Senegal-based mobile classifieds platform CoinAfrique has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from music and entertainment company TRACE to speed its growth across French-speaking Africa.
Launched in 2015, CoinAfrique has 400,000 active monthly users in 15 French-speaking African countries, and more than one million downloads of its mobile application.
Based in Dakar, Senegal, with offices in five other African countries, the startup employs more than 50 people, and aims to reach 10 million active users by 2022. It was one of the 20 startups from across the continent selected to take part in the World Bank’s XL Africa accelerator last year.
CoinAfrique has raised a EUR2.5 million (US$3.085 million) funding round from several investors in April, and it has now announced further funding from TRACE, which will accelerate its development.
“TRACE’s arrival as a shareholder of CoinAfrique confirms the strength of our growth model and highlights the opportunity to create a pan-African francophone leader in the classifieds arena,” said CoinAfrique co-founders Matthias Papet and Eric Genêtre.
The investment in CoinAfrique is the latest made by TRACE in digital initiatives, including the purchase in 2016 of Kenyan VoD platform Buni.tv, which was merged with TRACE Play, and the 2017 acquisition of online music distributor JTV Digital.
“CoinAfrique has already shown its potential and we are delighted to contribute to its development. TRACE’s stake is in line with our investment strategy in mobile and digital services, and with our desire to support entrepreneurial initiatives which have a positive impact on the African continent,” said Olivier Laouchez, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of TRACE.
