The news:
- Kenzz has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to deepen eCommerce adoption in Egypt.
- While other big eCommerce platforms like Jumia and Amazon.ae are focusing on the big cities, Kenzz wants to take eCommerce to customers not yet comfortable with buying online.
- The company's two-month soft launch had 50% of customers from outside Egypt's big cities.
Egyptian eCommerce platform, Kenzz has closed a $3.5 million seed funding to deepen eCommerce adoption in Egypt and MENA region. US and MENA-focused VC, Outliers Ventre Capital led the funding with participation from HOF Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Samurai Incubate.
According to TechCrunch, the company was founded in February 2022 by Ahmed Atef, Mahmoud Al Silk and Moataz Sami.
The founders created Kenzz to reach more people outside Egypt's three big cities, Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza. Big eCommerce companies, such as Jumia, Noon, and Souq, a Dubai-based eCommerce platform now known as Amazon.ae after Amazon acquired it for $580 million in 2017, only focus on these big cities.
eCommerce in Egypt has experienced tremendous growth since 2018. According to Oxford Business Group, revenues in the sector increased at a rate of 30% in 2018 and 2019, 70% in 2020 and 40% in 2021. eCommerce in Egypt is currently valued at $22 billion.
eCommerce growth in the country is owed to the country's youth population, which accounts for about 35% of the total population of Egypt. According to Go-Globe, 41.6 million people purchase consumer goods through the Internet, spending about $79 annually.
While eCommerce is snowballing in the country, the founders of Kenzz feel its full potential is yet to be realised. The current players in the eCommerce space do not include Egypt's mass markets.
Atef told TechCrunch Kenzz was going after a completely different segment from the big players. The company wants to solve the problem of people outside big cities not yet comfortable with buying online.
It will introduce features such as a 65% discount on collective purchases and group buying, reducing consumer delivery fees.
While the startup is not fully launched, a two-month soft launch had thousands of customers using it, 50% of which came outside of Egypt's big cities.
