What is Coin Afrique?
Coin Afrique is an exclusively mobile community platform for classified ads designed to buy and sell products in French-speaking Africa in a very simplified way.
It was founded in 2015 by Matthias Papet, an expert in new technologies and e-commerce, who acts as Chairman and Eric Genêtre, who provides administrative and financial management as CEO.
How did the Coin Afrique business develop?
The project was initiated in late 2014 by Matthias Papet. The first version developed by DevEngine entered PlayStore in May 2015. This was done thanks to the support of the I1P group, pioneer of impact investing in Africa dedicated to the financing and support of small and medium enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both parties seemed to share the same vision which is to promote African entrepreneurial dynamics. Coin Afrique was able to benefit from I&P’s good knowledge of French-speaking Africa and the funds invested, which enabled co-founder Eric Genêtre to organize the structuring and boost growth, taking advantage of the favorable reception that the service receives from Beninese as soon as it is launched.
Where is Coin Afrique based?
The operational center is based in Dakar, Senegal, but Coin Afrique has offices in five other African countries: Benin (Cotonou), Togo (Lomé), Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan), DRC (Kinshasa) and the 5th office was opened in November 2018 in Cameroon (Douala).
Primary activity ?
Coin Afrique offers a free classifieds service for new and used products. Users can sell quickly and easily buy from their phones and near their homes.
In the five countries where the company is present, the most popular and sought-after products are vehicles, digital and mobile products, clothing and fashion accessories. But there are also other goods such as real estate, furniture and even household appliances.
How does Coin Afrique work?
The application makes it possible to post online advertisements accompanied by photos of the items or goods offered for sale and offers its users a geolocated search engine with the possibility of carrying out searches in all countries where the service is accessible.
The application connects the seller and the buyer directly with the options of text messages, calls or private online chat. It also offers the ability to follow individual sellers and receive notifications associated with the publication of their new ads. The service offers a rating system between sellers and buyers, as well as the option of sharing ads in the user’s various social networks either by email, sms, Whatsapp, or even Facebook. The best offers are highlighted each week.
Coin Afrique in figures
Since its creation in 2015, the company has continued to grow and deploy its service.
It is on the right track as it is the leading mobile classifieds service in French-speaking Africa. The service currently covers the twelve countries of French-speaking Africa namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, DRC (Democratic Republic Congo), Senegal and Togo, which the company coveted from its inception. The service is also available for Chad, Niger, and Madagascar and its leaders do not intend to stop there.
Coin Afrique investors
In 2016, the Start-up successfully raised funds of CFAF 80 million from a group of private investors made up mainly of entrepreneurs. 2 years later, in 2018, the company announced a fundraising of 2.5 million euros from several investors. Coin Afrique counts among its investors I&P, investors represented by French Partners and Mercure international, retail specialist in French-speaking Africa and the media group specializing in afro-urban music and entertainment Trace, which announced its investment in November 2018.
Some perspectives from Coin Afrique leaders
Set up a monetization of its services, that is to say having paid offers with different pricing options in the form of “boost” in order to improve the visibility of sellers; exceed ten million users in 2022.
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