Startup Garment IO, the Egypt venture that offers a “plug and play” garment manufacturing management solution has secured $450 000 in seed funding from Egypt Ventures and 500 Startups via its 500 Falcons fund.

“We are excited about the partnership with 500 startups and EG Ventures and the funds will help us grow our footprint in Egypt, expand the tech team and strengthen our operations (deployment and customer support),” the startup was quoted as saying. 

Here Is The Deal 

• Egypt Ventures and 500 Startups, the lead investors in the latest round have been active in startup investing in Egypt. 
• The startup hopes to use the funds to grow its footprint in Egypt, expand its tech team as well as strengthen its operations (deployment and customer support).
• Co-founder Ahmed Nounou said the startup has plans to also expand their product to Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey in the long run. In the meantime, it intends to focus more on Egypt with the latest investment.
• In May 2019, Garment IO raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 500 Startups.
• The startup was also part of 500 Startups’ third round of MENA Dojo Series A programme with 13 other startups.
• It is also a graduate of the incubation programme run by the Egyptian government’s Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC).

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Why The Investors Invested

“We’re very excited to invest in Garment IO as it is offering the opportunity to improve the productivity and efficiency across the value-chain of an industry that holds fantastic promise in Egypt. We’re looking forward to working with Ahmed and Mahmoud as they move into the next phase of their growth plan,” Heba Ali, Managing Director of Egypt Ventures said. 

Also commenting, Sharif El-Badawi, Managing Partner, 500 Startups (500 Falcons), noted that:

“With IoT technology booming with a wide range of applications, Garment IO is revolutionizing the value chain of the garment manufacturing industry. We are delighted to partner with the team and witness Garment IO scale to greater heights in the manufacturing space.”

A Look At What Garment IO Does

Founded in 2017 by Mahmoud Saba and Ahmed Nounou, Garment Io combines software and hardware to give garment factory managers and owners a complete overview on production processes, worker performance and production cost calculation. Data is then accessible real-time online. The startup boasts of over 2000 smart terminals installed in factories in Egypt. 

In simple terms, once installed the software provides factory managers and supervisors with production order tracking and bottlenecks, style tracking, live transaction feed, quality level, machines downtime and more through different dashboards (which are available in both English and Arabic) on the web or Garment IO’s mobile apps. This video explains how the startup works. 

The startup idea was developed by Ahmed Nounou, co-founder and CEO of Garment IO, who once managed his family’s garment manufacturing business. While there, he experienced, first hand, some of the pains faced by factory managers and owners including lack of data. This thus motivated him to develop the idea into Garment IO few years down the line.

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.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com