Again, angel investors continue to descend upon Egyptian startups, no matter their sector. Joining the continuing league of startups to be funded by angels in recent time is Appetito, a Cairo-based grocery startup which has secured a $450K Seed funding round from a group of Saudi Arabian angel investors.
“We’re proud of what we have achieved in just a few months from our launch. We’re privileged to have such prominent investors backing us. With their support and the team we’re building, I’m confident we will be in a leading position in the global race of grocery delivery,” said Appetito Founder and CEO Shehab Mokhtar.
Here Is What You Need To Know
- A group of angel investors in this round was led by Ahmed Al Alola, an early-stage investor who was one of the early backers of Nana and Sary, alongside Afropreneurs Fund, an African early-stage technology fund that has previously backed top startups such as Andela, Flutterwave and Trella.
- Jedar Capital, an emerging VC focused on early-stage startups in the Middle East, Africa, and Emerging Asia, also participated in the round.
Why The Investors Invested
“Observing the radical change in consumer’s behaviour post-COVID-19, the grocery delivery market is expanding rapidly in the region. I believe Appetito — with its stellar team — is well positioned to lead that segment and capture the market by delivering superior experience compared to what is currently available in most of the African space,” Ahmed Al Alola said.
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“ Our investment into Appetito’s seed round follows on our proven thesis of investing in strong founders with unique local insights and a bias towards execution. We are excited by what Shehab and his team have achieved so far, and we are very bullish on the Egyptian early-stage ecosystem,” Idris Bello, Managing Partner, Afropreneurs Fund said.
“We are excited to be part of Appetito’s journey in Egypt and MENA region. We have been watching Appetito’s execution and the team’s growth focused approach with very limited resources early on, this was a clear message to us on how resilient and focused they are. Appetito is best suited for growth with the digital transformation happening in Egypt where online commerce growth is skyrocketing and saw a huge leap with covid, more and more customers now are adopting online grocery shopping as their standard now. We believe that Appetito’s model focusing on dark stores rather than aggregating from grocery retail stores will add value and differentiation in the market and play a pivotal role in terms of operational efficiency and gross margin contribution. We look forward to supporting them with their expansion and growth plans in Egypt and beyond,” Sherif Nessim, Founder and Managing Director of Jedar Capital said.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Appetito, which launched in March 2020, uses a dark store model, in which goods are purchased from suppliers, processed in mini fulfillment centers, and then shipped to consumers. The company began with a wide variety of private label goods, delivering to all areas of Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria the next day and on time.
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The company recently extended its product range to include over 1000 SKUs from well-known market brands and joined the hyper convenience race by offering customers delivery in under 60 minutes in select areas.
Apetito grocery Apetito grocery
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