Fast rising food ordering and restaurant and restaurant aggregator platform Koinz has raised a US$4.8 million seed funding round to grow its team and expand across the Middle East region. A brainchild of three friends, Hussein Momtaz, Ahmed Said and Abdullah Al Khalidi, Koinz was founded in 2018 by Koinz to help restaurants make smarter business decisions and increase revenue using a data-driven approach. The platform allows restaurants to collect and track real-time data on customer behaviour, improve customer satisfaction and leverage a digital rewarding system.
Hussein Momtaz, Ahmed Said and Abdullah Al Khalidi, Koinz co-founders
Koinz has now secured a US$4.8 million seed round, which is led by Tinder founder Justin Mateen and also features 4DX Ventures and strategic angel investors from Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Already active in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Koinz will use the funds to grow its team and fuel further expansion across the Middle East.
“Restaurants in the region are suffering under the traditional aggregator model, especially during the pandemic. Koinz is offering a unique tech platform that goes beyond an aggregator tool and has quickly become a win-win for both consumers and restaurant owners across the Middle East,” said 4DX managing partner Peter Orth.
“Restaurants can now for the first time ever “see” all of their interactions with consumers across both offline and online touchpoints, which is a huge benefit during the pandemic when in-person visits were limited and therefore customer acquisition would have typically been lost. I think Hussein and his team have the ability to reshape the future of the region’s on-demand food and beverage industry in the coming years.”
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
Reward-based startups in Egypt are raking in funds, even challenging investments in fintechs in the North African country. Barely a few months after fellow country startups, DSquares and Zeal Rewards, raised millions from top investors (including Algebra Ventures), Koinz, a Cairo-based restaurant engagement network, has followed it up with a $4.8 million seed round. This is the second-largest seed round ever raised by an Egyptian startup, whether fintech or any other leading sectors by funding. And for the first time, Justin Mateen, founder and former CMO of leading global dating app, Tinder, has found himself investing in an African startup. He will be joining Koinz’ board by virtue of this investment.
“Koinz enables a sustainable customer acquisition model for restaurant owners by reducing the cost of customer acquisition up to 60 percent. The loyal consumers using the Koinz app to purchase from restaurants 90 percent more often and they spend 60 percent more per transaction and are the most vocal about what they like,” the startup said in a statement.
Abdullah Al Khaldi (CRO), Hussein Momtaz (CEO), and Ahmed Said (CTO). Image Credits: Koinz
Also participating in this round apart from Justin Mateen are Africa-focused VC 4DX Ventures and angel investors from Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.
Joining Justin Mateen on the board of directors is Peter Orth, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at 4DX Ventures.
Koinz plans to use the new funds to expand the team and enter new markets in the Middle East.
Why The Investors Invested
The whole of Africa, apart from North Africa (and more particularly Egypt) does not have many startups doing what Koinz is doing; and so it makes more sense that the startup has fewer competitors and that investors are buying in. In Egypt, startups like DSquares and Zeal Rewards are making headways with their reward-focused applications. The sector is quite niche but profitable, which explains why DSqaures recently claimed it now has a network of 100 million active customers, as well as 1,700 partners with over 11,000 outlets across different sectors in Egypt, Jordan, Romania, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Saudi, and UAE. DSquares is backed by heavyweight investors such as Algebra Ventures. Nigerian startup, ThankUCash, doing similar things, also raised funds recently from Hong Kong’s Betatron Venture Group, with participation from Mauritius-based Accelerex Holdings, as well as San Francisco-based Predictive VC and 500 Startups. ThankUCash is still open for its Series A investments, for interested investors.
Perhaps the above facts are what attracted Justin Mateen who had previously been investing in early-stage companies all over the world for years, but has now chosen to invest in an African startup for the first time.
For its part, 4DX Ventures, based in Ghana, Egypt and New York is one of the not-so-many serial investors on the continent. The VC has been active since 2018, investing in startups such as Egypt’s fantasy sports startup Eksab; Egypt’s B2B ecommerce startup MaxAB; Kenya’s ecommerce startup Sokowatch; broadand internet company Tizeti; Nigerian fintech startup Flutterwave, among others.
“Restaurants in the region are suffering under the traditional aggregator model, especially during the pandemic. Koinz is offering a unique tech platform that goes beyond an aggregator tool and has quickly become a win-win for both consumers and restaurant owners across the Middle East,” Peter Orth, the co-founder and Managing Partner at 4DX Ventures.
“Restaurants can now for the first time ever ‘see’ all of their interactions with consumers across both offline and online touchpoints, which is a huge benefit during the pandemic when in-person visits were limited and therefore customer acquisition would have typically been lost. I think Hussein and his team have the ability to reshape the future of the region’s on-demand food & beverage industry in the coming years,” he added.
Also assisting the startup in the new fundraise is the fact that all co-founders are serial founders.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Koinz is a restaurant customer acquisition and retention platform founded in 2018 by Hussein Momtaz, Ahmed Said, and Abdullah Al Khalidi. Its suite of products, which includes a consumer app, allows restaurants to gain insights into their online and offline customer base and reward them to keep them coming back. Its consumer app lists restaurants, allowing users to find new places to eat and place orders for delivery or takeout.
The restaurants handle the order fulfilment, but the Egyptian startup is currently in talks with various third-party providers to integrate their services into it so that they can also deliver orders on behalf of restaurants. Users earn loyalty points as they place orders, which they can then redeem at the same restaurant.
Restaurants (over 1,000 outlets) in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are currently using its platform. In less than six months of using Koinz, many of the startup’s restaurant partners say that it has been one of their top three revenue sources. According to a tweet, approximately 4 million users have won points on Koinz by ordering at restaurants that use its services.
Koinz charges restaurants a monthly subscription fee and takes a share of any order placed via its consumer app, according to Hussein Momtaz, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
The Cairo-based startup currently employs over 80 people across Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
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
