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The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has invested $25 million in equity in Jumia Technologies AG, Africa’s largest public e-commerce platform. The investment by the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group will help small businesses reach new markets, create jobs, and strengthen economic opportunities across the continent.
The World Bank Group estimates the investment will enable approximately 60,000 local annual active sellers to participate more fully in the digital economy, support around 1,800 direct jobs, and create income-generating opportunities for more than 100,000 independent sales agents.
“Jumia demonstrates how pan-African e-commerce platforms can expand economic opportunity at scale. Our investment supports the company’s next phase of growth while contributing to create jobs, digitizing supply chains and distributions channels and mobilizing private investment,” said Farid Fezoua, Director for Equity, Funds, and Venture Capital at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.
In addition to expanding the digital commerce infrastructure across Africa, the investment will also support Jumia’s next phase of growth across its core African markets, strengthening its integrated marketplace and logistics network.
Founded in 2012, the Jumia Group is a leading pan-African e-commerce platform, with operations across 8 African countries, including Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda. The NYSE-listed company leverages technology to deliver innovative, convenient and affordable online services to customers, while helping businesses grow as they use Jumia’s platform to better reach and serve customers.
Its platform consists of a marketplace, which connects over 60,000 sellers with customers, a vast logistics network, which enables the shipment and delivery of packages from sellers to customers, and payment gateways, which, together with a network of licensed payment service providers and other partners, facilitate transactions among participants active on the Jumia platform in select markets.
According to Jumia Group, the platform drew more than 900 million website visits in 2025, lists more than 6.5 million products, serves 6 million active customers across Africa, logged 23.3 million orders, counts roughly 70,000 active sellers, and processes a transaction every two seconds.
“The support of the World Bank Group is a milestone for Jumia and for African e-commerce more broadly. It validates both the discipline we have brought to our business in recent years and the tangible impact our platform has on small businesses, jobs, and consumers across our eight markets. With partners like the IFC, we can accelerate the digital commerce infrastructure Africa needs,” said Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia.
In recent months, IFC has backed South African vaccine maker Biovac to build Africa’s first end-to-end multi-vaccine manufacturing site. It backed Madagascar-based WeLight in a $30.7 million funding round and CrossBoundary Access with a $10 million equity investment. Both the investments were meant to scale mini-grid deployment across Africa.
IFC has become the key player in providing catalytic capital needed to scale infrastructure that are deemed too risky or unproven. As digital commerce continues to grow across Africa, reliable access to online marketplaces, logistics networks, and digital payments are becoming increasingly important for entrepreneurs and small businesses seeking to expand beyond local markets. IFC’s investment in Jumia is another sign of the World Bank Group throwing its weight behind Africa’s digital infrastructure buildout.
For Jumia, the equity infusion couldn’t have arrived at a better time as the company looks to build on the profitability it has emphasised in recent years while extending its reach into underserved markets.
