One of Egypt’s leading companies, Cartona, has raised USD 12 million in Series A funding to digitize the conventional trading industry, which includes mom-and-pop shops, FMCG makers, wholesalers, and distributors. The SANAD Fund for MSME, an impact investing fund for the Middle East and North Africa, the Arab Bank Accelerator, and Sunny Side Ventures, also participated in the round led by Jordan and the American early-stage venture capital company Silicon Badia.
Less than a year after taking part in the company’s USD 4.5 million pre-Series A investment last September, investors like Global Ventures and Kepple Ventures increased their stake. Cartona is presently found in eleven Egyptian cities, up from three at the time.
What the founder has to say:
CEO Mahmoud Talaat:
“We, therefore, think we may become profitable with this money. The only purpose for which we will spend this money is sustainable expansion. Without positive unit economics in every city, we won’t grow like crazy.
Retailers are not very comfortable paying for BNPL with interest at the end of the month in a market like Egypt. You don’t want to believe that receiving these working capital loans from an outside company will result in you paying higher interest. They prefer it to be incorporated into the costs of the products and experience it throughout the ordering process, which distinguishes us a little.”
More about the startup:
Cartona’s platform enables customers to place inventory orders from a network of carefully selected vendors through an app that offers a communication tool for promotions and a dashboard for market information.
In Egypt, there are more than 400,000 stores, and thousands of foreign and domestic brands, and the industry is expanding by 8% annually. The food and beverage sector accounts for USD 70 billion of the USD 120 billion global retail markets.
This huge possibility has drawn investors like Silicon Badia into the B2B retail space, including platforms like Cartona. “The market is clamoring for these types of solutions, and we believe Cartona’s asset-light approach will allow them to serve as many marketplace participants as possible in a highly efficient manner,” the firm’s founding managing partner said.
On its platform, Cartona has more than 1,500 wholesalers and distributors as well as 200 FMCG firms, including well-known brands like Unilever and Henkel. These figures surpass the 1,000 distributors, wholesalers, and 100 FMCG businesses from last September.
According to the founders, the goal of creating Cartona is to make it a better technological partner for major FMCG companies.
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