Belal El-Megharbel - Afrikan Heroes

Egypt’s Food And Grocery B2B e-commerce Platform MaxAB Raises $40 million pre-Series B Round

October 20, 2022

MaxAB, a food and grocery B2B e-commerce and distribution platform that serves a network of traditional merchants in Egypt and Morocco, has announced the completion of a $40 million pre-series B equity transaction to drive its development across the MENAP area. Several new investors participated in the round, including Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing, through its Long Term Capital strategy; British International Investment (BII; formerly known as CDC), the UK government’s development finance institution; and DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture platform. Existing investors Beco Capital, 4DX Ventures, Flourish Ventures, and Africa Platform Capital also participated in the round.

Belal El-Megharbel, CEO and Co-Founder at MaxAB

MaxAB will also use the fresh funding to fund more expansion in its e-commerce arm, expand its technology and product teams, and scale its fintech arm by offering a broader choice of integrated financial solutions.

“Within just four years of operations, we have been able to re-engineer the informal food and grocery market in Egypt and Morocco. We are thrilled to have gained the recognition and financial backing of world-class investors, adding to the reception and support we receive from the retailers and suppliers we serve. Going by the quality of investors who are partnering with us, we are excited about venturing into the next stage of the MaxAB journey, which is a further consolidation of the informal grocery sector, heavy focus and investments in Fintech and replicating our success in new markets to grow beyond borders,” Belal El-Megharbel, CEO and Co-Founder at MaxAB, said.

Why The Investors Invested

The startup has generated considerable traction since it was founded. MaxAB’s e-commerce operation has successfully served nearly 150,000 distinct conventional merchants since its inception in 2018, delivering 2.5 million orders while maintaining an industry-leading delivery success rate.

‘MaxAB are building technology-driven products and services that solve for challenges around better integrated, efficient, reliable grocery supply chains for the MENAP region. In digitizing the vastly traditional, multi-layered and fragmented food and grocery sector supply chain, they have broken the mould and presented a domino effect of opportunities, one of which is the launch of the fintech vertical. We are happy to be embarking on this journey with MaxAB and are looking forward to providing strategic guidance for continued growth and impact,” Amer Al Ameri, Head of Venture Capital and Technology investments at ADQ, said.

A Look At What The Startup Does

MaxAB is a B2B e-commerce platform that links suppliers with underserved conventional merchants and offers a variety of funding alternatives. It was founded in 2018 by Belal El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim.

MaxAB is revolutionising the food and grocery supply chain by linking suppliers with underserved conventional shops and providing a variety of integrated financial solutions, so contributing to the country’s economic growth.

MaxAB began delivering fintech solutions to its merchant base in 2021, with the goal of digitising cash flow and transforming MaxAB into a one-stop shop for traditional retailers. MaxAB has established itself as the market leader in its industry, with a presence in all major cities in Egypt as well as Casablanca, Morocco, and plans future regional expansions to achieve complete geographical coverage of Morocco by the end of 2023, as well as an entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Small traditional stores are the backbone of the Egyptian grocery business, and a similar dynamic exists in many other MENAP nations. MaxAB has created a proven playbook of experiences, technology, data, and partnerships that can be utilised for launch into other countries and is hoping to repeat the same success across the region, having achieved remarkable success in Egypt and Morocco. MaxAB says that more than 750,000 small enterprises in Egypt and Morocco alone require its services, with Saudi Arabia being particularly appealing owing to the government’s push to digitise the informal sector and the FMCG’s openness to experiment with new business models.

Silver Lake is investing as part of its Long Term Capital plan, which was launched in 2020.

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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

Egyptian Startup Closes $40 million Funding for Expansion

July 6, 2021

MaxAB co-founders Belal El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim

A Cairo-based startup that helps small retailers in the country procure inventory for their stores MaxAB has closed a $40 million in Series A funding for the expansion of its platform. The startup makes procurement easy for retailers, who traditionally had to deal with multiple suppliers to purchase inventory. Through MaxAB’s mobile application, they can order everything from one supplier (MaxAB) and have their wares delivered within 24 hours.

MaxAB claims to have helped over 55,000 retailers in Egypt, fulfilled more than 1 million orders, and created 1,600 direct jobs in the process since it was founded in 2018 by Belal El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim.

“We embarked on an ambitious mission to create a more cohesive, transparent, and efficient food and grocery supply chain in Egypt three years ago,” said El-Megharbel, who serves as chief executive officer.

The latest funding round was led by RMBV, a North Africa-focused impact investor. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), Flourish Ventures, Crystal Stream Capital, Rise Capital, and Endeavour Catalyst also participated as well as MaxAB’s existing investors, Beco Capital and 4DX Ventures.

The company plans to use the fresh capital injection to first expand across every key city in Egypt by the end of the year and later in some new markets across the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

MaxAB will also hire more talents as well as scale some of the new service offerings it recently launched – such as supply chain and embedded finance solutions.

“This additional capital will allow us to continue to give retailers the economies of scale our platform offers while serving many more new customers. Being backed by a diverse group of renowned and experienced investors will enable us to rapidly scale our operations across the MENA region and developing markets,” El-Megharbel added.

MaxAB is said to be the first player in Egypt to have launched a business-to-business e-commerce platform serving traditional retailers in the country. It is also one of the best-funded startups in Egypt. The Series A takes its total investment to date to over $46 million, having previously raised $6.2 million in a seed round in September 2019.

In addition, the $40 million investment in MaxAB matches the single-largest funding round raised by an Egyptian startup in 2020, when healthcare startup, Vezeeta, secured a Series D of the same value.

One of the most profound impacts of the global coronavirus outbreak has been on the e-commerce market. With more people ordering online more than ever, new food and grocery delivery startups have been created over the past year.

Ride-hailing companies have also pivoted into logistics and existing e-commerce companies have seen transaction volumes soar as their platforms become increasingly vital to small businesses and economic activity.

According to Ahmed Badreldin, Managing Partner at RMBV, the pandemic has also highlighted the unique structure of Egypt’s economy. “Hundreds of thousands of shopkeepers and small businesses have become the lifeline of our country at the time of crisis,” he said. “We look forward to supporting MaxAB in its next phase of development.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Egyptian Ecommerce Startup Maxab Raises $40 Million Series A For Expansion

July 5, 2021

Belal El-Megharbel, co-founder and CEO of Maxab

Maxab, a Cairo-based B2B ecommerce platform, said today that it has raised $40 million in a Series A round led by RMBV, a North African-focused impact investor. IFC, Flourish Ventures, Crystal Stream Capital, Rise Capital, Endeavour Catalyst, and Maxab’s previous investors Beco Capital and 4DX Ventures all participated in the purchase. Maxab’s total investment to date is approximately $45 million, making it one of Egypt’s most well-funded businesses. In September of this year, it raised $6.2 million in a seed round.

“Three years ago we embarked on an ambitious mission to create a more cohesive, transparent and efficient food and grocery supply chain in Egypt. This additional capital will allow us to continue to give retailers the economies of scale our platform offers while serving many more new customers. Being backed by a diverse group of renowned and experienced investors will enable us to rapidly scale our operations across the MENA region and developing markets,” Belal El-Megharbel, co-founder and CEO of Maxab, said.

The startup intends to use the fresh funding to grow across Egypt’s major cities by the end of the year, followed by other markets in the region. According to the Egyptian firm, the funds will be utilized to scale recently introduced verticals such as new supply chain and embedded financial solutions.

Why The Investors Invested

Maxab was the first company to develop a B2B ecommerce platform in Egypt, serving traditional retailers, but it now faces competition from a number of startups, including Fatura, Capiter, and a few others, who have all launched in the previous two years.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the unique structure of Egypt’s economy, with hundreds of thousands of shopkeepers and small businesses becoming the lifeline of our country at the time of crisis. We are delighted to be backing visionary entrepreneurs that have created a transformative business with impressive growth that is a catalyst for financial inclusion and job creation. We look forward to supporting MaxAB in its next phase of development as they continue delivering on growth and innovation,” Ahmed Badreldin, Managing Partner at RMBV said.

Ameya Upadhyay, Venture Partner at Flourish Ventures, said, “MaxAB is set to play a central role in retailers’ financial lives — it directly boosts retailers’ profits by reducing the hassle and the cost of buying inventory and, with embedded fintech products in its core offering, customers can easily buy more goods and pay for them seamlessly. With its founding team of seasoned operators who have scaled world-class ventures before, MaxAB is pioneering the global trend towards Embedded Finance. We are proud to back MaxAB as our first investment in Egypt and eager to see the next step in their journey.”
Read also:Again, Former Investors Lead $42m Series B Funding Round In Nigerian Fintech FairMoney

A Look At What The Startup Does

Maxab is a mobile app that helps small merchants (mom-and-pop stores) in Egypt obtain inventory for their stores. It was founded in 2018 by Belal El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim. It simplifies store procurement by allowing them to order everything from a single supplier (Maxab), with clear pricing and 24-hour delivery. When it comes to ordering product for its locations, a typical retailer usually has to deal with many suppliers. According to a release, the business has aided over 55,000 shops in Egypt, processing over 1 million orders and creating 1,600 direct employment in the process.

Maxab ecommerce Maxab ecommerce

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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

Egyptian Entrepreneur Builds e-commerce Platform to Connects Small Retailers to Suppliers

January 3, 2021

In 2018, when Belal El-Megharbel walked away from a flourishing career at Careem, a Middle East ride-hailing pioneer, his family was stunned. It wasn’t the first time he had turned his back on a promising opportunity; he had left the family business years earlier while on a quest to “take a different route”. His relatives still hoped he would fall back into the family business and work alongside his 24 cousins, but El-Megharbel had other plans. He wanted to build a digital platform to manage procurement and delivery of grocery products to mom-and-pop shops in Egypt.

As part of the early team at Careem, he saw “how one can build a huge tech company [in] the Middle East”. That knowledge – and the clear need for better supply chains in Egypt – stirred him to action. He saw how inefficiencies in the food and grocery market resulted in delays and added expenses. “Small shops in Cairo had to go through six or seven layers [before the product reached the consumer] – shipping, unboxing, determining product quality and setting base prices,” he said.

Against this backdrop, El-Megharbel saw an opening for a technology platform that would reduce the cost and complications of doing business. In 2018, he teamed up with Mohamed Ben Halim and formed the e-commerce marketplace MaxAB to connect informal food and grocery sellers – the micro-retailers who make up 90% of the grocery market – with suppliers.

It was a modest beginning. “We started off completely offline out of a small warehouse on the outskirts of Egypt’s sprawling capital. It was so remote many people didn’t know how to get there. We began by selling bits and pieces of [grocery] cases to these faraway neighbourhoods that don’t have access,” said El-Megharbel, now the CEO.

Business picked up fast, and the MaxAB platform now features 22,000 retailers who sell everything from dairy products to laundry detergent. Price transparency is a big plus for shops that can now also order stock online and access credit facilities. Suppliers and brands benefit, too. With the data from MaxAB, they are able to predict demand and make informed purchasing decisions, which prevent them from overstocking slow-moving goods and save them money. Just 10 months after its founding, MaxAB had already secured $6.2 million from investors across the globe – among the largest seed funding amounts raised by a Middle Eastern startup.

As the company grows its client list and technical capacity, it has also expanded its delivery fleet. Every day, 250 trucks are loaded with food and other products before criss-crossing the hot, noisy, and crowded streets of Cairo on their way to mom-and-pop shops across Egypt – many of which are in underserved areas.

Operating MaxAB hasn’t always been a smooth ride for El-Megharbel, who knew that there was no room to be average: “In the distribution business, you cannot be a medium-sized distributor. You’re either going to make it or die very quickly. There is nothing in between.”

But to make it, MaxAB needed talented people, and that posed a challenge he’s still trying to solve. “I think our role as entrepreneurs is to figure out a way to exponentially grow the talent pool that we have with the right skill set and the right attitude,” he said. “People are the most important [part of] whatever we’re doing. Our next goal is to complete the foundation for growth, and that means ensuring that we have the right people solving the right problems.’’

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry