Africa is often overlooked in tech investment conversations, but that could be about to change after insurance giant Axa agreed to spend Euro 75 million on an 8% stake in Africa Internet Group, owner of a number of African ecommerce sites including hotel booking site Jovago.com.
Africa Internet Group was set up by German incubator Rocket Internet. Axa becomes the fourth business with a stake in the holding company, joining South Africa-based telecoms business MTN and Millicom, a telecoms and media business based in Luxembourg but operational in Africa and Latin America.
As well as the investment, Axa has signed a deal to become the exclusive provider of insurance products across AIG's entire portfolio of businesses, which range from e-commerce marketplace Jumia, car classifieds site Carmudi and shoes and fashion retailer Zando.
As well as Jovago, AIG also owns a stake in easyTaxi, the South American focussed taxi app. Although easyTaxi withdrew from Asia, it still has a presence in Africa, operating in Kenya and Nigeria.
The Euro 75 million will be used to "further strengthen the balance sheet and support AIG’s continued growth" with Jovago expecting some of the cash to come its way. CEO Paul Midy said:
"This new wave of funding of Euro 75 million will help Jovago achieve the acceleration of its growth and development of its services across Africa in the coming years”.
Jovago has 25,000 hotels in Africa, 2,000 in Pakistan and more than 200,000 hotels around the world.
Coverage of the investment in the Financial Terms points out that it values AIG at Euro 938 million, which the pink'un converts into $1.04 billion, making AIG "Africa's first unicorn".