Careem, a subsidiary of Uber Inc., is investing an unknown sum in a popular Egyptian food-delivery service elmenus , making it one of the largest names to be enticed by the sector’s development potential in the Arab world’s most populous country.
Careem co-founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha said in a statement Monday that the relationship with elmenus, which connects clients with over 12,000 eateries in five Egyptian cities, “will broaden our reach in one of our largest ride-hailing areas.”
The Dubai-based firm joins Egyptian payment firm Fawry and the former CEO of Just Eat in investing in elmenus, which began as an online directory a decade ago before adding deliveries in 2018. Its competitors include Delivery Hero SE’s Talabat and Jumia Technologies AG.
Credits: elmenus
The 100-million-strong North African country, where anything from a slice of cake to a blood test can be delivered to your door, promises a significant and mostly unexplored market for apps like elmenus. According to Careem, despite the fact that Egypt’s meal delivery sector is worth an estimated $2.8 billion, 90% of clients still order by phone.
The deal with elmenus, according to Careem, is a step closer to launching its Super App across the region. The function in the United Arab Emirates provides 11 services, including ride-hailing, food and groceries delivery, and payments.
In July 2021, elmenus raised $10 million in a pre-Series C round led by Fawry and including Marakez and Luxor Capital, a New York-based hedge fund.
Elmenus, a good delivery network founded in 2011 by Amir Allam, lets users to explore restaurants in Egypt with the goal of personalizing food suggestions.
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
When CEO Amir Allam set out pitching his startup idea to restaurants, to put up their menus on his platform elmenus, he met stiff resistance. “Why would any serious food business do that knowing the large competition in the market” was the response he mostly got. Now, ten years down the line, elmenus has not only broken down the walls of resistance, or raised about $10m in VC funding before now, the company has now also secured the backing of one of Africa’s few unicorns, the Fawry Group, in a $10m Series C fund-raise.
Luxor Capital Group, a New York-based hedge fund with $11 billion in assets under management, has also contributed money from North America.
“Attracting new investment from Fawry, Luxor Capital and Marakez — following the endorsement of industry veteran, David Buttress, earlier this year — validates elmenus’ unique strategy. We are accelerating the adoption of online ordering by users, while enabling restaurants with new verticals — to help them scale. This funding demonstrates the investors’ strong belief in our position in Egypt, and our capability to dominate the market,” Amir Allam, CEO of elmenus, said.
The team at elmenus. Image credits: Elmenus
Why The Investors Invested
The investment is part of Fawry’s new strategy of investing in fast-growing Egyptian technology companies as a minority stakeholder. Fawry will work closely with elmenus to develop creative solutions that will benefit both restaurants and consumers in addition to investing. Marakez, a renowned Egyptian real estate developer, is also investing.
This is also Luxor’s first investment in the Mena region, a testament to the company’s track record of growth and market opportunities in Egypt. Luxor has a lengthy track record of investing successfully in food technology startups all across the world.
“Fawry is looking forward to its journey with elmenus, working closely with the executive team and entering many ventures together. By this investment, we show our desire to not only be a payment catalyst but to be a strategic partner to elmenus, its customers, restaurants and its riders. The Egyptian food space has high growth potential, with technology disrupting the status quo, as customers’ needs in food service provision rapidly change,” Ashraf Sabry, CEO of Fawry, said.
Elmenus now has over 1.5 million monthly users.
Elmenus continues to grow quickly, and today’s announcement comes after the introduction earlier this year of David Buttress, the former CEO of global food ordering service JustEat, as an investor and board member.
Elmenus plans to empower 12,000 eateries across 20 Egyptian cities by the end of 2021 with additional data and tool solutions to help them scale their operations. Its cutting-edge digital solutions will also encourage its current database of millions of users to make the conversion to online ordering.
A Look At What Elmenus Does
Founded in 2011 by Amir Allam, elmenus had initially started as a food discovery platform with the aim to help users discover restaurants and menus online.
But after raising a $1.5 million Series A led by Algebra Ventures in 2017, the company, in 2018, pivoted its product into an online food ordering service, with restaurants delivering the orders. The company now counts over 1.5 million monthly users and claims to have achieved 300 percent month-on-month growth.
“You need to be very focused on what you want to achieve,” said Amir to Wamda, an online tech publication, in 2019. “So, if there is a problem, you need to be very clear on how you want to solve it and how you can take it to the next level. Since day one, we have been trying to solve the problem of making the right decision at the right time for each user and this has been sustained as a vision and it gets very exciting as we progress trying to figure out different solutions.”
Last year, Elmenus launched it own fleet of drivers.
“…it is not easy to sustain your passion and motivation for a long time,” Amir further said.
“A lot of people either give up or they struggle to renew their motivation for the business and I think this is something that one has to be very conscious of. So, unless you have the right motive and the right incentives and the right people to work with, and all of this is aligned, you will be in big trouble,” he added.
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
When CEO Amir Allam set out pitching his startup idea to restaurants, to put up their menus on his platform elmenus, he met stiff resistance. “Why would any serious food business do that knowing the large competition in the market” was the response he mostly got. Now, ten years down the line, elmenus has not only broken down the walls of resistance, or raised about $10m in VC funding, the company has now secured the backing of a crucial voice in the industry — that of former Chief Executive Officer of London-headquartered food delivery company, Just Eat, David Buttress.
“As we aim to become the go-to food app for all dining decisions, and a partner of choice to restaurants to help them solve their scaling challenges in the Mena region, I believe David’s insights and exceptional record will play a vital role in accelerating our growth and guiding Elmenus in acquiring a significant share of the market. We are very excited to be working with an industry veteran like David. His belief in our vision is a grand testament to us,” said Allam.
Founder and CEO elmenus, Amir Allam. Credit: elmenus
Here Is What You Need To Know
The latest funding comes almost a year after Elmenus secured $8 million in a Series B round led by Dubai-based Global Ventures and Cairo-based Algebra Ventures with participation from Tarek Sakr and Hamad Al Homizi, the co-founders of Kuwait’s 4Sale. It also comes about 4 years after it secured $1.5 million Series A led by Algebra Ventures.
How much Buttress invested in this round was not disclosed, but in February 2020, he poured over $1m into Paperclip, an online listing platform that allows users to browse, bid or sell thousands of pre-owned items.
Following this investment, Buttress will be joining elmenus’ board of directors. He will also bring decades of immense entrepreneurial and investment experience along with him to the company. Buttress started with Just Eat when it started in 2006, stayed through, including leading the UK company in making numerous global acquisitions and investments. He particularly led the acquisition of MenuLog in Australia for $855 million as well as taking a majority stake in Brazil’s iFood.
Buoyed with the new capital injection, over the course of the next 18 months, elmenus will scale its offering further, expand its market share, and enhance its social and personalised dish discovery experience, with 4000 new drivers to be recruited.
Why Buttress Invested
Buttress understands the industry very well and thus, knows where his money is going into. His investment could be the best confirmation that Elmenus knows what it is doing.
“elmenus’ exponential growth this past year has been quite remarkable,” he said. “It has been owning the food discovery approach, making it the stronger partner to restaurants as it provides them with more than just online ordering services.
“While elmenus witnessed a 3x growth in 2020 since delivery increased drastically in light of the Covid-19 challenges and more restaurants outsourced their delivering operations, the company is expected to grow 10x in 2021 as it upscales its product and restaurant offerings. It is an exciting time in the company’s evolution,” he added.
Apart from being a private investor, Buttress is currently, also, a venture partner at global venture capital firm 83 North. He has several successful startups in his portfolio.
Founded in 2011 by Amir Allam, elmenus had initially started as a food discovery platform with the aim to help users discover restaurants and menus online.
But after raising a $1.5 million Series A led by Algebra Ventures in 2017, the company, in 2018, pivoted its product into an online food ordering service, with restaurants delivering the orders. The company now counts over 1.5 million monthly users and claims to have achieved 300 percent month-on-month growth.
“You need to be very focused on what you want to achieve,” said Amir to Wamda, an online tech publication, in 2019. “So, if there is a problem, you need to be very clear on how you want to solve it and how you can take it to the next level. Since day one, we have been trying to solve the problem of making the right decision at the right time for each user and this has been sustained as a vision and it gets very exciting as we progress trying to figure out different solutions.”
Last year, Elmenus launched it own fleet of drivers.
“…it is not easy to sustain your passion and motivation for a long time,” Amir further said.
“A lot of people either give up or they struggle to renew their motivation for the business and I think this is something that one has to be very conscious of. So, unless you have the right motive and the right incentives and the right people to work with, and all of this is aligned, you will be in big trouble,” he added.
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
Elmenus, the Cairo-based food discovery and ordering platform has secured $8 million in a Series B round led by Dubai-based Global Ventures and Cairo-based Algebra Ventures with participation from Tarek Sakr and Hamad Al Homizi, the co-founders of Kuwait’s 4Sale both of whom recently partially exited their startup to NBK Capital.
Basil Moftah, General Partner at Global Ventures
‘‘We are incredibly excited to announce Global Ventures’ investment in a leading food-tech startup such as Elmenus, and look forward to working closely with the team in terms of driving further value creation opportunities that result in continued growth,” said Basil Moftah, General Partner at Global Ventures.
Here Is The Deal
As usual, Dubai-based VCs are targeting Egypt’s startup ecosystem more, with this round of financing led by Dubai-based Global Ventures and Cairo-based Algebra Ventures with participation from Tarek Sakr and Hamad Al Homizi, the co-founders of Kuwait’s 4Sale both of whom recently partially exited their startup to NBK Capital.
With this round of funding, Elmenus’ total raise to date rises to almost $10 million.
The startup plans to spend the money to expand the reach of its fleet across Egypt and to personalize food recommendations to users on dish level so they can make better dining decisions.
“We believe our success as a startup is a combination of innovatively solving the right user problems, great team and laser-focused execution. We have been able to grow the market in Egypt and accomplish great milestones very efficiently, we are excited about what we will do with this additional funding and the support of Global Ventures coming on board as we continue to scale across Egypt and help millions of more users to discover and order the food they will love,” co-founder Amir Allam said in a press release.
Why The Investors Invested
The investors may have chosen to invest in Elmenus because it justified its Series A investment.
“With their first raise of $1.5M, Elmenus proved our original investment thesis that a strong local player with a broader offering can have disproportionate achievement,’’ Ziad Mokhtar, Managing Partner at Algebra Ventures, said. ‘‘The company has unique efficiencies and this round could be enough to secure its leadership in the rapidly growing digital market in Egypt.”
What The Startup Does
Founded in 2011 by Amir Allam, Elmenus had initially started as a food discovery platform with the aim to help users discover restaurants and menus online.
But after raising a $1.5 million Series A led by Algebra Ventures in 2017, the startup last year totally revamped its product and grew the company from 25 to 100 employees to launch online food ordering service, with restaurants delivering the orders.
Elmenus team has now grown to over 200 employees and it has very recently also launched its own delivery service with an in-house fleet (that’s managed by them but uses freelancers) to deliver food for its partner restaurants and compete with the likes of Delivery Hero’s Otlob and Uber Eats in Egypt.
“Through its AI-powered food recommendation engine and fully automated online ordering platform, Elmenus is well-positioned to disrupt and dominate the online food delivery space,” said the Cairo-based startup in a statement.
Amir said that they are currently delivering over 10 percent of their orders using their own fleet and expect this number to go beyond 50 percent of their orders in the next six months, “It is a significant number given how many orders we process every month.”
Glovo, an important player in the food delivery space (even though it was not doing food deliveries only) in Egypt recently exited the market with their market share up for grabs which is a great opportunity for Elmenus to make inroads into the food delivery space.
The statement by the startup noted that the online food delivery space in Egypt is a massively untapped market with only 4 percent of food delivery orders being processed online, for now, and that the main competition is with phone orders.
Elmenus, serving over 1 million users across Cairo through its website and mobile apps, claims to have been experiencing double-digit monthly growth recently.
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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.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com
