Nigerian startup Autochek, has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in AutoTager. Founded in 2020, Autochek digitises the process of buying cars and is backed by investors such as TLCom Capital, 4DX Ventures, Kepple Africa, and Golden Palm Investments. Similarly, AutoTager, founded in 2021 serves the same market segment in Egypt.
Since its launch, Autochek has favoured acquisitions as its market entry strategy having acquired Cheki's operations in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda within a year of its launch. In 2022, it acquired KIFAL Auto and CoinAfrique to aid its expansion into the North African and Francophone African regions.
With this acquisition, the company says it is now present in nine African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Egypt. It also has a network of more than 2,000 dealers. Last year, it launched a vehicle financing service allowing customers to drive home with a car once they have paid 30% of the car's value.
Olajide Adamolekun, AutoChek's CFO commenting on the deal highlighted Amir Rezk's experience as crucial to the company's success in the region.
"Amr's background and track record is as impressive as it gets and I am delighted to have him on board. His experience will be invaluable as we enter the Egyptian market and continue on our mission to improve the automotive finance value proposition on the continent and catalyse more growth across the automotive ecosystem."
On his part, Amr Rezk pointed out that Autochek's experience in the automotive industry would help to provide better services for AutoTager's customers.
"We are thrilled to partner with Autochek to pursue several sizable and unique opportunities in the automotive space. Autochek has deep automotive expertise and brings a proven playbook and several all-weather strategies that have been tested and validated in multiple complex high-growth markets. The company’s track record of concurrently operating various business models in the automotive space is stellar and provides us with a wide menu of options and cutting-edge tools to offer AutoTager’s customers a truly unique proposition."
