Fatura, a Cairo-based B2B ecommerce marketplace, has secured $3 million in a pre-Series A round led by Sawari Ventures and Arzan Venture Capital. The deal also included Egypt Ventures, EFG-EV, Cairo Angels, and Khwarizmi Ventures. In July 2020, the company raised an unknown amount of money in a seed round.
With this financing, Fatura will be able to expand its services beyond e-commerce and digital financing, allowing it to optimize the interchange of products, money, and information in the B2B environment while concentrating on ease and user experience.
“There is a great opportunity in the B2B space in Egypt, that is growing as the players are becoming digitally mature and ready. Collectively, the digital B2B players in the FMCG space capture less than five per cent of the market and there is a long way to go. Our conviction is to stay asset-light, be inclusive to all the industry stakeholders and to attract the best on-ground acquisition force across the country,” Hossam Ali, Fatura’s CEO, said in a statement.
Why The Investors Invested
Fatura has established a solid basis and infrastructure for monetizing its data and services. New services to serve the many actors in the company’s ecosystem, such as manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, as well as diverse digitisation projects with an emphasis on digital payments and regional development into new markets, are among the company’s future ambitions.
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“Fatura’s existing infrastructure has enabled them to expand their offerings to new customers,” commented Hany Al-Sonbaty, Managing Partners at Sawari Ventures, adding that, “the team has demonstrated that they have the vision to identify new opportunities and the prowess and agility to implement and deliver. We are excited to become part of their journey.”
“Being part of Fatura’s success story is exciting for us. The FMCG industry is in need of Fatura’s product, which will solve many challenges faced by small retailers. Also, its fintech angle complements the core product and enables retailers to scale their business further with less working capital constraints,” Hasan J. Zainal, Managing Partner of Arzan Venture Capital said.
Khwarizmi Ventures recently participated in Egyptian ecommerce logistics startup, Bosta’s $6.7 million Series A round.
A Look At What The Startup Does
The B2B marketplace began in late 2019 and has already exceeded 1 billion EGP in annual GMV, and that’s just in the FMCG industry. The Fatura smartphone app links wholesalers and manufacturers with retailers across a wide range of sectors. The company has been functioning in the FMCG market and is now experimenting with other industries.
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The firm has also expanded its reach to more than 25,000 stores and 500 wholesalers and manufacturers throughout 20 governorates, exchanging more than 10,000 SKUs in the last year. Fatura also pierced the surface of financial services by offering digital lending with a focus on retail financing, with plans to expand its retail financing offerings in the near future.
Fatura ecommerce Fatura ecommerce
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