Cairo-based peer-to-peer marketplace Shiphaly raises Six Figures
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Shiphaly, the Cairo-based startup connecting shoppers and travelers has raised an undisclosed 6 figure amount in its latest funding round led by angel investors in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The round was led by Faisal Abdulsalam an active investor in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with the participation of well-known angel investors in Saudi Arabia.
Launched in October 2019, Shiphaly set forth to bring about an alternative channel to overseas purchases by connecting shoppers with travelers. Through a seamless mobile app and marketplace, the Cairo-based team connects shoppers with travelers coming from abroad willing to purchase and transport their products for an extra cash return. This crowdsourced model Shiphaly was accelerated and received seed funding from Flat6Labs in Cairo in 2019.
MENA-based E-commerce startups have observed steady growth this year as recorded in our August 2021 Venture Investment Dashboard. Driven by an 8% YoY increase in number of deals closed in MENA, and a solid 78% YoY growth in amount of funding, the E-commerce industry has been the second-most active and third-most funded industry in MENA over 2021 YTD.
Even though Shiphaly’s business has faced some challenges in the first half of 2020 from the different Covid travel bans globally. It has returned even stronger in the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021 fueled by the heavy demand from shoppers who are not able to travel abroad. Kahled Elabd, CEO of Shiphaly had the following comment on this round “We are very proud of the traction that Shiphaly has had over the past months. We are also very happy and privileged to have a group of top-notch angel investors backing us in our journey to transform the way people shop from abroad in Egypt and other future markets.
Since the start of 2021 Shiphaly had 25% month-over-month growth in the delivered orders as well as more than 15,000 posted orders with a value of $2M. Hisham Elshaer, CCO of Shiphaly added also “We believe there is huge potential in the Egyptian market as well as other markets in Africa and the Middle East. We are very excited about the next phase of growth for Shiphaly and are gearing up to launch new features very soon to solve more and more of our customers’ problems.”
Shiphaly’s USP is the safety and security of its platform for both travelers and shoppers, offering shoppers a 100% money-back guarantee in case of order complications. The Cairo-based startup will use its newly acquired funds to further develop its platform and support its operations. Faisal Abdulsalam, the angel lead of this round concluded “We are very excited about Shiphaly and we believe that Shiphaly offers a unique idea to solve an issue in many countries in the Middle East. We strongly believe that Shiphaly has the potential to grow exponentially in many markets with the advantage of having low cost of entry to different markets being an e-marketplace.”
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