Nigerian e-commerce retailer Jumia becomes the first African tech startup to hit the New York Stock Exchange. The documents for this have already been submitted. The valuation, the share price and the timing of the sale of the shares will be determined in the coming weeks. Morgan Stanley manages the IPO, which could value the loss-making platform, which includes a hotel and flight booking page and a food delivery service, at around $ 1 billion.
About Jumia
Jumia was founded in 2012 and is currently active in 14 countries. By the end of December, Rocket Internet had held 28 percent of the company’s approximately 4,000 employees. Quartz Africa, however, formulated the suspicion that going public could be a smart exit for Rocket Internet after Jumia continues to write heavy losses.
On founders scene
Kevin Röhl is diabetic and founder. He used to be marginalized because of his illness, today he makes it a business, also to make life easier for others. His newly developed gadget, the lamp Lumind, looks like an Amazon speaker and shows the blood sugar value in color.
Also published on Medium.