ovago, one of the top hotel booking website in Africa, and Axa, a worldwide leader in Insurance and Asset management announced today a partnership to develop the expansion of Jovago and a new round of funding to boost its activities in Africa.
This would further ensure the expansion of the business to booming markets and the strengthening of the brand in the existing branches of major cities across Africa, Jvago, said today in its press statement.
The new major investor confirms Jovago’s strategy to expand its operations and local presence in Africa in order to reach and meet the needs of travelers.
Axa is a world class player which is not only strong financially but also has a huge experience in investing in companies.
Axa will invest Euro 75 million and own approximately 8 % of the capital of AIG, parent company of Jovago. As a result, AXA will thus become a shareholder of AIG along with MTN, Rocket Internet and Millicom
“This is an exciting news to Ethiopia to boost Jovago activities and to connect with the global advanced systems that will bring economic development and knowledge transfer.” Alexander Burtenshaw, Country Manager of Jovago Ethiopia said.
Jovago’s current positions as African largest inventory of hotels will be further consolidated. Jovago would continue its provision of a secure platform to increase the visibility of even the most remote hotels, improve service quality, facilitate the movement of travelers and promote profitability for their businesses.
“It’s rewarding for Jovago to partner with such a strong group as Axa which will allow us to strengthen our ability to build the first platform for travelers in Africa. Jovago wants to break the barrier to travel and make travel more easy and affordable in Africa. The support of AXA will be key to accomplish this success, “said Paul Midy, CEO Jovago.
He further explaining that “The funding came on a perfect timing with significant amount, this makes for one of the top investments in the history of start-ups in Africa. It also strategically positions Jovaog and Africa Internet Group to further build e-commerce in Africa.”
This investment will allow AXA to build on the strength of AIG companies to further develop its activities. AXA will become the exclusive provider of insurance products and services through AIG.
“This transaction confirms AXA’s long-term commitment towards the African markets and represents another step in our development on the continent. Africa is home to some of the most dynamic and promising insurance markets in the world and our partnership with Africa Internet Group will enable us to accelerate materially our development by having access to their rich customer base and to their state-of-the-art e-commerce technology. Going forward, we aim to enable African consumers to better access insurance solutions to create sustainable financial well-being throughout their lives and those of their dependents”, added Denis Duverne, Deputy CEO of AXA.
Since its creation in 2013 and the opening of its first offices in Africa, Jovago has been growing steadily. Its large inventory lists 25,000 hotels in over 40 African countries, over 500 hotels in Ethiopia and 200,000 hotels worldwide. With its ongoing success, Jovago aims to accelerate the innovation of its digital services in the hospitality industry in emerging countries.
Jovago is an online hotel booking service with offices in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi (Kenya), and Dakar (Senegal) founded by Africa Internet Group and has MTN and Millicom as investors. Jovago.com, Africa’s No.1 booking portal, facilitates the booking process for its users to provide them with the best hotel booking experience with fast, transparent and easy-to-use services.
The AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 161,000 employees serving 103 million clients in 59 countries. In 2014, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 92 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 5.1 billion. AXA had Euro 1,277 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2014.
[newbusinessethiopia.com/]