Nuwa Capital Backs Egyptian Social Ecommerce Platform Sharwa In $2M Pre-seed Round
Sharwa, a social ecommerce platform, has announced the completion of a $2 million pre-seed investment round. Nuwa Capital and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund co-led the round, which was joined by many key angel investors.
The pre-seed investment will be used to further build the technological platform and expand the team.
Why The Investors Invested
The startup has acquired considerable traction since it was founded. Since its launch, Sharwa has experienced rapid growth, drawing tens of thousands of customers to its platform. The service is operational in Cairo and the surrounding areas, and an expansion plan covering the next 12 months will allow it to serve the rest of Egypt and handle hundreds of thousands of orders.
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The Sharwa team also has considerable experience in the industry. The Sharwa team has combined experience from Kitopi, Careem, Halan, Capiter, and Delivery Hero’s Hungerstation in strategy, market expansion, operations, and product.
Arnav Danthi, Nuwa Capital, commented: “Throughout our conversations with Alaa, Hassan and Hanafy, we were impressed with each individually. They were each operationally experienced and had extensive experience scaling leading, regional tech startups. It was their combined team dynamic, camaraderie and deep passion for their business that finalized our conviction.”
Hambro Perks Oryx Fund’s Ivo Detelinov said: “We’re excited to support a platform like Sharwa, which has identified a key challenge for today’s consumers in Egypt and is addressing it by leveraging technology and social connection. The leadership team has proven experience at innovative and successful consumer businesses in the region and we look forward to seeing how they grow the Sharwa platform.”
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A Look At What The Startup Does
Founded in 2022 by Alaa Shalaby, Hassan Elshourbagi and Mohamed Hanafy, customers may get the best deals on daily purchases of household necessities including groceries, appliances, and homecare on the Sharwa platform. In order to access wholesale prices from manufacturers for next-day delivery, customers can group their baskets into a group order and place it through Sharwa using WhatsApp or directly on the company’s app.
Sharwa collaborates with area community leaders who have utilised the programme as Super Users to collect orders in remote places.
Products can be purchased by individuals or groups of people at two price points. When a customer invites someone to shop with them or joins an existing group formed by other customers, discounts that are up to 40% off of retail pricing become available.
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Alaa Shalaby, Chief Executive Officer, shared: “The experience we aim to deliver is similar to going to a hypermarket with family; one person is pushing around the same cart and everyone is able to throw things in. In our model, you all benefit from the low prices unlocked. Our customers love our service as a tool to help them fight inflation.”
Hassan El Shourbagi, Chief Operating Officer, said: “We empower local manufacturers to reach as many customers as possible in a data-driven way, with the goal of achieving the most streamlined supply chain. We have built an end-to-end value chain sourcing from manufacturers and delivering to customers, letting manufacturers focus on what they do best.”
Mohamed Hanafy, Chief Product Officer, stated: “We have yet to see technology that is tailored for the first-time internet users. With a discovery mindset, we are solving day-to-day needs. And have designed our experience to be simpler, more social and trustworthy.”
Sharwa Ecommerce Sharwa Ecommerce
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