The Africa subsidiary of Swiss Media and leading e-commerce company Ringier Africa has acquired Nigerian online shopping startup DealDey for an undisclosed fee.
According to report published by Tech Cruch, reported that Ringier Africa Deals Group, a joint venture between Swiss Ringier Africa AG and South African Silvertree Internet Holdings Ltd., announced the deal today.
The Ringier Africa is expanding their publishing and digital marketing niche and they believe that e-commerce is the smartest path to follow for their philosophy.
The digital retail startup Dealdey — a Groupon-like startup — previously raised at least $1 million from the Swedish investment firm Kinnevik in 2011.
Kinnevik followed that with $5 million in series B financing in 2015. No equity percentage was given for either round so it’s not possible to extrapolate the valuation DealDey may have put forward for the Ringier Africa acquisition.
DealDey is one of a handful of players in Nigeria’s very fluid e-commerce space. The digital shopping site 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.” Alexa ranks the DealDay at 41 in Nigeria.
The general manager of Ringier Africa, Leonard Stiegeler named the acquisition as part of an expanding Africa strategy
“ to invest fully in four verticals within Africa: classifieds, content, digital marketing, and e-commerce.”
The deal buys Ringier a platform to tap Africa’s expanding consumer markets through DealDeys’ existing online shopping network. The acquisition also follows the recent global investment in e-commerce company Africa Internet Group, which reached a $1 billion valuation after a $326 million round including Goldman Sachs and AXA Insurance.
Credit: Tech Cruch