UAE’s iMile closes Series A at $40M
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The Dubai-based delivery company iMile covering MENA has successfully raised another funding round to close its Series A round at $40 M, recording one of the highest funding rounds to be raised by a woman entrepreneur in MENA. The fundraise flows within the startup’s vision to transform the logistics chain between Chinese sellers and the rest of the world.
Founded in 2017, iMile is a well-known Logistics and Courier services provider across the Middle East. It’s the first courier company providing Smart Logistics and courier services to the E-Commerce business and bring the unique value of solving Cash On Delivery (COD). iMile offers a wide range of services like Cash on Delivery with tracking, Real-Time online tracking, 24 hours Customer support through Email, Chat, Social Media, SMS, International Transport, Overseas warehouses, and last-mile delivery.
It seems that supply chain building, management, and facilitation have been an increasingly attractive venture direction for both startups and VCs in Emerging Venture Markets. In MENA, this comes amidst a wave of global and regional VC interest in the Transport and Logistics (T&L) sector as most recently recorded in our Q3 2021 EVM Transport & Logistics Venture Investment Report. In 2021, a 209% YoY growth of investment backing T&L startups in MENA, was led by Egypt driving 65% of all funds raised by Q3 2021. MENA-based T&L startups closed 40% more rounds by Q3 2021 than the same time last year with 2 deals still to go to equal the amount of FY’2020.
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iMile was born as a solution for last-mile delivery services, the key logistics challenge in the Middle East - the 'no-address problem'. iMile's propriety tech developments now play a pivotal role in supporting e-commerce in the region: its positioning, predictive, and machine learning technologies are equipped to meet the transport and shipping demands of the next generation of delivery. Going forward, iMile not only seeks to improve performance for its partners but also support the growth of smaller e-commerce businesses by digitalizing their onboarding process. iMile's customer-to-customer services will also develop with the launch of iMile's Delivery App allowing users to track, schedule, and book orders. This service enables iMile to support local businesses that have no centralized access to first and last-mile services by offering them agile logistics solutions. The app is available on Play Store, Apple Store, and AppGallery. CEO and Founder of iMile, Rita Huang commented: "This is truly an exciting time for iMile as we continue to expand across the region and around the world. We have a very strong presence in the Middle East and we plan on expanding into Africa, and Latin American markets.
Already a trusted vendor partner to top e-commerce players in the Middle East, iMile will further extend its services to other sectors such as Telecomm and Banking. The UAE-based T&L startup has 100 engineers in China and this round will help iMile to expand its proprietary technology further, globally expand and develop its consumer technology app dedicated to disrupting traditional shipping in emerging markets. Rita Huang concluded "Our latest funding round is a proud moment for us and we intend to further invest in our technology, whilst improving the performance and excellence of our services. The investment will also help us accelerate our growth in many more markets to come. We are one of the largest shippers from China and we have a real vision to connect Chinese sellers to the world through exceptional service."
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