from 2.7-million in 2017 to 4-million in 2018.

According to Jumia’s IPO prospectus, last year the firm reported a loss of over $195-million (on revenue of $149-million). In 2017, Jumia reported a loss of €165-million — about $187-million (on revenue of €94-million about $106-million).

In documents filed in New York, Jumia warned it could not guarantee achieving or sustaining profitability in the future, citing challenges such as a robbery at its Kenyan warehouse, which saw merchandise worth $560,000 stolen.

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