Jumia, the African e-commerce giant, has changed leadership, with co-founders Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec stepping down as co-CEOs.
According to the company, Francis Dufay, who previously served as CEO of Jumia Ivory Coast, will now serve as acting CEO in place of both co-founders. The statement also announced the promotion of Jumia Group’s former Chief Financial Officer, Antoine Maillet-Mezeray, to the position of Executive Vice President, Finance & Operations for the Group.
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Dufay has been with Jumia since 2014, holding multiple senior leadership roles, more recently, executive VP Africa, responsible for the group’s e-commerce business across the continent.
Jumia’s pan-African expansion across 11 countries, as well as its product journey, which now includes a marketplace, JumiaPay, its payment arm, and a logistics platform, were overseen by the two departing CEOs.
“We thank Jeremy and Sacha for their leadership over the last decade to envision and build a company that became the leading pan-African e-commerce player,” said Jumia’s board chairman Jonathan Klein. Looking ahead to the next chapter of Jumia’s journey, we want to put more emphasis on the core e-commerce business as part of a more simplified and efficient organization with stronger fundamentals and a clear path to profitability.”
“We look forward to working closely with Francis, Antoine, and the leadership team to execute these objectives and continue on our mission of offering a compelling e-commerce platform to consumers, sellers, and the broader Jumia ecosystem in Africa.”
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Dufay and Maillet-Mezeray have their work cut out for them. Jumia has never had a profitable quarter since going public in 2019, despite the former co-CEOs consistently mentioning how the company was intentional about its path to profitability during quarterly calls. For example, Poignonnec told TechCrunch last quarter that Jumia, which is expected to have an adjusted EBITDA loss of up to $220 million this year, was on its way to profitability because more consumers were placing more orders, resulting in increased revenues and disciplined cost control. “We’re going to double down on that to show some meaningful steps toward profitability, which remains the central goal of our strategy,” the co-chief executive said in an August interview.
Meanwhile, Jumia’s share price fell 14.29% on Monday after the announcements, as investors dumped the stock. Jumia has not dropped by 65% this year alone, contrary to general market sentiment. Jumia has yet to turn a profit since going public, reporting a $227 million loss. Jumia also has a $1.6 billion retained loss and only $350 million in cash in the bank as of the end of June 2022.