Egyptian Startup Raises Raises $2.7 Million Pre-seed Funding for Expansion

Middle and North African e-commerce platform, ExpandCart, has raised $2.7 million in a Pre-Series B bridge round headed by Hong Kong’s Betatron Venture Group, with participation from existing investors Sawari Ventures in Egypt and Agility Ventures in Kuwait.

The company aims to use the funding for expansion in current markets while focusing on R&D, technology development, and new product development in order to enable 1 million merchants across the Mena region in the next three years using a variety of products.

ExpandCart, which was founded in 2016, is one of the largest e-commerce platform builders in the MENA (Middle-East and North-African) region, with customers from over 40 countries and a client base of 25,000 merchants who generated over $850 million in GMV through the ExpandCart platform in its current main markets, which include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

According to stats, MENA’s e-commerce sector has grown at a CAGR of 35% over the last five years, studies show that e-commerce will accelerate even further between 2020 and 2022, at a 20% CAGR, and then expand at a further 14% every year until 2025.

ExpandCart is currently preparing to launch a new financing round dedicated to new market expansion and the development of a comprehensive ecosystem of commerce products and solutions that will help the company acquire new segments of merchants with business needs that go beyond a traditional online store.

“E-commerce growth has been impressive in the Middle East, and we are proud to be one of the leading players to help millions of businesses go online. With this round, we are committed to being more customer-centric than ever, to build top-class operations, and we will continue to focus on creating the most comprehensive suite of products to help our merchants succeed,”  said Amr Shawqy, Co-founder ExpandCart CEO.

“We have been working with Amr and the team at ExpandCart ever since January 2019 and were part of their Pre-A investment round. We’re incredibly excited about the prospect of the e-commerce market in the region and believe ExpandCart will be at the forefront of driving its growth. The Pre-B round will allow the company to further accelerate its business development and set the stage for a larger Series B in 2022,” Matthias Knobloch, the Managing Partner of Betatron Venture Group, said.