Autochek expands to North Africa after acquiring Morocco’s Kifal Auto

Electronic automotive commerce organization Autochek has acquired Morocco’s KIFAL Vehicle for an undisclosed amount of money, marking the entry of the car marketplace into North Africa.

The deal will come scarcely a year soon after Autochek purchased Cheki Kenya and Cheki Uganda from Ringier A single Africa Media. Prior to the September 2021 transaction, Autochek had acquired Cheki’s subsidiaries in Ghana and Nigeria, and partnered with the CFAO Team to launch the community in Ivory Coastline. Just after KIFAL Auto’s acquisition, Autochek is now current in 6 international locations throughout East, West and North Africa.

Like Autochek, KIFAL Car backlinks car or truck prospective buyers and sellers, and also, by partnerships, offers a number of other expert services such as funding and insurance.

“From my initial interaction with Nizar and his crew at KIFAL Vehicle, I was so amazed by their passion for offering productive solutions and their determination to innovation. They have created an outstanding platform and we are thrilled to have them onboard at Autochek to assist the get the job done we are undertaking to make improvements to the automotive finance benefit proposition in Africa. There are so lots of parallels in our person tales and I appear ahead to a extended and mutually-valuable connection for many years to come,” said Autochek co-founder and CEO, Etop Ikpe, in a statement.

(L-R) Autochek CEO and co-founder Etop Ikpe and KIFAL Auto founder Nizar Abdallaoui Maane. lmage Credits: Autochek

KIFAL, which was established in 2019 by Nizar Abdalaoui Maane, is between the main auto marketplaces in Morocco, one of the premier marketplaces for utilised and new vehicles in Africa. Adhering to the most current deal, Maane and the KIFAL automobile team join Autochek to guide the company’s enlargement efforts in North Africa.

“I have extended been an admirer of the function Autochek has done to allow improved activities across Africa’s automotive worth chain. There is so substantially we can discover from each other, and I am on the lookout forward to bringing my working experience and knowledge to deliver more video game modifying innovation in Morocco and further than. In our Business and specifically in an African context, it helps make a whole lot of perception to proceed developing with a massive participant. Morocco is a gateway into North Africa and I am assured that we can unlock new price and generate additional transformation throughout the board,” reported Maane.

Tale proceeds

Autochek suggests it has 1,500 sellers as companions across its markets, and has partnerships with more than 70 funding partners like Accessibility Bank, Ecobank, UBA, Lender of Africa and NCBA Financial institution.

Automobiles shown on the web page go by means of many phases of inspection, and are rated according to their position and efficiency. Ekpe mentioned in a past TechCrunch job interview that, “The assessments and some algorithmic checks on Autochek’s technique assist to give a sense of the standing and situation of the auto, pinpointing whether or not it is in a condition to be financed … because they (banking institutions) do not want a scenario where they finance a car or truck and the following working day, the motor knocks.”

Autochek explained financial loans are authorised in about 48 hours. The organization earns by charging a cost to sellers listing on its platforms, in addition to a personal loan facilitation fee from banks.

Autochek, which in Oct last year raised $13.1 million in a seed round, is backed by a quantity of buyers which include pan-African VC companies TLcom Money, 4DX Ventures, Golden Palm Investments, Enza Capital, Lateral Money, Ask Money and, Mobility 54 Investment decision SAS, the undertaking funds arm of Toyota Tsusho and CFAO Group.