Egypt’s startup fund raising this year still reflects an opportunity for all sectors, not only fintechs, transport or logistics. Cairo-based beauty services booking platform Glamera has joined the league, raising $250,000 in a seed round. Although the startup did not disclose the name of the investor, it however noted that the investment came from a Saudi angel investor.
A Look At Glamera
The startup was founded early 2019 by Mohamed Hassan, Omar Fathy and Zafer Alshehri.
Glamera through its mobile app (for iOS and Android) allows users to book appointments for different beauty and health services at beauty salons and clinics, spas, gyms, and dental clinics.
The users have the options to go through the list of services provided by Glamera’s different partners, see their prices, book appointments, pay (using different payment options) and then rate their experience afterward right from the app (think Uber for beauty services).
The startup also maintains an app for partners that they use to manage the bookings.
Mohamed Hassan, the co-founder and CEO of Glamera, noted that the startup currently has over 200 partners in Cairo selling their services on Glamera’s platform and have facilitated thousands of bookings since launching earlier this year, with over 20,000 app downloads.
Glamera has plans to (further) expand its services in Cairo and three other governorates in Egypt including Alexandria later this year with the aim to take the number of partners they have to 1,000.
The startup also plans to expand its services to Saudi next year.
The startup that currently has a team of 35 employees based in Cairo will use this investment to fuel its expansion.
- For almost 10 years, Egypt has made a dramatic leap in a number of fast-expanding startups and an amazing set of supporting institutions and communities.
In 2018, Egypt was ranked the fastest growing startup ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa and the second largest after UAE, according to a report by start-up platform MAGNiTT.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world