La Reina, the Cairo-based online fashion rental platform has secured an undisclosed six-figure seed round from 500 Startups, Algebra Ventures along with a group of angel investors.
The company plans to use the funds to expand its team and launch its newest fashion subscription service, The Box, which provides its members with day-to-day clothing of their favourite brands delivered to their doorstep every week for a subscription fee. According to the company, The Box is specifically intended for working women, who might be time-strapped to go shopping.
Why The Investors Invested
The Silicon-Valley based venture capital firm 500 Startups is the most active early-stage Venture Capital Fund in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and was established in 2012. Since its first investment in the region, 500 Startups has committed to investments in over 160 startups across the region. With the launch of 500 Falcons, a MENA focused fund in 2017, 500 Startups plans to invest in approximately 100–150 companies over a three-year period in addition to follow-on investments into the top performing companies.
“Though Covid-19 has triggered seismic shifts in shopping behaviour, we are impressed with how Ghada and her team have worked hard to quickly pivot its strategy to cope with this new era and keep the fashion clothing accessible to its customers. We are excited to support La Reina as they continue expanding their product offerings and forge ahead as pioneers in this fashion rental space,” said Sharif El-Badawi, managing partner at 500 Startups Middle East and North Africa.
For further information, including 500 Startups assessment criteria for startups please check out their website: https://500.co/how-500-startups-picks-investments/.
Of the other part, Algebra Ventures is a $50-million Cairo-based venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology companies in Egypt and the MENA region. Its LPs include Cisco, the European Commission, EAEF, EBRD, IFC, and private family offices. Algebra has invested in 15 transformative technology companies in MENA, including HolidayMe, Trella, Elmenus, Dsquares, and Halan.
As the most known and strongest Venture Capital in Egypt, they represent the institutional money that comes into a startup. The reason why they focus on Egypt is that most of their experience is in Egypt. However, they do invest in some parts of the Middle East such as UAE and Jordan. So, mostly neighbouring countries of Egypt which represent the scope of their funding. In terms of sector, they invest basically in technology and its sub-sectors such as transport-tech, marketplaces, consumer internet, SaaS, etc.
Read also: Egypt’s Beauty Startup Source Beauty Secures Investment From 500 Startups
A Look At What La Reina Startup Does
Founded in 2016 by Amr Diab and Ghada Eltanawy, La Reina connects dress owners to renters directly. The startup allows customers to use the items and return them in a week. Currently, the platform has over 100,000 registered users.
“We created The Box to offer practical shopping solutions for women who lead busy lives but are also keen on looking their absolute best every single day. We want our members to become versatile in how they dress up while also encouraging them to create a very minimal wardrobe. Such an approach stresses the importance of fashion sustainability, The Box helps with decreasing the fashion footprint by 85 per cent with each subscriber making it a game-changer that shapes the future of fashion and how we consume it,” stated Eltanawy.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer