Tech in Africa
MaxAB, an Egypt wholesale food and grocery B2B e-commerce platform has raised $40 million in a Serie A round led by RMBV alongside participation from IFC, Crystal Stream Capital, Flourish Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Rise Capital, and existing investors 4DX Ventures and Beco Capital. The funding will go into the expansion of MaxAB across MENA after an expansion to all key cities across Egypt.
This brings the total funding raised by MaxAB to over $45 million since its last September 2019 seed round. Belal El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim was founded MaxAB in 2018 to help mom-and-pop stores buy inventory for their stores through its app. In just 3 years MaxAB has created a supply chain that serves traditional retailers offering them the simplicity of dealing with one supplier who offers transparency and on-demand delivery in addition to several other value-added services. In a similar manner, suppliers benefit from the platforms’ end-to-end supply chain solutions and business intelligence tools that help accurately predict, monitor, and control the impact of their strategies in real-time.
Egyptian startups are seeing a wave in investment from both local and international investors. Capital is pouring in on every sector from edtech to fintech. Trella has been Egypt’s most funded startup for the first half of the year raising $42 million.
Belal El-Megharbel, the CEO described their 3-year stint as a journey to create a “cohesive, transparent and efficient food and grocery supply chain.” He pointed out that the extra capital will give retailers economies of scale and the ability to serve more customers. MaxAB has impacted the lives of over 55,000 retailers and successfully honored over a million orders creating 1600 indirect jobs in the process.
