Naspers Ltd., an early investor in China’s Tencent and still its largest shareholder, is backing rent-to-buy car firm Planet42 in a $100 million debt and equity fund-raising.
Naspers, which is also the parent company of Prosus, has made eleven investments in South African-focused startups through its Foundry fund. African startups raised a record $5.3 billion last year, according to data compiled by Briter Bridges, a market intelligence company. South Africa pulled a big portion of that, defying a deepening global slump in the technology industry.
Co-founded by Oja and Marten Orgna, Planet42 uses algorithms and data points to asses a potential customer’s risk level and generate an offer to buy a car from a dealership of choice within minutes, said Oja.