Delivery and logistics platform ILLA raises $500K in Seed funding
ILLA, an FMCG delivery & logistics marketplace, has successfully raised a $500K Seed funding round from Averroes VC, AUC Angels, and a consortium of local and regional strategic angel investors, with follow-on funding from Flat6Labs Cairo.
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The startup launched officially in March 2019, through Flat6Labs Cairo accelerator, where they received great business support, enabling them to truly take off, after running their operations in beta mode for 8 months. Over these months, ILLA received robust feedback from its pilot clients who remained on their portfolio ever since and continue to grow alongside other household name clients.
Founded by Mahmoud El-Zomor, Alaa Jarkas, Ahmed Sakr, and Hossam Saraya, ILLA caters to the big corporates and SMEs alike, with full-fledged transportation and logistics solutions tackling major pain points unique to the FMCG industry. They provide middle-mile and last-mile logistics by connecting distribution based companies with outsourced trucks to simplify, streamline, and ensure the end to end quality of service.
While innovating around logistics is challenging, it’s even more so within an ever-growing industry, and that’s why ILLA believes it is uniquely poised to capture considerable market share both locally and regionally for their exclusive focus and innovation around the industry. The outcome of such focus is that they operate within 24 Governorates across Egypt, delivering 7M cases so far and spanning more than 3M Kilometers.
Dr. Ahmed Alsharif, Founding Partner and CEO, Averroes Ventures said, "We at Averroes are always on the quest of backing up exceptional startups and we have established this earlier in the logistics technology domain. We believe in ILLA’s vision in providing high quality customized distribution solutions and in the value of its offering in serving FMCGs in an innovative and effective manner. ILLA's exceptional team of diversified backgrounds are surely capable and well equipped in becoming a key player in the future of the logistics technology industry."
Mariam Kamel, AUC Angels commented, “The ailing logistics and delivery sector is at a turning point, with ILLA well-positioned due to their solid team, unique market know-how, and the strength of their solution. We are really pleased to support their growth and be a part of this round."
Marie-Therese Fam, Managing Partner of Flat6Labs Cairo added, "ILLA joined Flat6Labs Cairo Spring 2019 Accelerator Program. As early-stage investors, Flat6Labs primarily invests in people, ILLA’s founding team demonstrated from day one that they are an A team. Their dedication, extensive experience in the logistics & Multinational FMCG industries, and more importantly their insightful vision were assuring signs of great success ahead.
"Flat6Labs is reinforcing its belief in ILLA and the team by joining the second round of investment in the company, in order for ILLA to continue to grow its business operations, to serve new markets/segments and introduce new technologically-enabled solutions. Flat6Labs Cairo is confident in ILLA’s future plans and their ability to fulfill them. We wish the team continued success."
The new investment round will enable ILLA to further capitalize on its position as a leader in the FMCG Delivery & Logistics industry in Egypt, where delivery logistics is being constantly disrupted with new technology and market dynamics. ILLA is striving to maintain its leadership positioning as the delivery logistics arm to FMCG companies as well as SMEs while enriching the customer journey and deepening relationships within the value chain. Tech transformation is a key area of focus for ILLA, which enables its clients to manage their existing and outsourced fleets seamlessly and provide them with elaborate analytics and market insights, to make better decisions and deliver superior quality to their customers. The funding will also drive further local expansion and exploration of regional markets to operate in next.
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