FlapKap, a tech-enabled revenue-based financing platform in Egypt, has announced that it has successfully closed its $3.6 million Seed round. FlapKap is revolutionising the growth of e-commerce. The following companies took part in the round: Bolt by QED, Nclude, Outliers, and A15.
This most recent infusion of capital comes six months after the company completed its pre-seed funding round. It also coincides with the company recording significant milestones, such as an increase of more than 200 percent month over month in the amount of funding distributed and the number of customers served.
FlapKap intends to strengthen its position as the foremost and leading revenue-based financing player in the MENA region by utilising the newly acquired capital to expand its capacity to assist an even greater number of e-commerce businesses in the region in scaling their operations and realising their full potential for expansion. By providing e-commerce enterprises with the flexibility to increase their inventory and digital advertisements immediately, while flexibly paying later, the company hopes to strengthen its footprint in the Middle Eastern countries of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.
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“As we develop our platform and expand our capacity to enable even more e-commerce platforms to attain their full growth potential, we’re excited to be joined by prominent global investors with deep knowledge and extensive expertise in the revenue-based financing space, having previously invested in some of our international peers. Our rapid growth within a short period of time demonstrates the massive unmet demand in our region and, being founders ourselves, we take huge pride in being able to offer this founder-friendly financing to founders and entrepreneurs all across the region,” Ahmad Coucha, FlapKap CEO and Cofounder said.
Why The Investors Invested
Gbenga Ajayi, Partner at QED commented, “Having invested and worked with similar companies to FlapKap across other regions such as Europe and Latin America, we are confident this team can attain similar success’’.
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The investor QED has a history of investing in some of FlapKap’s most successful foreign competitors, such as Wayflyer and Fairplay, who between them have successfully secured more than $900 million in funding.
Basil Moftah, Partner at Nclude added, “We value companies and entrepreneurs that create innovative solutions that push the envelope and are proud to support FlapKap’s previously unavailable financial services to SMEs in the Mena regions’’
Mohammed Almeshekah, Partner at Outliers commented, “Coucha and Khaled have combined their first-hand experience and insights at Kijami & N26 and hit the ground running with strong initial performance. We are thrilled to be part of their journey from the beginning’’
Karim Beshara, Partner at A15 commented, “Having embarked on this journey with Ahmad from the very start, we are proud FlapKap’s success so far. We are pleased with the team’s momentum and are excited about the growth opportunities going forward’’
Recent study estimates that Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt’s e-commerce industry account for $21.4 billion and will expand by more than 50% to $33.3 billion in 2025. As global shopping holidays like Singles Day and Black Friday, known as ‘White Friday’ in Mena, continue to expand in popularity and spend [Mena buyers spent $6 billion on Black Friday in 2021], online retailers must prepare to take advantage of the trend.
A Look At What The Startup Does
FlapKap allows e-commerce enterprises to develop and thrive by targeting businesses that have previously had limited access to bank or venture capital financing. The company was co-founded in 2022 by Ahmad Coucha and Khaled Nassef, with original team members Sherif Bichara and Adel Hodroj. In order to assist e-commerce enterprises in accelerating their growth and gaining prompt access to working capital finance so that they may spend money on inventory and digital marketing, FlapKap provides such businesses with insights and data. The firm takes great satisfaction in its ability to make decisions quickly and based on data, which enables it to make an offer to merchants less than forty-eight hours after they sign up for the service. Fees are paid back as a proportion of sales, which means that if revenues slow down, so do repayments, and merchants do not have to worry about late fees or penalties. Fees are recouped in this manner because they are paid back as a percentage of revenues.
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FlapKap is able to add a lot more online retailers to its already extensive roster thanks to its newly acquired funds as well as its low entrance threshold. The company is specifically targeting e-commerce enterprises that have been running for at least six months. In the past, FlapKap has collaborated with a number of the most promising e-commerce businesses in the region. These businesses, which include Dresscode, Palma, Tam’s Shoemaker, and Raw African, amongst others, have benefited from FlapKap’s assistance in increasing their revenue by more than 85 percent and their net profits by more than 70 percent in a matter of months. In addition, FlapKap has only just merged its AI-based insights and financial data analytics with Shopify, Woocommerce, Facebook, and Google, and the company anticipates striking further agreements with other participants in the ecosystem.
FlapKap e-commerce platform FlapKap e-commerce platform FlapKap e-commerce platform
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh