Autochek, a Nigerian based auto start-up has raised $3.4 million pre-seed funding.
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The pre-seed round is co-led by TLcom Capital and 4DX ventures. Golden Palm Investments, Lateral Capital, MSA Capital, and Kepple Africa Ventures also participated in the investment round in Autochek
Autochek’s platform — managed by a developer team in Lagos and Nairobi — is a network for consumers and businesses to buy cars, sell cars, service cars, and finance cars sales.
Launched in Lagos in 2019 by Etop Ikpe Autodesk’s user-focused technology platform helps cut costs by simply and transparently coordinate sales, servicing, and vehicle records of the car market in Nigeria and broader Africa.
It’s different in the type of technology we’re building and that it’s asset light. I don’t have any inventory. I don’t buy cars. I don’t transact any [physical] cars. I don’t own any inspection locations. I don’t own any dealerships,” Ikpe said
The latest investment comes few months after the company acquired a major stake in Cheki, another digital car sales marketplace.
Meanwhile, Autodesk plans to use this latest round to expand to other African countries in 2021. The company is eying possible entry to countries such as Ivory Coast, Senegal, Kenya , South Africa, Egypt and Algeria.
In addition, the company will invest its pre-seed funding in associated auto related services, such as insurance and blue book pricing products
The Nigerian auto market appears to be gathering a lot of interests from VCs and fund managers even though this can’t be compared to the level of attention given to fintech.
Last year, one of Nigeria’s leading car sales marketplace, Cars 45 was acquired by Amsterdam based OLX Group.
With Autochek raising its own funding round and its plans to launch into other African markets, the competition in the African auto market moves up another notch.