Etop Ikpe and his team at the Nigerian vehicle marketplace, Cars45.com, are no doubt feeling great following the successful close of the company's $5 million Series A funding round a couple of weeks ago. Given the tough time Nigeria's e-commerce industry has been having of late, the significance of this achievement is not lost on us.

Previously the Commercial Director of Konga-- one of Nigeria’s largest online shopping platforms, and formerly the CEO and Co-MD of DealDey, Etop is unquestionably an e-commerce veteran at this point.

Etop joined DealDey after the startup acquired Three Stitches-- Nigeria’s first e-commerce website dedicated to fashion, which he founded in 2008. Prior to that, Etop founded Tinker Bell Media LTD, which produced We Run the Game-- a syndicated sports program broadcast terrestrially across 12 Broadcast Networks.

Cars45 is Nigeria's largest used car sales platform and runs local inspection centres in strategic locations around the country which help customers value and sell their cars within 45 minutes.