The people that keep track of this sort of thing probably stayed up all night waiting for this report. It’s finally out. Rocket Internet’s H1 2014 report gives an overview of the performance of its all its portfolio companies from January through June. The main highlight of the document are the twelve “proven winners” and it is for only these that detailed information is released in the report.
Jumia is listed as one of Rocket Internet’s proven winners in the general merchandise category, along with Lazada and Linio, with the number one market position among competitors that include Souq, Nefsak, Leportail, Rupu, Deals, Konga, Dealdey, Smartbuy, Gloo, and more.
Further, Rocket Internet is shifting its three general merchandise from a traditional B2C ecommerce towards a marketplace or C2C model which according to the report will allow them achieve superior unit economics, reduce inventory risk and better leverage infrastructure. Already each of them are on their way to marketplace, with Lazada being the most advanced, and Jumia the least.
Our resident number cruncher, Chinaza Onuzo says that going by Jumia’s released key financials for the period, the business is doing better than last year, and is growing fast. Profitability is ultimately the larger question however, and that will not be answered for a while.
Early reactions to the report — a Financial Times report describes Rocket Internet’s 12 proven winners as “proven losers”, at least when it comes to making a profit, but goes on to give a more nuanced breakdown of the numbers across companies.
