Malaysia-headquartered Frontier Digital Ventures is to increase its shareholding in Moroccan online car classifieds startup Moteur.ma to 49 per cent as it continues its growth in Africa.
Frontier Digital Ventures has invested in a number of African classifieds startups over the course of last year, including Mozambique’s Propertymaputo, Ghana’s MeQasa and Tanzania’s Kupatana.
Last month it put US$1.2 million into Nigerian real estate classifieds start-up ToLet.com.ng, having previously announced it had raised US$22.8 million through listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) to scale up its operations in “frontier markets”, including Africa.
According to a recent prospectus, Frontier Digital is to exercise its call option in Moteur while also acquiring vendor shares. This will increase its shareholding in the startup – which claims to be the leading car portal in Morocco – to 49 per cent.
“Our goal is to be the leading operator of online classifieds businesses in select frontier markets across the globe. We are currently partnered with 15 operating companies, which are growing at a rapid rate,” said Frontier Digital chief executive officer (CEO) Shaun Di Gregorio.
