In what is likely the most interesting acquisition deal in the history of Nigerian internet startups, online property classifieds platform, ToLet just recently announced its acquisition of Jumia House for an undisclosed amount.
Why is the acquisition interesting? It is barely a year ago since ToLet raised just over a million dollars in its Series A funding round. Jumia House on the other hand, is a subsidiary of a billion-dollar company.
This raises the question of how ToLet was able to finance such an acquisition. By additional financing from an investor, it turns out.
According to the press release Techpoint received, the acquisition is in conjunction with their existing investor -- Frontier Digital Ventures (FDV) -- and will merge the two platforms over the coming months, under the new name of PropertyPro.ng.
Currently with over 60,000 property listings, ToLet will be adding Jumia House's 22,000 listings, traffic, staff and other assets to its portfolio.
Interestingly, FDV has also acquired Jumia House in two other markets where it is in direct competition with its portfolio companies meQasa (Ghana) and AngoCasa (Angola). All of this is apparently in an attempt to strengthen its portfolio in the three African markets.