Malaysia-headquartered and Australia-listed Frontier Digital Ventures, an operator of online classified businesses in emerging markets and a portfolio firm of the Catcha Group, is to increase its equity shareholding in leading Moroccan online automotive website, Moteur.ma’, as indicated in its recent prospectus.

Frontier will be exercising its call option in Moteur as well as acquiring vendor shares, increasing its equity shareholding in Moteur to 49 per cent. The funding will be deployed to further accelerate Moteur’s leadership position in Morocco. Payment for the call option and acquiring vendor shares will be made in October 2016.

Moteur, founded in 2009, claims to be the leading automotive portal in Morocco, a market of approximately 33 million. Frontier, founded in 2014, operates 15 online marketplace platforms covering a range of verticals including cars, property and general classifieds in 19 frontier and emerging markets.

Other markets where Frontier Digital has an exposure are Pakistan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Ghana and Morocco.

Frontier’s strategy is to partner local entrepreneurs and apply its management and operating expertise, as well as provide funding to accelerate their growth and leadership position.

In August 2016, Moteur claimed its portal  received 764,000 site visits.

As each business grows, Frontier will look to increase its equity stake as each business matures. FDV chief executive Shaun Di Gregorio said: “Our goal is to be the leading operator of online marketplace businesses in select emerging markets across the globe. We are currently partnered with 15 operating companies, which are growing at a rapid rate.” – Deal Street Asia