DEAL: Egyptian B2B food startup, MaxAB raises $15 million in series A extension

 

 by Janet John

 Last month, MaxAB Egypt’s leading wholesale food and grocery B2B ordering app raised $40 million in Series A. The company has now raised a $15 million extension from existing investors bringing its total Series A to $55 million.

The investors in this extension are RMBV, IFC, Flourish Ventures, Crystal Stream Capital, Rise Capital, Endeavour Catalyst, Beco Capital, and 4DX Ventures.

Founded in 2018, by Belal El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim, MaxAB helps small retailers in Egypt procure inventory for their stores using its mobile app. It makes procurement easy for retailers by enabling them to order everything from one supplier (MaxAB), offering transparent pricing and 24-hour delivery. Normally, a traditional retailer has to deal with multiple suppliers to order inventory for their stores.

WaystoCap was founded in 2015 by Niama El Bassunie, Mehdi Daoui, Anis Abdeddine and Aziz Jaouhari Tissafi. The company was originally a cross-border trade platform for transacting business goods in Africa. That business model got WaystoCap into Y Combinator’s Winter batch in 2017, making it the first company accepted from Morocco. The company subsequently raised a $3 million seed round.

WaystoCap pivoted to a similar model to MaxAB, where it connected retailers with suppliers across Morocco. The startup has since pulled out from both countries while growing to a network of over 8,000 retailers in Morocco.

According to Techcrunch, MaxAB says more than 70,000 retailers across both platforms will “benefit from its technology, expanded end-to-end supply chain solutions, and business intelligence tools as well as WaystoCap’s knowledge and expertise.”

What they are saying

Commenting on the acquisition of her startup, Niama El Bassunie said, “We are thrilled to play a pivotal role in the new all-star team being created and led by experienced, innovative entrepreneurs to establish a regional market leader in food and grocery supply. We are looking forward to continuing our close working relationship with our new team and taking the business to its next phase.”

MaxAB CEO El-Meghabel said, “At the end of the day, what we want to do is build a tech-enabled supply chain, in all the African countries, in the Middle Eastern countries, and then connect them together. That’s where the magic happens. This is where we can actually have a real impact by putting the right amount of food at the right place at the right time, and minimizing the waste which MENA cannot afford.”