About
Cars45 is an automotive company in the African Used car market. It provides an opportunity to buy and sell verified cars in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. Cars45 is powered by its parent company Jiji, an African online marketplace.
History
Cars45 was co-founded by Etop Ikpe, Iyamu Mohammed, Sujay Tyle, and Peter Lindholm in 2016. The team’s professional background spanned startup experience in Africa, Europe, and Silicon Valley which includes projects like DealDey, Carmudi (now JumiaCar), hired.com, Millicom, and nelly.com.
In 2017, Cars45 raised $5 million from Frontier Car Group (FCG), a company that builds used-car marketplaces focusing on emerging markets. This made FCG the largest shareholder and parent company of Cars45.
By March 2019, the business signed a partnership with Enyo to sell, buy, and swap cars at all Enyo Retail and Supply stations nationwide.
In July 2019 Cars45 owned 60 inspection centres and 12 retail lots in Nigeria.
As of December same year, They expanded its operations to Ghana and Kenya.
In June 2021, Jiji, an African online marketplace, announced its acquisition of Cars45.
The business introduced a feature of online auctions where cars are sold on the platform to a network of buyers within 20 minutes. If the highest bid is accepted, they seal the deal, and the seller gets paid for the car immediately.
Services
Cars45 offers car sales via online auctions, inspections by 200+ parameters, documentation checks, valuation, “Park N Sell” concierge service, consumer car loans, and dealership loans for their Dealer Partners. They help people sell and buy verified cars.
Competition
Their major competitors in Nigeria according to Similarweb include Tokunbocars.ng, carmart.ng, naijauto.com, autochek.Africa, and betacar.ng.
Awards and recognition
- 2022: Motor Vehicle Dealer of the Year in Kenya
- 2021: Automobile Leadership Excellence Prize by African Institute for Leadership Excellence in Nigeria