Fatura, an Egyptian e-commerce startup, has raised $3 million to expand its service and market reach
Fatura has raised $3 million to expand its service and market reach
Fatura, a Cairo-based technology startup that connects wholesalers and manufacturers with retailers via a mobile application, announced on Monday that it raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding. Sawari Ventures and Arzan Venture Capital co-led the round, which included Egypt Ventures, EFG-EV, Cairo Angels, and Khwarizmi Ventures.
Hossam Ali, Ahmed Anwar, and Abdallah Moheb El-Din founded the company in late 2019 and previously raised an undisclosed amount of money in a seed round in July.
Fatura sells inventory to supermarkets through a network of manufacturers and wholesalers in a variety of industries. Since its inception, it has focused on the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.
Fatura Approach
The startup takes an asset-light approach, which means it does not maintain inventory and instead shares orders with producers and distributors who fulfill them via its mobile app.
There are currently over 500 sellers on the marketplace, who have served 25,000 retailers across Egypt via Fatura's platform. Over 10,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) are exchanged on the business-to-business (B2B) platform, which has already exceeded 1 billion Egyptian pounds in annual gross merchandise value (approximately $64 million) (GMV).
“There is an enormous opportunity in Egypt's B2B space, which is growing as players become more digitally mature and prepared. Collectively, digital B2B players in the FMCG space account for less than 5% of the market, and there is significant room for growth,” Hossam Ali stated in an official press release announcing the latest funding.
Fatura is now conducting a pilot in other industries after achieving significant success in the consumer goods sector.
It has already launched a digital lending service focused on retail financing and plans to expand that offering in the near future. Apart from e-commerce and lending, the startup anticipates that the investment will enable it to expand its services with the goal of optimizing the exchange of goods, money, and information in a B2B context while focusing on convenience and user experience.
The startup intends to use the new funding to introduce services that support the various players in its ecosystem, to launch several digitisation initiatives with a particular emphasis on digital payments, and to expand into additional countries in the North African region.
Regarding the company's future expansion plans, the CEO stated that Fatura's conviction is to "maintain a lean asset base, be inclusive of all industry stakeholders, and attract the best on-the-ground acquisition force in the country."
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