NAIROBI, Kenya—On safari¹ for the rare African tech unicorn², Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other big-name investors³ think they have spotted⁴ a winner in Jumia, the continent’s aspiring⁵ Alibaba.

肯尼亚内罗毕--- 高盛集团(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)等知名投资机构在搜寻非洲科技独角兽的过程中发现，尽管目标稀缺，但Jumia可谓潜力巨大，有望成为非洲大陆的阿里巴巴(Alibaba Group)。

The online retailer⁷, which launched in 2012 in Nigeria with the backing of German startup fund Rocket Internet SE, is Africa’s biggest e-commerce platform selling goods and services to millions of customers. It has raised more than $700 million from investors, including global telecom operators and was valued at $1.2 billion—qualifying as a so-called unicorn—during its last fundraising round in 2016.

这家获德国初创基金Rocket Internet SE支持的电商2012年创立于尼日利亚，目前是非洲最大电商平台，向数以百万计的非洲人销售商品和服务。Jumia已获包括国际电信运营商在内众多投资者逾7亿美元投资，在2016年的上一个融资轮中，公司估值达12亿美元。

Jumia has expanded from four to 14 countries. Gross sales last year reached 507 million euros ($597 million), up 42% from the year before. Its vendor⁸ network, from Cape⁹ Town, South Africa, to Casablanca, Morocco, includes up to 70,000 businesses offering their goods and services online.

Jumia的足迹已从四个国家拓展至14个国家。去年，公司总销售额达5.07亿欧元(合6.827亿美元)，同比增长42%。Jumia的供货商网络覆盖面广阔，从南非开普敦直到摩洛哥卡萨布兰卡，其在线平台上有多达七万个商家提供各种商品和服务。

Jumia’s growth story outlines the scale of the challenge for African online retail⁶. Faced with poor internet connections and tight bank lending for vendors¹⁰ and consumers, the startup has had to build from scratch much of the economic infrastructure¹¹ within which to operate.

从Jumia的成长历程也可略窥非洲电商市场挑战之巨。除了网络连接不畅，供货商和消费者也难以获得银行贷款，面对这些难题，Jumia几乎从零开始搭建了配套经济基础设施，以便开展运营。

“Nowhere else in the world is it more difficult to shop than in Africa,” said Sacha Poignonnec, Jumia’s co-founder and chief executive.

Jumia联席创始人兼首席执行长Sacha Poignonnec称：“说到买东西，全球再没什么地方比非洲更难了。”

Jumia executives have set up credit lines, offering loans to vetted¹² vendors from the company’s balance sheet. They also hold training workshops on basic accounting¹³ and stock-keeping.

Jumia的管理层建立了信用额度制度，用公司资产负债表上的资金向通过审核的供货商提供贷款。公司管理层还举办有关基础会计知识和库存管理的培训。

Just 0.5% of all retail on the continent takes place online, according to Boston Consulting Group research, compared with about 15% in China—home to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. —and 5% in India. But companies like Jumia are changing the economic landscape for many African entrepreneurs.

根据波士顿咨询公司(Boston Consulting Group)的研究，在非洲，电商销售额仅占整体销售额的0.5%，在中国该比例约为15%，印度为5%，但尽管如此，Jumia等公司正在为众多非洲企业家重塑经济版图。