One of Nigeria leading online property portal, ‘ToLet’ in conjunction with their existing investors; Frontier Digital Ventures has acquired Jumia House Nigeria, a competing property portal for an undisclosed sum of money.
Expectedly, the website will now merge the two platforms over the coming months, under the new name, creating a property listings market leader in the online classifieds space, with 65 per cent share of the market.
At present , the platform has about 60,000 listings on its platform, while Jumia House Nigeria has about 22,000, majority of which are property listings for sale. The company secured ‘Series A’ investment of about $1.2 million, through Frontier Digital Ventures [FDV], to expand its operations in 2016. By the merger it also creates an avenue for FDV strengthening its portfolio in Angola and Ghana.
The platform, a brainchild of; Mr. Fikayo Ogundipe, Sulaiman Balogun, Dapo Eludire and Seyi Ayeni, was launched in 2013 as an online estate agency, but pivoted in January 2017 to become a property classifieds platform and has since grown from about 150 to 10,000 agents.
The company recorded 15per cent “m-o-m growth” across all key metrics, including number of listings, traffic and subscribing agents and the 60-strong team now works with thousands of businesses across the 36 States of Nigeria to empower real estate agents with technology back-end tools needed to grow their businesses, manage leads and close deals.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Fikayo Ogundipe, “The acquisition of Jumia House Nigeria has placed us in prime position to better serve the growing real estate market in the country.
“Our combined businesses, ToLet and Jumia House Nigeria, have the scale and the resources to transform the online property sector for the benefit of property developers, real estate agents and property seekers alike”.
“As we transit to PropertyPro, consolidating listings from ToLet and Jumia House Nigeria, there is a brilliant opportunity to ensure Nigeria’s fluid and vibrant property market is underpinned by a robust, innovative technology which PropertyPro promises to offer”, he said.
Also speaking on the development, the Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, Sulaiman Balogun, remarked that the announcement signifies a maturing in the online property classifieds market for Africa.
He said the firm seeks that its agents leave the marketing for the company, so that they can focus on closing more sales adding delivery of exceptional service, quality leads and marketing solutions that help drive sales for Agents remains a top priority.
He said: “We are now working with an entire generation who are now accustomed to heading online as a first port of call for rental or purchase of properties. We are on a steep growth trajectory, and are now in the very best position, with this acquisition, to deliver a world-class property search service. We want PropertyPro.ng to be the first website Nigerians think of when they are looking to research, buy or rent a property. On the other hand, agents on our platform will now be able to reach more potential buyers, investors and tenants than any other portal in the country”.
