Popular Nigerian online platform DealDey has been acquired by the African subsidiary of Swiss media Ringier in partnership with Silvertree for an undisclosed amount.
There had been rumors that Dealdey is going broke and laying off workers. This is despite the fact that the firm, less than a year ago got some $5 million financial backing from Kinnevik, a Sweedish investment firm. Kinnevick had also pumped at least $1 million into Dealdey in 2011.
No equity percentage was given for the two round of investment hence it’s not possible to guess the valuation DealDey may have put forward for the acquisition.
Dealdey’s value proposition is to connect customers with merchants offering goods and services at lower prices than they are actually worth.
The firm is one of a handful of players in Nigeria’s e-commerce space and aggregates daily online discounts on popular goods and services.
It brands itself as Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest online deals platform, naming “over 1 million users, 15,000 active merchants, and 20,000 verified listed businesses.”
Dealdey Co-MDs, Etop Ikpe and Kehinde Oriola took the reins from Sim Shagaya after he left to start Konga in 2012.
Together they’ve worked to build the platform to what it currently is, birthing two services Lyf and Promohub in the process.
“The DealDey team is excited about joining forces with the newly formed Ringier Africa Deals Group…” they said, in a statement “…it offers great opportunities as DealDey brings a wealth of experience in technology, merchant management and consumer behaviour in Nigeria and we will be leveraging the Ringier Africa portfolio in marketing, classifieds and media as well as Silvertree’s ecommerce expertise towards supporting the sustainable growth of the group.”
Kehinde Oriola will stay with DealDey as CEO and will be supported by Mr. Damien Bonnabel, the acting CEO of Ringier Africa Deals Group. Etop Ikpe however will move on to other things.
E-commerce is seeing a steady growth in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The Nigerian e-commerce market has been projected to hit $75 billion by 2025.
“The country is an important entry market for e-commerce and there are significant players. We really believe the deals model that relies more on local merchants and offers both goods and services can differentiate itself from the Amazon models that Jumia and Konga are running.” Leonard Stiegeler, General Manager for Ringier Africa said.
He added that the acquisition has put DealDey in a position to compete directly with e-commerce giants, Konga and Jumia.