Jiji, the Nigerian-founded online classifieds marketplace, has acquired Bikroy, Bangladesh’s largest online classifieds platform, marking the company’s first acquisition outside Africa and deepening its expansion into South Asia, TechCabal reports.

The deal comes just 13 months after Jiji entered Bangladesh with its own competing platform, underscoring what chief executive Anton Volianskyi described as the company’s deliberate “compete-then-buy” strategy. Financial terms were not disclosed, although Volianskyi said the acquisition was funded through “internal resources and shareholder support”.

The transaction is also the second time in four years that Jiji has acquired an asset from Sweden-based Saltside Technologies, following its 2022 purchase of Ghanaian classifieds platform Tonaton. Jiji previously consolidated its African position through the 2019 acquisition of OLX Africa operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania from Naspers-backed OLX.

“This is a deliberate strategy, and we are direct about it,” Volianskyi told TechCabal. “In each case, the sequence is the same: enter organically to validate the opportunity, build a competitive position on the ground, and then evaluate whether organic scaling or consolidation gets us to category leadership faster.”

Jiji entered Bangladesh in March 2025 through jiji-bd.com, initially positioning itself against incumbents including Bikroy, Daraz and Ajkerdeal. According to Volianskyi, the company used the launch to test its operating model locally before deciding that consolidation offered a faster route to market leadership.

The acquisition also signals a broader geographic pivot for Jiji as acquisition opportunities within Africa become increasingly limited. In 2021, co-founder Vladimir Mnogoletniy said the African classifieds market had already become largely consolidated following Jiji’s rapid expansion across the continent.

Since then, the company’s scale has expanded significantly, according to TechCabal. Jiji now says it serves more than 90mn annual users and processes approximately $70bn in annual gross merchandise value (GMV) across its platform ecosystem. The group holds leading market positions in six core African markets and also operates in Ethiopia, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.

Bikroy, founded in 2012, will continue operating under its existing brand. According to Jiji, the Bangladeshi platform has recorded more than 10mn app downloads, processes over $3bn in annual GMV and attracts around 3mn monthly unique visitors. The company’s strongest verticals include vehicles and real estate, categories that also dominate Jiji’s African operations.

“That kind of brand equity and category leadership takes more than a decade to build, and replacing it would destroy meaningful value,” Volianskyi said.

Under the new ownership structure, Bikroy will migrate onto Jiji’s technology infrastructure and monetisation system. The company plans to replace flat seller fees with a bidding-based advertising model in which merchants pay for listing visibility based on shopper clicks. Jiji also intends to increase marketing investment and expand seller subscription packages ranging from individual traders to enterprise customers.

Bangladesh’s fast-growing digital economy was a key attraction. According to Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence, the country’s e-commerce market is projected to reach $12bn-$13bn between 2027 and 2029. Internet penetration has risen sharply, with approximately 131mn internet users in a population of roughly 170mn, creating demographic similarities with Jiji’s major African markets.

Following the acquisition, Jiji’s most significant competitor in Bangladesh becomes Daraz, the Alibaba-backed regional e-commerce platform. The rivalry mirrors increasing competition across emerging markets, where African and Asian digital commerce companies are competing for scale in high-growth consumer economies.