Jumia launched in Nigeria in 2012. Four years later it was Africa’s first unicorn, and in 2019 it listed in New York.
A marketplace, logistics and payments business spread across 14 African countries by 2018, Jumia’s story includes a record IPO, a sharp share-price swing and a decision to focus.
Jumia was founded in 2012 by former McKinsey consultants Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, with Tunde Kehinde and Raphael Kofi Afaedor. It launched in Nigeria, then added Egypt, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Kenya and South Africa, opened offices in Tunisia, Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon, Algeria and Uganda in 2014, and by 2018 was in 14 African countries.
It grew into a bundle of services: a marketplace, a logistics service that delivers packages through local partners, and a payments service, JumiaPay. In 2013 it launched Jumia Travel and Jumia Food, and in South Africa it operates as Zando, focused on fashion.
Milestones
- 2015: revenue of 234 million dollars, up 265 percent on 2014.
- 2016: the continent’s first unicorn, valued at over 1 billion dollars.
- April 2019: listed on the New York Stock Exchange, raising 196 million dollars net at an offer price of 14.50 dollars.
Volatility and focus
The shares rose more than 200 percent in three sessions and peaked near 50 dollars on 1 May 2019, then fell below 5 dollars by the end of the year. In late 2019 Jumia suspended e-commerce in Cameroon and ceased operations in Tanzania, saying it needed to focus resources on other markets.
The lesson for founders is that scale and focus are both choices: Jumia built wide, then narrowed to the markets where it could do more with its resources.
