Autochek, the automotive technology company making car ownership more accessible and affordable across Africa, has announced the acquisition of CoinAfrique, the leading platform for classified ads in French-speaking Africa, to accelerate  penetration of its auto financing services in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and other French-speaking African countries.

Founded in 2016 by Matthias Papet and Eric Genetre, with a presence in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and 10 other French-speaking African countries, CoinAfrique has grown to become the number one classified marketplace for Francophone Africa, enabling businesses and individuals to seamlessly buy and sell vehicles, electronics, real estate and other goods.

The CoinAfrique app has been downloaded more than 2 million times, with 800,000 monthly active users and 60,000 new ads per month. The website receives more than 1.5 million visits per month.

With 50 percent of the business transacted on the CoinAfrique platform happening in the automotive category, this acquisition will simplify the process for more French-speaking Africans to access financing and other value-added services for their vehicles.

CoinAfrique’s wider classifieds business will continue to operate across the various product categories, with a deep integration of Autochek’s auto financing product to drive access to credit for automotive purchases.

Francophone Africa is home to many of the fastest growing economies on the continent, as well as and the fastest growing brand new car market – Côte d’Ivoire. It is also home to Senegal which is projected to be the fastest growing economy in Africa by 2023.

With this acquisition, Autochek will be positioned to leverage CoinAfrique’s extensive database across Francophone Africa to facilitate auto financing for consumers and SMEs across this region to purchase their desired vehicles. It will also support further integration of the Pan-African automotive industry to drive shared value for consumers, manufacturers, financial institutions and other stakeholders.

Autochek is building the financial infrastructure to drive the penetration of auto financing across Africa, powered by a data analytics engine that makes it easier for financial institutions to offer credit to consumers.

It has existing operations across North, West and East Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda), a partner-led retail footprint in over 1,500 dealer and workshop locations, and more than 70 banking partners including Access Bank, BNP Paribas, Ecobank, UBA, Bank of Africa and NCBA Bank.

According to Etop Ikpe, CEO and co-founder of Autochek, “Matthias and Eric are pioneers of the classifieds model in Africa and they have built an outstanding platform with many significant partnerships with car dealers, fintech platforms and other stakeholders in the Francophone automotive sector.

They are joining the Autochek family with many years of business and infrastructure development experience across Europe and Africa and we are looking forward to leveraging their expertise to improve the automotive finance value proposition across the continent.”

Matthias Papet, CEO and co-founder of CoinAfrique, said, “we are excited about the opportunity to drive the penetration of auto financing across Francophone Africa and to support the wider mission across Africa.

“We see many opportunities to unlock value for users across all the categories on our platform and to expand into new countries, and we are looking forward to leveraging Autochek’s market leading loans product and expertise to deliver more transformative experiences for our users.”

The CoinAfrique team will join Autochek and will support the mission to make car ownership more accessible and affordable across the continent. With this acquisition, as well as the recent acquisition of Morocco’s KIFAL Auto, Autochek is doubling down on its Francophone focus to replicate the successes achieved so far in the English-speaking West Africa and East Africa region, as local teams are empowered to build for the nuances of their specific markets.