The destinations of the top executives of Cars45 who ‘silently’ left one of Nigeria’s leading used car company has been revealed.
Silently in the sense that it was Cars45 that made everyone know that they have left. What did Cars45 do?
They put out a disclaimer that 11 of their top executives were no longer in the employment of the company starting effect from August 25, 2020.
Consequently, we heard that Etop Ikpe, the now-former CEO of Cars45 had also left.
Presently, Innovation-village can now confirm to you that Ikpe will now head Autochek.
How do we know this? Several publications had announced that Ikpe will head Autochek. Regardless, this fact was confirmed after ROAM Africa disclosed that the new cars company will acquire Cheki businesses in Nigeria and Ghana.
In the press release, Etop Ikpe was addressed as the CEO of Autochek even though his LinkedIn page still reads NewCo.
The release described Autochek as “an automotive technology company that aims to build digital solutions that will enhance and enable a seamless and safe automotive commerce experience across Africa, starting with Nigeria and Ghana.”
As expected, some of the 11 executives who left Cars45 have already been poached by Autocheck. Some of them are: Mayokun Fadeyibi is VP Commercial, Iyamu Mohammed is VP, New Market, Timitope Oluguonye is the COO and John Egwu is VP, Operations.
Cars45 was founded in 2016 by Etop Ikpe, Iyamu Mohammed, Sujay Tyle, and Peter Lindholm. In 2017, the company raised a $5 million Series A round from the Frontier Cars Group, a holding company whose backers include Balderton Capital, EchoVC, TPG Growth, and NEA.
The question now is: What next for Cars45? Will it maintain its market dominance in the face of stiff competition from its former founder? The next few months would be critical for the survival of the leading cars company in Nigeria.
