MaxAB closes $40m Series A to fuel expansion

Cairo-based MaxAB, the largest Egyptian B2B e-commerce platform that serves food and grocery retailers, has secured $40 million in a Series A round, led by

RMBV, a prominent impact investor in North Africa. The round included participation from the IFC, Flourish Ventures, Crystal Stream Capital, Rise Capital, and Endeavour Catalyst as well as MaxAB’s existing investors, Beco Capital and 4DX Ventures.

Belal El Megharbel, co-founder and CEO at MaxAB, said: “This additional capital will allow us to continue to give retailers the economies of scale our platform offers while serving many more new customers. Being backed by a diverse group of renowned and experienced investors will enable us to rapidly scale our operations across the Mena region and developing markets.”

MaxAB is Crystal Stream and Flourish Ventures’ first North African investment. This round brings the company’s total investment to date to more than $45 million since its seed round in September 2019. MaxAB has been able to impact the lives of more than 55,000 retailers, successfully fulfil more than one million orders, and create more than 1,600 direct jobs in the process. It has grown more than 5x year-on-year, fuelled by its capacity to reliably fulfil deliveries within 24 hours of orders being placed.

Ahmed Badreldin, managing partner at RMBV said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the unique structure of Egypt’s economy, with hundreds of thousands of shopkeepers and small businesses becoming the lifeline of our country at the time of crisis. We are delighted to be backing visionary entrepreneurs that have created a transformative business with impressive growth that is a catalyst for financial inclusion and job creation. We look forward to supporting MaxAB in its next phase of development as they continue delivering on growth and innovation.”

The new capital raised will be deployed to expand MaxAB’s physical footprint across the Mena region, following its expansion to every key city in Egypt by the end of 2021. The company also plans on scaling recently launched business verticals including new supply chains and embedded finance solutions.

“MaxAB is set to play a central role in retailers’ financial lives as it directly boosts retailers’ profits by reducing the hassle and the cost of buying inventory and, with embedded fintech products in its core offering, customers can easily buy more goods and pay for them seamlessly,” said Ameya Upadhyay, venture partner at Flourish Ventures. — business@khaleejtimes.com