Kanzz, an Egyptian e-commerce startup has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to scale its operations in Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa [MENA].
The seed round was led by U.S.-based and MENA-focused venture capital firm Outliers Venture Capital. Other investors who took part include HOF Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Samurai Incubate.
The e-commerce startup was co-founded Ahmed Atef, Mahmoud Al Silk and Moataz Sami in February this year. The seed round will be used to hire new talent, and increase and widen the product line, while some of the money will be used to develop an app for the business.
According to recent data, 40% of Egyptians buy consumer goods online weekly. Kenzz aims to target the emerging and underserved market segment which is neglected by the major players in the space.
“We’re going after a completely different segment that Amazon and the big platforms are not looking at as they are centralized in big cities and towards the people who are comfortable buying online,” said Atef.
“What we’re doing is bringing that experience much closer to the masses and building a reliable, trustworthy e-commerce platform that caters specifically for the mass market, solving for the barriers to buying, whether it’s trust, affordability and relevance, while capitalizing on social engagement and social interaction aspects of e-commerce.”
Sarah AlSaleh, a partner at Outliers Venture Capital in a statement said, “The diversity and depth of Kenzz’s founding team strongly positions them to combine a multitude of experiences and expertise into creating a category-defining company and e-commerce champion for Egypt.”
