Africa Internet Group, arm of the struggling German internet clone empire Rocket Internet is rebranding all its ventures to Jumia in an African consolidation move.

AIG expects this move to make the new Jumia, Africa’s largest e-commerce network running both retail, classifieds, travel booking and food ordering and delivery across its markets in Africa. The move will see hotel booking site Jovago become Jumia Travel, real estate site Lamudi to Jumia House, food ordering and delivery site HelloFood to Jumia Food.

Rocket Internet’s car classifieds portal Carmudi to Jumia Cars while Vendito an OLX competitor into Jumia Deals and job matching site Everjobs to Jumia Jobs. The firm is not firing any department yet and every Jumia operation will retain their websites feel and look and team but the name will change to Jumia making it the biggest marketplace in Africa. Though the firm didn’t mention its delivery arm AIG Express, it's likely to rebrand it to Jumia Delivery or something close to that.

Rocket Internet is struggling to convince its investors as its business are yet to be profitable and it has been forced to shut down, merge or in some markets. Rocket Internet’s share price has dropped by over 25 percent in the last six months while Jumia’s revenue fell 37 percent this year prompting its shift from buying its own inventory into a commission-based marketplace.

Rocket Internet says Jumia’s growth has been predominantly affected by the challenging macroeconomic environment in Nigeria and it will keep on building the business with new partners Axa and Orange.

“Jumia in Africa is billing out its market share in a difficult macro environment and we are very optimistic for this business in a very long life,” said Oliver Samwer, Rocket Internet’s CEO.

http://techmoran.com/africa-internet-group-rebranding-ventures-jumia/#sthash.nwEicU4b.dpbs

I saw it coming!