Baillie Gifford exits Jumia, closing a major chapter in African e-commerce investment
British investment firm Baillie Gifford, once Jumia’s largest institutional backer, has officially exited its stake in the African e-commerce giant, marking the end of a six-year bet on what was once hailed as the “Amazon of Africa.”
The move was revealed in a May 2025 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirming the British investment firm has fully divested from the struggling company.
The exit reflects a sobering reality for Jumia, whose journey from IPO darling to penny stock has been marked by persistent losses, weak topline performance, and mounting operational headwinds.
Baillie Gifford had initially acquired 17.99 million shares in 2019, shortly after Jumia’s high-profile IPO, for an 11.45% stake. At its IPO peak, Jumia’s stock soared above $26. Today, it trades at around $2.50.
A broader institutional pullback
With more than 8.5 million American Depositary Shares (ADS), Baillie Gifford remained Jumia’s single largest institutional investor, holding more than twice the volume of the next major investor, D.E. Shaw, until its recent divestment.
Baillie Gifford’s departure is part of a wider trend of institutional retreat from Jumia. Global investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Citi, still appear on the shareholder registry, but all have reduced their stakes below the 5% disclosure threshold since 2021.
Beyond Jumia, several crossover funds such as BlackRock and Old Mutual have also scaled back their Africa exposure, though niche Africa-focused investors like Development Partners International (DPI) continue to allocate fresh capital across the continent.
Jumia’s leaner but smaller future
Amid the investor exodus, Jumia has adopted what it calls a “survival-first” strategy—cutting costs aggressively to preserve cash.
In 2024, headcount, marketing expenses, and fulfilment overheads were all trimmed by double digits.
This helped the company reduce operating losses by 10% to $66 million and slowed its quarterly cash burn to about $23 million.
However, the gains were short-lived. In Q1 2025, currency depreciation, especially in key markets like Egypt and Nigeria, drove operating losses back up to $18.7 million.
The cost cuts have also taken a toll on the company’s growth. Jumia’s full-year 2024 revenue fell by 10%, and Q1 2025 saw a further 26% plunge, due in part to its exit from South Africa and Tunisia and a major devaluation in Egypt that eroded previous gains.
Though management points to a 21% increase in physical goods orders as a sign of underlying demand, the growth is coming from a smaller base of markets and at lower basket sizes. Without a fresh growth engine, Jumia risks becoming a structurally smaller business that continues to bleed cash.