Egypt-based esports platform GBarena has acquired Tunisia’s Galactech for $15 million, in the form of a share swap.
This acquisition supports GBArena’s plans to expand into the GCC, including Saudi Arabia, with further expansion plans in the Middle Eastern esports industry. GBarena will leverage the on-ground presence and capabilities that Galactech has in Riyadh, Dubai, and Tunisia.
Founded in 2016 by Mustafa Zaza and Bishoy Mesdary, GBarena aims to create an online gaming community connecting gamers with tournament organisers and providing them with a platform where they can manage their tournaments through fully automated processes, while Galactech was founded in 2019 by Houcem Maiza and Houssem Zouaghi and now has over 200,000 active users.
Maiza, Galactech’s CEO, will be joining GBArena as co-CEO.
In October 2021, GBarena raised a six-figure pre-Series A funding round, to fuel its expansion plans.
Press release:
GBarena, the leading Middle East esports platform, today announced an agreement to acquire Tunisia-based Galactech, the gaming leader in North Africa alongside a significant presence in the GCC. The transaction expands GBArena’s footprint into the burgeoning North African market and signals their intentions to expand further including throughout the GCC.
Valued at around $15 million, in the form of a share swap, it marks the second Tunisian acquisition this month following Instadeep's whopping ₤562 million transactions by BioNTech.
This marks a milestone transaction for GBarena in anticipation of closing its Series A later this year, with participation from investors in the US, Singapore and the Mena region.
This acquisition comes in alignment with GBArena’s planned expansion into GCC, including Saudi Arabia. With the entry into North Africa executed via this transaction, the focus will continue on further expansion in the Middle Eastern esports industry. GBArena will leverage the on-ground presence and capabilities that Galactech has in Riyadh, Dubai and Tunis.
Galactech, founded in 2019, has been making waves in the North African gaming scene since its launch in 2019. With over 200,000 active users, they have become one of the most popular gaming platforms in North Africa and beyond in the region.
GBarena CEO Samer Wagdy expressed his enthusiasm for this new venture: “Our goal has always been to provide our users with an unparalleled esports experience, no matter where they're located in the world. With our acquisition of Galactech, we can now ensure that our users from North Africa will have access to identical features and content they have come to expect from us while providing them with extensive opportunities for growth and development within the esports community." Wagdy also emphasised that this acquisition is one step forward towards achieving the company’s vision, which is to be the leading aggregator in MENA, serving all stakeholders in the industry.
“We’re very happy to be taking a step forward to fulfil the vision we started embarking on the journey with. Under GBArena’s ownership, Galactech will be able to tap into both GBArena’s established user base and resources to strengthen its presence in the region,” mentioned Houcem Maiza, Galactech’s CEO, who’ll be joining GBArena as Co-CEO.
With today’s GenZ driving the region’s $3.56 billion industry, GBA’s youth-driven leadership is set in stone to build the engagement needed to foster communities across the Middle East and North Africa. Viewing today’s growth opportunity in markets like KSA and UAE, with injections of over $40 billion on infrastructural developments, a lot is expected to shape up in Mena’s gaming ecosystem in 2023. Upgrades to web3 & cloud gaming will be revolutionising the local experience very soon, reaching an expected 85.76 million gamers by 2025.
“We are thrilled to announce that with this transaction GBarena is joining forces with Galactech, creating a regional powerhouse in the thriving gaming industry," said GBarena’s chairman, Ahmed Abou Doma.
He added that "After careful analysis, we both realised it is a perfect complementary strategic fit for both companies. It will allow us to combine our strengths and resources maximising value creation and providing our gamers, fans and partners and all stakeholders with an unparalleled experience. We look forward to taking esports in the region to the next level and cementing our position as the regional leader in the industry.”
Shehata & Partners is acting as the legal advisor and Youssef Salem is acting as the financial advisor on the transaction.
source: Wamda
Egypt-based fintech Blnk, has raised $23.7 million in equity and debt funding, and $8.3 million in securitised bond issuance.
The pre-Seed and Seed funding rounds were led by Abu Dhabi’s Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC) and Egypt-based VC firm Sawari Ventures, with participation from several local and international angel investors. The $11.2 million debt funding was secured from a number of local banks. The $8.3 million securitised bond issuance was underwritten by the National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire.
Founded in 2021 by Amr Sultan and Tarek Elsheikh, Blnk has developed a digital lending platform that allows merchants of all sizes to instantly underwrite and finance their customers' purchases at the point of sale, paying over instalments ranging from six to 36 months.
The funds will support Blnk’s development of AI-powered lending infrastructure and the financing of the company’s portfolio of customers.
Press release:
Blnk, a fintech startup that enables instant consumer credit in Egypt, has raised $23.7 million in equity and debt funding, and $8.3 million in securitized bond issuance to accelerate financial inclusion within underserved communities across the country. The funds will support the further development of Blnk’s Artificial Intelligence-powered lending infrastructure and the financing of the company’s fast-growing portfolio of customers.
The combined pre-seed and seed funding rounds of $12.5 million were led by Abu Dhabi’s Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC) and Egypt-based, leading venture capital firm Sawari Ventures, with participation from several prominent local and international angel investors. The $11.2 million debt funding was secured from a number of leading local banks. The $8.3 million securitised bond issuance was underwritten by the National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire, making Blnk the youngest Egyptian startup to securitize its loan book.
Launched in October 2021, Blnk has developed a digital lending platform that empowers merchants of all sizes to instantly underwrite and finance their customers' purchases at the point of sale. With only a National ID and in as little as 3 minutes, consumers can access financing to purchase a wide range of products or services, including electronics, furniture and automotive services, paying over instalments ranging from 6 to 36 months. Leveraging its vast base of merchant branches across Egypt, Blnk has disbursed more than $20 million in loans to date. Merchants are also boosting their profitability via the transaction commission that Blnk provides.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Egypt is expected to become the second-largest Arab and African economy by the end of 2022. However, limited consumer credit penetration - only 4 per cent of Egyptians have credit cards - means consumers and businesses across the country are unable to take full advantage of opportunities to trade and maximise the country’s full economic potential. By providing inclusive access to financing for consumers across the country, Blnk is supporting further growth and development in the Egyptian economy.
Speaking about the new funding, Amr Sultan, Co-founder and CEO of Blnk said, “Our mission is to make it easier for more Egyptians to purchase the products and services they desire by offering inclusive and convenient consumer credit at the point of sale. We are delighted to have the backing of a great cohort of investors at an early stage in our journey. With their support, we believe we can drive financial inclusion in Egypt, as well as the wider Middle East and North Africa region”.
Joseph Iskander, Head of Investment at EIIC, said “we are convinced that the Egyptian market and its startup ecosystem present a compelling opportunity for regional and international investors and we are committed to identifying and investing in value accretive businesses. We are pleased to partner with Blnk to drive financial inclusion and economic development in Egypt and we look forward to working with the team to achieve their goals''.
Hany Al Sonbaty, the Managing Partner at Sawari Ventures, stated: “we are thrilled to have Blnk in our portfolio and backing them to deliver innovative solutions to tackle the urgent challenge of financial inclusion in Egypt. The company has the right combination of a seasoned team and a scalable business model, with a clear path to profitability”
Source: Wamda
Egypt-based el-dokan, a company that specialises in enterprise e-commerce solutions, has raised a $550,000 pre-Seed round led by a group of local and regional investors including EFG EV and Flat6Labs, 500 Global and Hala Ventures.
Founded in 2020 by Ahmed Maher, Mohammed Shirt and Sherif Alaa, el-dokan offers e-commerce technology to corporate clients to set up their web storefronts. It primarily caters to long-tail businesses, software houses as well as startups.
The company said it helped its clients achieve $45 million in GMV sales.
Press release
el-dokan, the first-of-its-kind company to offer enterprise e-commerce technology in MENA, has announced that it successfully secured a $550,000 pre-Seed round, led by a cluster of local and regional investors including EFG EV and Flat6Labs, 500 Global and Hala Ventures.
E-commerce is now an integral part of every retailer’s business strategy, and technology builders and platforms are scrambling to provide retailers with the best technology to help them scale up and optimize their operations.
Unlike companies like Shopify and other local shop builders in the region whose focus is to address the needs of smaller retailers, in its latest turn, el-dokan provides e-commerce APIs for large- and medium-sized retailers as well as startups, enabling them to build highly customized and personalized e-commerce stores.
Launched in late 2020 in Egypt, el-dokan primarily targets large retailers and chain stores seeking to expand their e-commerce market share, increase sales and operation automation.
Utilizing "headless e-commerce technology, el-dokan offers the optimal technology infrastructure that allows tech teams to develop highly customizable e-commerce with maximum flexibility to help businesses respond faster to changing business needs and keep up with the rapid changes in e-commerce.
Besides retailers, it also targets software companies and developers that work directly with enterprises looking to build their e-commerce stores in fast and cost-efficient manner, with 300+ available API endpoints.
Commenting on the announcement, Ahmed Maher, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of el-dokan, said that the key reason behind the company's ability to earn the trust of investors and close its pre-Seed round is the fact that el-dokan is among the very select few companies that focus on building advanced software using cutting-edge technologies such as headless, composable e-commerce architecture.
"The majority of retailers have repeatedly shown the willingness to either replace the traditional e-commerce methods with more advanced and flexible technology. The technology pioneered by el-dokan 'changes the equation' by helping retailers drive sales growth while simultaneously bringing down maintenance costs, making it possible for our retailers to quickly and easily develop APIs connections with our partners to ensure the highest levels of operational efficiency. Our technology can easily integrate with any third-party providers like payments, shipping, point of sale (POS) and (ERP) systems," commented Mohamed Yousry, chief technology officer (CTO) and co-founder of el-dokan.
“After seeing the great impact el-dokan has had on enterprise businesses in MENA, and the profound growth we’ve experienced over a short period of time, we’re excited about the fact that our clients managed to achieve $45 million GMV after migrating from other global well-known software solutions that don’t meet the present-day challenges to ours. We are now serving a global roster of clients such as Procter & Gamble (P&G), Misr Pharmacies, Mobily, Zahran stores and Apple Premium seller Switch Plus, along with grocery delivery app Appetito, among others.
And this is a testament to the ability of regionally-based tech startups to develop leading-edge technologies trusted by large, international brands and compete with global counterparts," Yousry explained.
For his part, Walid Hassouna, CEO of valU, Egypt's leading buy now pay later (BNPL) platform expressed his excitement over the company's successful completion of its initial funding round which counts EFG EV among its earliest backers.
"We are looking forward to exciting times ahead with el-dokan and its all-star team who are able to carve out a niche for themselves in the rapidly-evolving e-commerce market," said Hassouna.
Source: Wamda
- Egypt-based foodtech startup BONBELL, has raised $350,000 from a Candian angel investor.
- Founded in 2022 by Doaa Abdel-Hameed, BONBELL offers a cloud-based online food ordering and delivery system, enabling restaurant managers to handle dine-in orders, table reservations, and curbside delivery.
- BONBELL will use the investment to expand its network of restaurant partners to 750 by the end of 2022.
- It also is set on a course of closing a $10 million.
Press release
Egypt’s startup BONBELL, The first mobile App in the Food-tech industry specializing in food ordering, digital solutions for table and meal reservations, has closed an initial funding round for $350,000 through a Canadian Angel investor, to help further develop the App services and achieve a level of growth in regard to user count and daily orders.
BONBELL launched its own App in early 2022, to offer a wide range of food ordering services in Egypt, as the App offers many food ordering solutions, from food delivery to restaurant’s reservations and Dine-in ordering through a QR Code on the tables, as well as take away services.
The App offers various payment solutions through cash or credit cards.
BONBELL has partnered with many restaurants and cafes, as well as clubs like Heliopolis Club and Smash Club. It also offers its services in Malls and Cinemas, to offer a smoother food ordering experience, reserving tables and food delivery, for mall and cinema-goers.
BONBELL has also strategically partnered with many leading major companies and institutions, most notably the German University in Cairo (GUC), and Raya Telecom, in order to offer its services in their respective headquarters for employees and visitors alike.
BONBELL targets raising its partnered restaurants to 750 by the end of 2022, the company is also negotiating with two venture capital funds from Europe and the Gulf, to close a $10 million fund in its seed round by the end of the year.
Doaa Abdel-Hameed, the chief business officer of the company said: “We aim to help restaurants in offering an easier food ordering experience to their customers, either through food delivery or reserving a table in the restaurant, as well as take away orders and also the special orders made by customers in their restaurants.”
“We pursue a better experience for the Egyptian user in food ordering, we see a lot of potential and opportunities to do that through developing the App constantly based on the user reviews, and adding more restaurants in all of the Egyptian governorates.” She added.
BONBELL has earned the trust of more than 12,000 customers, who used the app for food ordering in all the ways offered through the App, in just 6 months.
Doaa Abdel-Hameed emphasized that the success of BONBELL App, in offering the best experience to its users can only be done through strategic partnerships with many more restaurants, in addition to the constant development of the technology used in the App, as well as relying on offering inventive solutions to the Egyptian user such as (Robotic Stations) service.
This service will offer customers the experience of food ordering and serving through a Robot, without any human intervention.
This service is expected to launch in Egypt by the end of 2023.
Source: Wamda
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Since 2021, Middle East and North Africa start-ups have witnessed a new leap in their growth. Although start-ups in the region have seen growth in the size and number of finance deals since 2013, as of the beginning of last year, there has been an unprecedented rise in start-up growth as the incubating business environment for start-ups in both the Gulf States and Egypt has evolved. In addition, new countries have entered the line of interest in start-ups, most notably Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
The first half of 2022 was a new chapter in the great growth of start-ups. The total volume of deals acquired by start-ups in the region was more than $1.7 billion, with growth from the first half of last year of more than 83.7%, and up to 125% compared to total funding for start-ups in 2019-2020 in total! The number of start-up finance deals reached about 341 deals with a growth rate of about 38.6% compared to the first half of 2021 and nearly 94% compared to 2020 in total.
In the following lines, we will take a look at the situation of start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa for the first half of 2022, where funding is distributed geographically and sectorally, along with gender distribution, start-up funding phases, and others.
Distribution of Start-up Finance by Country
UAE start-ups have taken the lead in the Middle East and North Africa over the past decade in recent years, Saudi start-ups have advanced and become strong competitors of Emirati companies as a hub for attracting bold finance. In recent years, Saudi startups have advanced and become a strong competitor to Emirati companies as a center for attracting venture capital, thanks to economic reforms, developing the business environment for startups, and supporting and establishing investment funds to finance them. Egypt has also focused on supporting start-ups by improving the investment environment and supporting the establishment of investment funds, and providing facilities for foreign investors and entrepreneurs, which transformed the focus of corporate transaction finance over the past years.
While most start-up financing is concentrated in the UAE, both Saudi and Egyptian start-ups have a balanced share of the size of these investments. However, UAE start-ups continued to acquire the biggest share of total finance in the first half of last year, UAE companies received approximately 45% of total start-up finance. Start-ups in Saudi Arabia and Egypt received 28% and 9% respectively, but in the first line of 2022, changes emerged in the concentration of funding for start-ups in the region, The percentage of funding received by UAE start-ups was about 37.4% and althought it leads the list of the most attractive countries to fund the region's start-ups, its share shrank by about 7.5% compared to the first half of last year.
The decline was in favor of the expansion of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with Saudi start-ups' share of total financing reaching about 32.7%, a difference of less than 5% from the UAE. Egyptian start-ups accounted for about 18.5%, up 3.5% compared to the same period last year. In the fourth place, Bahraini start-ups finished at 6.5%, which is more than 4.5% growth compared to the same period. It is also a significant rise in absolute numbers. According to the data of the first half of this year, Bahrain can be classified as a central country in attracting funding for start-ups in the region.
Sectoral Distribution of Start-up Finance
In the first half of this year, fintech start-ups accounted for about 38.4% of total finance, with growth from the first half of last year reaching approximately 6.4%, In second place, agro-technology companies came in at about 21%, but about 50% of the total financing received by agro-technology companies belongs to the UAE company Pure Harvest. Therefore, it cannot be seen as a clear indicator of the growth of the agro-technology sector, as the number of agro-technology companies that received funding during the same period has not exceeded four. On the other hand, start-ups active in logistics, health and education technology and software show increasing and more sustained growth both in terms of the number of deals and the amount of funding received over the past two years.
Start-up Financing Stages
With the increase in the number of business accelerators in the region, particularly in the Arabian Gulf and Egypt, the number of start-ups receiving financing through fast-growing companies or so-called business incubators has risen. The proportion of start-up investment deals funded through business accelerators in the first half of this year reached about 27%, however, seed and pre-seed funding continued to dominate the start-up finance landscape. The proportion of companies that received an initial funding round reached about 22% and nearly 10% of start-ups received pre-establishment funding rounds. While the proportion of companies that obtained financing in the series (A) and (B) stages was limited to 4.8% and 3%, respectively, and the financing in the Series (C) stage was limited to only one company.
Funding Disaggregated by Gender
- Egypt-based fintech Paymob has raised $50 million in Series B funding, led by Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Clay Point.
- Founded in 2015 by Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj and Mostafa El Menessy, Paymob provides online and offline merchants with digital payment solutions.
- The new funding will be used to help the company to expand its product range, enhance its presence in the Egyptian market, and expand into new markets across the Middle East and Africa region.
Press release:
Paymob, Egypt’s market-leading omnichannel merchant financial services platform, today announced it has raised $50 million in Series B funding. The proceeds will be used to turbocharge the company by expanding its product range, reinforcing its leadership in the Egyptian market, and expanding into new markets across the Middle East and Africa region.
Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Clay Point led the round. Other new participating investors included Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment, and Nclude. All existing investors including A15, FMO, and Global Ventures also participated.
This funding round is the largest ever fintech, Series B in Egypt, and brings the total funding of Paymob to over US$68.5 million making it one of the most funded companies in the region and comes at a pivotal time of an unprecedented wave of digital transformation across the region.
Paymob builds an omni-channel payment infrastructure to enable businesses to accept digital payments both online and in-store in addition to giving them better access to financial services.
Paymob’s gateway has the largest number of payment methods in the Egyptian market; in addition to conventional bank cards, Paymob added new payment methods such as mobile wallets, QR payments, bank cards’ instalments, Buy-Now Pay-Later, and consumer finance payment options to support merchants in increasing their volume of transactions and growing revenues.
Recently, Paymob partnered with Mastercard to introduce Tap-on-Phone in Egypt - the first of its kind in the country and which will start to replace traditional point of sale devices. Paymob plans to launch cards for its merchants to enable B2B transactions and build tools for merchants to better manage and grow their business.
This unique proposition has enabled Paymob to attract numerous international players such as Vodafone, LG, Virgin, Chalhoub Group, and Decathlon that have turned to Paymob’s digital payment products in addition to fast-growing companies such as Swvl, Breadfast, and Homzmart that are relying on Paymob to power their payment infrastructure to enhance customer experience and increase conversion at checkout.
The round comes on the back of strong growth across the Paymob platform in 2021, with the number of merchants and monthly volumes growing by 4x year-on-year as of December 2021. Paymob onboarded over 100,00 merchants in less than two and half years as part of its plan to reach 1 million SMEs across the region.
“We are thrilled to complete this significant fundraising with the support of such renowned international investors including, PayPal Ventures, the venture capital arm of a global pioneer in the digital payment space. It is a major endorsement of the strategy we have implemented to date and the scale of the opportunities we can harness,” said Islam Shawky, Paymob’s Co-founder, and CEO.
He added that "Central Bank of Egypt initiatives that are continuously being introduced in the market to support fintech companies were key to Paymob's growth. The Central Bank has created a regulatory framework to help fintech flourish and participate in making Egypt's digital financial inclusion ambitions a reality.”
Paymob has recently announced its market entry to Pakistan, which has a population of over 220 million, and over 4 million SMEs across the country, and plans to onboard over 100,000 merchants within the first 24 months of launching its operations.
This expansion should be followed by additional markets in the GCC and North Africa.
“Paymob shares our mission and ambition of advancing digital payments adoption – it has made impressive strides in supporting the growth and success of underserved SMBs,” said Ashish Aggarwal, Director, PayPal Ventures. “We’re honoured to be investing at a critical point in their journey, as Paymob scales game-changing solutions to bridge the fintech gap for businesses across the Middle East and Africa.”
“We are excited to partner with Paymob as they innovate at scale in the offline merchant acquiring and online payment gateway space,” said Nitin Saigal, Founder, Kora Management. “The Paymob team is leveraging key structural changes taking place across Egypt and the Middle East, as these economies evolve from being primarily cash-led to a digital heavy mode of transacting. We look forward to the road ahead.”
source: Wamda
Egypt-based fintech Khazna, has raised a Series A round of $38 million in equity and debt, with the equity investment led by Quona Capital with the participation of Speedinvest, Nclude, Khawarizmi Ventures, Algebra Ventures, Accion Venture Lab, Disruptech, AB Accelerator by Arab Bank, and CVentures, among others. The debt financing was provided by Lendable.
Launched in 2020 by Omar Saleh, Ahmed Wagueeh, Fatimah El Shenawy, and Omar Salah, Khazna aims to serve underbanked Egyptians who have little access to formal financial services, including general-purpose credit, buy now pay later (BNPL), and bill payment.
The new round will allow Khazna to ramp up its efforts to replace informal cash-driven alternatives across Egypt.
Press release:
Khazna, a Cairo-based financial Super App that offers easy to use, technology-driven financial services to Egypt’s underserved consumers and micro-businesses, announced today it has raised a Series A round of $38 million in equity and debt, with the equity investment led by impact investor Quona Capital with the participation of Speedinvest, Nclude, Khawarizmi Ventures, Algebra Ventures, Accion Venture Lab, Disruptech, AB Accelerator by Arab Bank, and CVentures, among others. The company’s debt financing is provided by Lendable, while the Arab Bank Egypt is the Security Agent facilitating the transaction. The round comes as Khazna ramps up its efforts to replace informal cash-driven alternatives across Egypt, pairing a digital native solution with an innovative business model.
Khazna’s super app caters to 50% of Egyptians who are active smartphone users and lack access to formal financial services. Khazna currently offers General Purpose Credit, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), and Bill Payment. The company’s vision is to digitise cash transactions across Egypt, in response to the Central Bank of Egypt’s recent push for financial inclusion and a “less-cash” framework.
Khazna launched in 2020 with an Earned Wage Access product that has since grown into the multi-product offering available today. Khazna’s leadership team is composed of former executives from World Remit, Valeo, Uber, CIB, Jumia, Match Group, and Arqaam Capital.
“The unprecedented evolution of Egypt’s nascent fintech industry is a testament to the significant efforts by the Central Bank of Egypt towards financial inclusion and a less-cash society. We are aligned with CBE’s vision and Khazna at its core believes that world-class financial services should be available to all. We are combining cutting-edge technology and relentless user obsession to build the best experience for our users,” said Omar Saleh, Khazna’s co-founder and CEO. “We continue to experience exponential growth in network effects created by our 150k+ active users, our partners, and Egypt’s largest merchants.”
Khazna represents Quona Capital’s second investment in Egypt. “In just two years, Khazna has scaled and monetised quickly and is already a market leader in the push for financial inclusion for the 35 million underbanked in Egypt,” said Monica Brand Engel, co-founder and Managing Partner at Quona. “Empowering consumers and micro-businesses with Khazna’s convenient, user-centric, and the transparent financial super app can enable millions across Egypt to gain greater control over their financial lives. Quona is incredibly excited about Khazna’s roadmap to be the category-leading digital super app for inclusive finance in Egypt.”
“We have been following the Khazna team since its launch in Egypt and have seen the business gain clear traction resulting in a fast scaling product offering,” said Suresh Samuel, Lendable's Deputy Chief Investment Officer. “As Lendable continues to grow our presence providing scalable debt financing to fintech in Egypt, we are excited to support Khazna’s work in providing increased access to financial services for the underserved in Egypt.”
Arab Bank has been appointed as the Security Agent to enable Khazna’s debt facility from Lendable. “Supporting Khazna was a natural step for Arab Bank as a strategic investor to facilitate the company’s growth,” said Ahmed Ismail Hassan, Country Manager at Arab Bank – Egypt.
Khazna has raised a total of $47 million since the company’s inception.
source: Wamda
Egypt-based logistics platform Naqla, has raised $10.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by El Sewedy Capital Holding (SCH), Hassan Allam Holding (HAH), and the Sallam Family.
Founded in 2017 by Sherif Taher and Samer Sallam, Naqla is a trucking technology platform and marketplace connecting truck owners with cargo companies.
Naqla will use the proceeds to advance its technology and digitise the freight process and position the company for growth and development in 2022.
Press release:
Naqla, Egypt’s trucking technology platform and marketplace connecting truck owners with cargo companies, has raised $10.5 million in a pre-Series A round. The round was led by major investors El Sewedy Capital Holding (SCH), Hassan Allam Holding (HAH), and the Sallam Family.
Naqla’s core mission is to modernise and expand Egypt’s supply chain through technology by automating orders between shippers and drivers through its two main apps.
Naqla has seen rapid growth into 35+ active zones, overseeing the movement and delivery of over 4.6 million tonnes of cargo since its establishment in 2017, and is currently working with more than 400 shippers and 10,500 drivers across Egypt.
Naqla’s business model addresses the historically underserved road freight sector in Egypt, which has grown in importance since the start of Covid-related supply-side constraints. Businesses are continuously looking for further efficiencies in inland transport from Egypt’s major entry and exit ports to maintain the flows of goods within their supply chains.
The rapid growth of Egypt’s construction and consumer goods industry has meant demand for trucking continues to rise, with employees in the sector now making up 2% of the labour force, or 3-4% of GDP - $13 billion in Egypt and $45bn across the Mena region. Many of the 1.5 million trucks in Egypt are owned by individual drivers, whom Naqla aims to onboard onto its Carrier ecosystem, consisting of road assistance, finance, insurance, health care and maintenance.
Naqla will use the proceeds of this investment to invest further in its commitment to advancing technology and digitization, positioning the company for growth and development in 2022.
Since establishing the business in 2017, founders Sherif Taher and Samer Sallam have expanded Naqla into a 165-person organization spread across all the major country locations while integrating several strands of technology and instant pricing to provide an exceptional first-class consumer experience for both shippers and truckers.
Sherif Taher, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Naqla, commenting on the fundraising, said: “We are now perfectly positioned to grow our digital logistics offering and market presence, bringing a much-needed technology infrastructure to the badly served Egyptian logistics and trucking industry, at a critical time in the country’s economic growth. We thank our investors for their part on the Naqla journey – this investment will enable rapid acceleration of our business and our planned vertical expansion into our new segments.”
Farouk Kadous, Board Member at El Sewedy Capital, added: “We’re thrilled to join Naqla on their journey towards a destination of completely changing the infrastructure of logistics in the region. We have tremendous expertise in the infrastructure space, and this investment will increase the synergies between our different portfolio companies. We love the leadership team at Naqla and are not just betting on the market size, but on their grit and vision.”
source: Wamda
- Egypt-based social commerce platform Brimore has raised a $25 million Series A round, led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Endure Capital, with participation from Fawry, Flourish, Endeavor Catalyst Fund and the startup's existing investors including Algebra Ventures, Disruptech, Khawarizmi Ventures and Vision Ventures. This marks the IFC's first-ever direct investment into an Egyptian startup.
- Founded in 2017 by Mohamed Abdulaziz, Ahmed Sheikha, and Mahmoud Refaay, Brimore enables small businesses to get their product out to the mass market by connecting them with to wide network of distributors across Egypt.
- The company plans to deploy the funding to expand its product offerings, grow network suppliers and accelerate its expansion across Africa.
Press release
Brimore, Egypt’s largest social commerce platform, has closed its Series A round of $25M, led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Endure Capital with participation from Fawry, Flourish, Endeavor Catalyst Fund and existing Brimore investors including Algebra Ventures, Disruptech, Khawarizmi Ventures and Vision Ventures. The fresh funds will be used to grow its products and suppliers and expand across the continent to become the leading social commerce app of Africa.
Three years into its foundation, Brimore was able to grow 400x, build a massive network of almost 75,000 resellers to cover 27 cities within Egypt, with a focus on rural and remote areas. Brimore uses its unique infrastructure and proprietary technology to avail market penetration opportunities to emerging brands owners. Brimore enables its sellers, who are mostly women, to unlock an alternative and flexible income method and become local business leaders through their custom solutions of online and offline sales channels.
The new capital will fuel Brimore’s growth within the next year, growing its network of sellers and suppliers 4x, doubling the number of its employees and increasing the number of products sold three-fold. By 2023, Brimore aims to operate in three countries and strengthen its physical logistics capabilities.
“In the past three years, we’ve focused on building a smart and reliable infrastructure that enables the masses to do their commerce businesses, wherever they are, and whatever they have,” said Mohamed Abdulaziz, Brimore’s CEO and Co-Founder. “We’ll be using the fresh fund to scale our infrastructure, enabling many more people to continue their journey of 50x growth by 2023, and opening this gate of hope and opportunity to other people in African markets.
Ahmed Sheikha, Chief Business and Investment Officer and Co-Founder at Brimore added: “Our ambition is to create a global model where market access is democratized through the power of people. Our promise is that we will use technology, operations and creative financing models to make it true.” Brimore isn't only about online reselling, it commoditizes trust, allowing brands to reach all types of audiences, and helps resellers sell online and offline, especially in areas with minimal internet penetration.
Walid Labadi, IFC’s country manager for Egypt, said: “IFC is excited to support Brimore as a leader in social commerce in Egypt. This is our largest direct investment in social commerce so far,” said Walid Labadi, IFC’s country manager for Egypt. “IFC’s co-lead investment in Brimore aims to help the platform continue to democratize access to e-commerce, increase economic opportunities for women, and support the development of the local manufacturing sector in the country.”
Tarek Fahim, Managing Partner at Endure Capital, said: “Every decade, comes a company that fuses technology, operations excellence, and human capital to unlock unprecedented impact and value. We are proud to be Brimore's first and continuous partner in their mission of building the infrastructure and technology for social commerce in Egypt and Africa, to change the lives of their partners, especially women who aspire for a better future for themselves and their families.”
Tarek Assaad, Managing Partner at Algebra Ventures said: “As Brimore experienced explosive growth over the past three years, Algebra has worked closely with the company to support in strategic and operational areas, especially recruitment, which is a key area of focus at Algebra. We came in on the first round of investment and invested in every subsequent round, to ensure that the growth momentum stays on track. We are delighted to see such a strong group of investors, many of whom have co-invested with us in the past, coming into the company. I am humbled by how Mohamed and Ahmed have grown as leaders and continue to drive the execution and vision of the company forward.”
The funding will be used to expand the customer base and healthcare network
Egypt's health tech startup Bypa-ss has closed a $1 million Pre-Seed funding round from Egyptian and foreign investors, with participation from Magic Fund, Acuity Ventures, Launch Africa, Plug and Play, and other regional and international venture capital funds (VCs).
The funding will be used to expand the customer base and healthcare network of its HealthTag platform for storing and sharing medical records, the company said in a press release.
Bypa-ss was founded in 2019 in Shebin El Kom, Menofia, and is now offering services to its members across Egypt. The startup has been accelerated and backed by Falak Startups' investment.
source: Zaway
