Impresa Capital Buys Gumtree, South African Online Classifieds Platform

Gumtree, a South African online listings network, has been acquired by Impresa Capital, a venture capital firm with offices in Durban, for an unknown sum, subject to regulatory approval.

Gumtree, one of the most popular locally published websites in the nation, was founded in 2004 and currently has 4 million unique visitors and 71 million page views.

The online ads network, which was first purchased by eBay in May 2005, will now be controlled by South Africans for the first time in 18 years thanks to Impresa Capital’s purchase of Gumtree from Adevinta, a Norwegian online classifieds company that also recently acquired eBay.

Sean Bergsma, CEO of Ignition Group, one of Africa’s largest investors in technology, media, telecommunications, and financial services, commented on the acquisition and said it presents an opportunity to expand on the Gumtree platform with new products and services that will benefit Gumtree customers, whether they be consumers or businesses. Ignition Group is majority owned by the acquirer Impresa Capital.

As a further indication of the platform’s aspirations for continental expansion, he added that the rapid growth of Gumtree on the African continent will lead to the creation of new jobs and the advancement of technology.

The acquisition of Gumtree is a continuation of the trend of acquisitions now permeating South Africa’s tech sector. In the past month, TechCabal has reported on a number of acquisitions, including Hyperclear’s purchase of the data analytics and software company Principa, purchase.’s of the hyper-converged cloud technology solutions provider Syrex, and MTN’s proposed purchase of Telkom, a mobile network service provider.