Naspers buys the remainder of shares in Turkish e-commerce giant Markafoni, CEO Sina Afra moves on

Nearly three years after acquiring almost two-thirds of the company at a reported $200 million valuation, South African media multinational Naspers has bought the remainder of the shares of Markafoni, a Turkish cross-border e-commerce company with more than 1,000 employees.

Founded in 2008 by a trio of entrepreneurs on a shoestring budget, Markafoni became one of the leading Internet companies in Turkey by a margin, by evolving from a private shopping club to an all-round e-commerce venture with multiple verticals and geographies served.

Earlier today, co-founder and CEO Sina Afra sent an email to his contacts about the 'incredible journey' he's had at Markafoni - he will leave the company at the end of this month to pursue other entrepreneurial endeavours. Here's the email (also follow his tweets, though they're in Turkish):

Dear Friends,

Today, Naspers announced to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Markafoni. Naspers originally acquired a majority stake of Markafoni in July 2011 in one of the biggest deals in the Turkish online industry. Now, 3 years later, Naspers decided to take full advantage of the phenomenal growth of the Turkish e-commerce market and leadership position of Markafoni.

Markafoni was founded in 2008 and was the first Turkish internet company going global (Australia, Ukraine, South Korea, Greece and Poland). With all other brands in the group (Zizigo, Enmoda, Misspera), Markafoni became the biggest Online Fashion company in Turkey and MENA.

I’ve lived and breathed Markafoni ever since I co-founded our company in 2008. I will leave Markafoni as of May 31, 2014 and head for new entrepreneurial endeavours.

The future looks very exciting.

E-commerce specialist Ilker Baydar will succeed Afra the helm of Markafoni.

Naspers, its new 100% owner, was founded almost a century ago and is today a multinational group of mainly e-commerce, social networking and media platforms, with operations in more than 133 countries. It has stakes in whoppers like Tencent, Mail.ru, Avito, Flipkart, Souq.com, OLX and Buscapé.