For more than five years, some of the world’s most renowned investors have invested in ecommerce. One of the entrepreneurs benefiting from this is Etop Ikpe, who owns an online cars marketplace, DANIEL ESSIET reports.
Young entrepreneurs are attracting a lot of capital from investors that could catapult them into the exclusive club of Nigeria’s internet commerce firms. One of them is Etop Ikpe, whose unique management style, has helped to form an online cars’ platform at a rapid pace.
Ikpe, the Chief Executive, Autochek Africa, has been driving growth to catapult the company to profitability,
Before founding Autochek Africa Chief Executive, Etop Ikpe worked at DealDey and Cars45 and the Zinox-owned Konga. Indeed, he got his first job in 2006 in a communications company called Click Mobile Communications. Despite not having an engineering or teleccommunications background, Ikpe loves technology.
This drove him to start Click Mobile with a partner trained in software.Two years later, he launched Tinker and Bell Media. The same year, he established Three Stitches, an ecommerce startup. Still bubbling with ideas, he started Cars45, a startup that helps users evaluate, buy and sell used cars. Ikpe co-founded Cars45 in 2016 with Ikpe with Iyamu Mohammed, Sujay Tyle, and Peter Lindholm.
These young entrepreneurs had experience in startups and ecommerce. The business did well and attracted investors. At one point investors put in $5million, which was one of the largest Series A funding in Nigeria. The startup raised the huge cash from the Frontier Cars Group supported by Balderton Capital, EchoVC, and TPG Growth. Cars45’s model involved scheduling physical inspections with potential car sellers before offering a deal for the car, which is in turn, sold to prospective buyers.The company expanded its tentacles to Ghana and Kenya. Autochek is one of the largest African online cars market places. Recently, it announced the acquisition of Cheki Nigeria and Cheki Ghana. Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM Africa), which is Cheki’s parent company, transferred its ownership to Autochek. By this deal, outlets are rebranded as Autochek.
However, Cheki Kenya remains fully owned by ROAM Africa. Last year, Autochek Africa completed its pre-seed round of $3.4 million.
It was co-led by Lagos, London, and Nairobi-based TLCom Capital and United States-based 4DX Ventures. Japanese VC firm, Kepple Africa; sub-Saharan-focused firm, Lateral Capital; Ghana-based Golden Palm Investments; Chinese VC firm, MSA Capital; and several local angel investors participated in the round.
Ikpe said: “Building on the solid work that the Cheki Nigeria and Ghana teams have done over the last 10 years, we are already dispersed across multiple locations. And applying the technology built and developed by our Autochek auto-tech experts, we are well-positioned to scale quickly, as the demand for reliable and well-priced cars on the continent grows.
“With this pre-seed round and our seasoned strategic investors on board, we are working to transform the automotive sector on the continent.”
Autochek has an app and website where consumers get access to loans, auctions, trade-ins and maintenance.
It also has a unit where automotive dealers get access to real-time car auctions, fleet management, and marketing support. Already, over 20,000 unique vehicles are listed on the Autochek platform. More than 12,000 dealers and private sellers can be found on the platform too.
The company has announced the launch of its online truck loans marketplace in Nigeria and Ghana, in a bid to migrate the trucking industry to online transactions and increase financing penetration.
The first-of-its-kind truck loans marketplace on the continent, the launch follows Autochek’s recent expansion to Ghana; one of Africa’s most advanced automotive markets.
With hundreds of truck dealers across Nigeria and Ghana on its platform, the fleet ranges from flatbeds, semi-trailers, tankers, heavy, garbage to panel trucks.
As part of the roll-out, Autochek is partnering key logistics stakeholders, including Kobo360,to finance trucks for African e-logistics transporters and truck owners. This means that customers interested in owning a truck can do that with financing at the best rates. The platform is available via the Autochek Android app or website.Trucks undergo a150-point checks before being listed to guide the customers on their state.
