Muqbis, the full-fledged marketplace built by Tech Nerds to connect the entire circuit for “Handicrafts Talented Hands” in MEA, has revealed that Nama Ventures has invested an undisclosed sum in a pre-Seed investment round.
The funds will be used to help its craftspeople reach out to more customers.
“We are super excited to be one of Nama’s Portfolio companies in our first round. Nama is an extraordinary VC that showed a strong belief in what we do and aim to deliver, even before we signed the final agreement for the investment, they bridged all possible ways to support our business growth through recommendations and business matchmaking. We believe the next phase for Muqbis will be a game changer. Through the past few months we showed a remarkable market footprint in our MVP phase, but it’s time for a greater impact that is specially tailored for the industry as we believe in Talented Hands and shall avail all the possible ways to deliver their uniqueness to customers’ doorstep in a world class experience,” Iman El Wasifi, the CEO of Muqbis said.
Why The Investor Invested
“We’ve always wanted to make a bet on ‘the Etsy of Mena’ for a while now, the opportunities are massive and our region enjoys a great deal of artists and talented craftsmen that need the right medium to monetise their craft. Yet we were always challenged in finding the right complementary team to go after the opportunity,” said Mohammed Alzubi, founder and managing partner of Nama Venturers. “Well the wait is over, Iman, Mohamed and Karim are the definition of a complementary team with the right role clarity to tackle this exciting challenge. We are simply honoured and privileged that the super talented Muqbis team has chosen Nama Ventures as their funding partner, and we look forward to return the favor in providing the value add that we promised with our investment.”
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A Look At What The Startup Does
Muqbis was formed in 2021 by Iman El Wasifi, Mohamed Nasser, and Kareem Hussein. The co-founders have substantial experience in technological innovation and commercial success. The three Musketeers held key positions in Egypt Yellow Pages, as well as other Egyptian and Middle Eastern technology and startup firms. They were all passionate about handicrafts and collaborated to build Muqbis into a full-fledged platform dedicated to the sector. Muqbis’ competitive edge is based on little human involvement, and the product roadmap is based on a thorough understanding of the market’s unique characteristics and difficulties.
Through Muqbis, the entire team took responsibility not only for assisting craftsmen’s growth and encouraging more conversions for product sales, but also for assisting this one-of-a-kind business while preserving traditional heritage by utilising cutting-edge technology to improve deserved visibility and growth.
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Despite the pandemic’s barriers to growth, Egypt’s handcrafts sector is only worth 22 billion Egyptian pounds. Muqbis aspires to be the umbrella for Talented Hands, particularly women, in the Egyptian and MEA markets, providing them with a fair marketplace in which to sell their products, be educated on how to use the power of e-commerce to secure a fair income, and be exposed to the market locally and internationally.
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