TechPression

Tag: eCommerce

  • Egyptian eCommerce platform Mumerz raises $1.2M funding for Moms

    Egyptian eCommerce platform Mumerz raises $1.2M funding for Moms

    Mumerz, Egypt’s first eCommerce platform for mothers recently announced that it secured $1.2 million in a pre-seed investment round led by Disruptech Ventures.

    It is Egypt’s largest multilingual community and e-commerce platform, serving every parent and child’s needs from conception up to the age of twelve.

    Mumerz aims to address the information, advisory, and product demands that parents and children face. The platform features a blog with articles on a wide range of topics connected to pregnancy, childbirth, and Mum and childcare, as well as integration with Egypt’s largest parent and child eCommerce platform.

    About Mumerz

    The company is co-founded by Amir Shenouda and Nadia Gamal El-Din, the founder of Rahet Bally in 2022. Amir brings 22 years of experience in the mother-and-child products and eCommerce industries to the table. He’s worked at Hamley’s, Toys R Us, Cartoon Network, Mumzworld, Souq, and Amazon, among other places. Nadia brings a wealth of experience in the Mums Support Community to the founding team. Nadia launched the well-known Rahet Bally in 2015, which provides financial, physical, intellectual, and social support to over 1.9 million active Egyptian mothers. Nadia uses her skills and experience as a cofounder when it comes to Egyptian Mums’ struggles and needs.

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    Mumerz is the only company of its sort to promise exponential development in the femtech industry. The online platform provides a wealth of information, advice, and products. Diapers, baby gear, toys, apparel, skin treatments, and vitamins are among the things available on the parent and child eCommerce platform, which also offers complimentary gift wrapping, personalized cards, and a gift registry. Mumerz also provides value-added material for moms on its blog and Mums Mag, which is handled by Rahet Bally and includes direct links to products on the eCommerce platform.

    Supporting Moms to Care for Their Children

    Due to the huge motherhood gap in Egypt’s online market and the time consumed by general merchandisers to deliver, customers at Mumerz are promised next-day delivery. With competitive market prices, moms enjoy a seamless experience where an advisory team helps them choose the perfect products for their children.

    “Mumerz acts as a natural continuation to Rahet Bally’s motherhood support services and allows us to serve millions of our moms who already trust us, daily consume our content, use our discount services & come to our fitness facilities. Mumerz also capitalizes on Rahet Bally’s massive insights on exactly what moms need as well as a seasoned advisory team that recommend what’s the best product fit for each mom’s needs based on Rahet Bally’s reviews across all product categories.” Nadia Gamal El-Din, Founder at Mumerz and Rahet Bally.

    Read Also : Egypt’s eCommerce startup Homzmart acquires German MockUp Studio

    “We believe that the mother, baby, and child online vertical is underserved in Egypt. The key to that is in delivering an optimal customer experience with a wide range of mother-baby and child products at affordable prices,” says Amir Shenouda.

    In regards to the funding, Mohamed Okasha, the Managing Partner at Disruptech expressed — “We are excited to lead the investment round for Mumerz. We believe that the website will grow into one of Egypt’s leading ‘femtech’ platforms, offering unique products and services to Egypt’s community of mothers. We will be working closely with Mumerz to expand its offering to customized financial services, helping to support increased opportunities for financial inclusion of women in Egypt.”

  • TradeDepot Acquires Green Lion as Part of its Expansion Strategy in Ghana

    TradeDepot Acquires Green Lion as Part of its Expansion Strategy in Ghana

    To speed the distribution of its services across the country, TradeDepot, Africa’s leading B2B eCommerce and embedded finance platform, has announced the acquisition of Green Lion, Ghana’s largest and fastest accumulating B2B eCommerce platform.

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    Green Lion was founded in 2018 with the goal of revolutionizing access to vital goods and services while also enabling digital commerce for local shops in Ghana. Using its data, technology, and robust logistics capabilities, TradeDepot will connect more neighborhood businesses in more Ghanaian cities to suppliers, making finance more accessible and inexpensive.

    About Ghana’s Retail Sector

    Ghana’s retail sector is worth $24.4 billion and is predicted to grow to $33.16 billion by 2024, with small and medium-sized businesses accounting for about 90% of the market. TradeDepot already has operations in Ghana, as well as Nigeria and South Africa, and this acquisition will speed up the delivery of its game-changing services to more cities, allowing all parties in the retail value chain to benefit from increased sales, higher margins, and other value-added services.

    What We Know About TradeDepot and Green Lion Africa

    TradeDepot has built a network of leading consumer goods brands and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Africa, as well as a proprietary risk scoring engine that predicts creditworthiness based on a retailer’s purchase history, previous repayment performance, and other related data points. The company offers a wide selection of consumer items to SME shops in its network through its ShopTopUp platform, as well as credit lines that allow these retailers to access inventory and pay in installments as they sell to their own customers.

    “Ghana represents a big market for consumer goods in Africa, and we are delighted to bring the Green Lion team onboard to create growth and success for additional retailers and distributors in the country,” said Onyekachi Izukanne, CEO and co-founder of TradeDepot. 

    We look forward to strengthening our links with the market and collaborating with more partners to take advantage of the numerous prospects available in Ghana and beyond.”

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    “We are happy to be joining the TradeDepot family and continuing our work to help neighborhood shops thrive across Africa,” said Green Lion’s Jorge de Rojas. It’s an exciting time for B2B eCommerce in Africa, and we’re excited about the chance to add value to the Ghanaian ecosystem and the continent as a whole.”

     

    Green Lion Africa’s existing contacts and assets in Ghana will be taken over by TradeDepot. The Green Lion team will also join TradeDepot to help develop the future of retail by making food and supplies more accessible and inexpensive to even the continent’s most remote consumers.

     

  • Egyptian browser-based eCommerce platform Wasla nabs $9M funding from Contact

    Egyptian browser-based eCommerce platform Wasla nabs $9M funding from Contact

    Wasla, the Egyptian browser-based eCommerce platform, has raised $9 million US dollars in Series A funding from Contact Financial Holdings, a non-bank consumer finance provider in Egypt, to aid its new online shopping capabilities and products and regional expansion.

    About Wasla – Shop Anything and Save on Everything

    Founded in 2018 by Serag Meneassy and Taymour Sabry, both ex-Rocket Internet entrepreneurs, and investment banker Mahmoud El-Said, Wasla is focused on optimizing the end-to-end online shopping experience and is the first emerging markets mobile web browser and desktop extension that helps users save money, pay securely, build their credit profiles and gain access to flexible and convenient financing.

    It is the first web browser that helps users save money as they shop online through aggregated deals, discounts, and cashback for a network of over 100 local and regional eCommerce merchants.

    How sweet is it to earn cashback whenever you shop online with your favorite browser? Did I hear you say super cool?

    Wasla is a reimagining of the modern-day web browser, moving past legacy browsers and powering a mobile-first experience built from Africa for Africans. The platform combines rewarding, browsing, and eCommerce technologies delivered through a unique experience optimized for online shopping.

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    In 2025, the whole eCommerce sector in Africa might reach over $46.1 billion, according to Statista.

    Interestingly, the browser-based eCommerce startup currently has 35 team members 1.5 million app downloads, with 8.5x year on year on year growth in total eCommerce traffic.

    Optimizing the eCommerce Search and Discovery Experience, rolling out new products and regional expansion with Contact $9M Funding – Wasla

    Contact Financial Holdings — formerly Sarwa Capital — is Egypt’s largest consumer finance platform, transforming how people access finance since 2001. As the first financial services platform to introduce advanced credit scoring and collection mechanisms in Egypt, this strategic investment adds to Contact’s growing footprint in fintech, particularly in eCommerce, allowing Wasla to engage consumers at the beginning of their eCommerce journey while they search, discover, and shop online.

    The Chairman of Contact Financial Holding, Hazem Moussa, told TechCrunch that the $9 million funding is an equity investment through a series of investments that aim to grow the business in the future, to enable their business plan their achievement of the company’s vision.

    Mahmoud El-Said, CEO of Wasla, commented — “Having personally worked with the Contact team before, I was always amazed at what they have been able to build as a leading consumer finance platform in the region. This is why we believe this deep partnership, leveraging Contact’s market position, experience, and fully digitized loan origination process, will allow us to expand our offering catering to the online shopping experience by introducing completely new ways to help consumers save money on each online purchase, pay securely, build their credit profiles, and borrow flexibly.”

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    Wasla’s current focus is on optimizing the eCommerce search and discovery experience by helping users save money online through aggregating deals for a network of over 100 local and regional e-commerce merchants (similar to US startup Honey, which sold to PayPal in 2019 for $4 billion).

    The browser-based eCommerce platform is set to introduce a range of products and options, including buy now, pay later (BNPL) financing and a new online payment option.

    Wasla, whose experience is pegged on its browser, has different features, including a deal finder that aggregates discount codes and cashback links across a network of merchants. It is also set to introduce a price-comparison tool, as it continues to add new functionalities for a better end-to-end shopper experience.

    “In the checkout phase, we plan to introduce a very secure payment method…limited by time or value. And the final step is integrating financing or buy now, pay later solutions directly within that. It is an end-to-end eCommerce experience starting from search and discovery to financing,” Wasla Co-founder and CEO El-Said told TechCrunch.

    The new payment option is set to encourage shoppers to transact online because Egypt is currently a predominantly cash-on-delivery market, which El-Said said is a “costly operation for merchants.”

    Read Also : Nigerian Digital Bank Stellas unveils with Ghost Mode to Fix Fintech Identity Fraud Loophole

    Offline payment is also a costly option for buyers as it comes with a cash-on-delivery fee. Contact is set to bring in its experience in consumer finance and technology, including its advanced credit services platform, to help Wasla extend financing to shoppers.

    Moussa commented — “We are thrilled to be supporting the Wasla team to build out their vision of a digital ecosystem enabling online shopping for all. With over twenty years of innovation in consumer financial services, this strategic investment demonstrates Contact’s drive to multiply its reach and empower businesses with its advanced credit services platform.”

    “We are working on extending what we have built-in terms of credit engines, AI scoring engines, and a variety of tools…including instant approval, fast approvals, and pre-approvals,” said Moussa.

    “With the whole experience being on the Wasla browser, you have a lot more access to customer behavior and customer interests and therefore be able to tailor the programs to the user base, and so that is a big addition to the experience — from the start the journey to the payments to the financing,” he added.

    As it seems, with the regional expansion plan, Wasla is eyeing to enter the Nigerian market.

    “It’s a huge market at the end of the day; you have roughly 250 million people. They’re very technologically advanced, and their adoption of eCommerce is quite good. It’s quite the right market. There’s all the infrastructure that you kind of need to set up a proper tech business. In terms of maturity within the tech ecosystem, Nigeria is probably one of the best markets in Africa, competing directly with Egypt, South Africa, and a couple of others,” said El-Said.