Jumia Posts Strong First Quarter Results Amid Citron Accusation

Jumia Technologies has released its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.

Jumia in a first quarter report made available on Monday shows strong momentum amid Citron Accusations.

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-CEOs of Jumia, said. “Jumia delivered excellent results during the first quarter of 2019: strong GMV growth of 58% leading to102% growth in marketplace revenue, year-on-year improvement of 356 basis points of Operating loss as a percentage of GMV and further development of JumiaPay, highlighted by the investment and partnership with Mastercard.

“We believe that Jumia is increasingly relevant for consumers and sellers in Africa.

“Looking ahead, we remain focused on our core operations, driving consumer adoption and engagement on our marketplace, increasing the penetration of JumiaPay, while continuing to improve our financial profile and making a sustainable impact on the continent.”

According to the report, Business highlights show that “the €50 million investment by Mastercard into Jumia, in a concurrent private placement with our Initial Public Offering, marked another milestone in the development of JumiaPay and a validation of its potential.

“We are partnering with Mastercard on a number of initiatives, including the development and marketing of co-branded products (i.e., cards, virtual cards and quick response codes).

“In the first quarter of 2019, our marketplace continued to gain depth and diversity as we focused on attracting quality sellers to our platform and providing our consumers with an expanding range of products and services.
“An example of this strategy is the partnership we announced this quarter with the technology leader Xiaomi.

“As part of this partnership, we are opening the Mi official store on our platform with the ability to offer a number of Xiaomi products on an exclusive basis.

This demonstrates the attractiveness of Jumia as a destination of choice for high profile international brands, giving them access to millions of potential consumers in Africa with one partnership.

The report further show their Financial highlights as follows, “Gross Merchandise Volume (“GMV”) grew this quarter by 58% on a yearly basis, on the back of strong marketplace growth, leading to a 102% increase this quarter in Marketplace revenue on a yearly basis.

“Our strong GMV growth combined with the attractive value proposition we offer both sellers and consumers are a key engine of monetization, which we derive from diversified revenue streams such as Commissions, Fulfillment, Value Added Services, Marketing and Advertising services.

“Gross Profit margin as a percentage of GMV increased from 5.6% in the first quarter of 2018 to 6.5% this quarter, as a result of the increased GMV monetization rate.

“Our Gross Profit also exceeded Fulfillment expense this quarter.

“We continue to have a strong focus on cost efficiency. Leveraging our strong brand awareness and highly localized marketing approach, we have been able to gain 205bps of marketing efficiency this quarter, bringing the Sales & Advertising expense from 7.2% of GMV in the first quarter of 2018 to 5.1% in the first quarter of 2019.

“Adjusted EBITDA loss as a percentage of GMV improved from negative 19.8% in the first quarter of 2018 to negative 16.4% in the first quarter of 2019.