Team Konga & Jumia to Nigeria market. Let's do this.
Kinnevik had arranged a meeting with Oliver Samwer (founder of Rocket Internet), about a possible consolidation of ecommerce in Nigeria. Merge flailing Kasuwa and rebrand the company into Konga, 'Nigeria online Mall'. Then Oliver starts talking. This wasn't a normal M&A sweet seduction. No. It was a little different. This was shock and awe.
'I'm going to crush you if you don’t merge.We've done this before we'll do it again'. If it's about capital, you can never out-raise us'. Sim took this as incredibly condensing, he tried to stall for time. 'Let me go think about it and pray on it. Give me a little time'. He stretched out his hand for a departing handshake. Oliver Samwer looked at his hand, stood up and walked out the room.
Arrogance can be expensive.
Sim left the meeting. Called General Atlantic, called Tiger, called Naspers; basically any capital he knew, he called that week. It's time to go to war...