Koinz, a Cairo-based restaurant engagement network has just raised $4.8m seed round. This is the second-largest seed round ever raised by an Egyptian startup, whether fintech or any other leading sectors by funding. And for the first time, Justin Mateen, founder and former CMO of leading global dating app, Tinder, has found himself investing in an African startup. He will be joining Koinz’ board by virtue of this investment.
“Koinz enables a sustainable customer acquisition model for restaurant owners by reducing the cost of customer acquisition up to 60 percent. The loyal consumers using the Koinz app to purchase from restaurants 90 percent more often and they spend 60 percent more per transaction and are the most vocal about what they like,” the startup said in a statement.
- Also participating in this round apart from Justin Mateen are Africa-focused VC 4DX Ventures and angel investors from Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.
- Joining Justin Mateen on the board of directors is Peter Orth, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at 4DX Ventures.
- Koinz plans to use the new funds to expand the team and enter new markets in the Middle East.
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Why The Investors Invested
The whole of Africa apart from North Africa (and more particularly Egypt) does not have many startups doing what Koinz is doing, and so it makes more sense that the startup has fewer competitors and that investors are buying in. In Egypt, startups like DSquares and Zeal Rewards are making headways with their reward-focused applications. The sector is quite a niche but profitable, which explains why DSqaures recently claimed it now has a network of 100 million active customers, as well as 1,700 partners with over 11,000 outlets across different sectors in Egypt, Jordan, Romania, Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Saudi, and UAE. Dsquared is backed by heavyweight investors such as Algebra Ventures. Nigerian startup, ThankUCash, doing similar things, also raised funds recently from Hong Kong’s Betatron Venture Group, with participation from Mauritius-based Accelerex Holdings, as well as San Francisco-based Predictive VC and 500 Startups. ThankUCash is still open for its Series A investments, for interested investors.
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Perhaps the above facts are what attracted Justin Mateen who had previously been investing in early-stage companies all over the world for years, but has now chosen to invest in an African startup for the first time.
For its part, 4DX Ventures, based in Ghana, Egypt, and New York is one of the not-so-many serial investors on the continent. The VC has been active since 2018, investing in startups such as Egypt’s fantasy sports startup Eksab; Egypt’s B2B eCommerce startup MaxAB; Kenya’s e-commerce startup Sokowatch; broadband internet company Tizeti; Nigerian fintech startup Flutterwave, among others.
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“Restaurants in the region are suffering under the traditional aggregator model, especially during the pandemic. Koinz is offering a unique tech platform that goes beyond an aggregator tool and has quickly become a win-win for both consumers and restaurant owners across the Middle East,” Peter Orth, the co-founder and Managing Partner at 4DX Ventures.
“Restaurants can now for the first time ever ‘see’ all of their interactions with consumers across both offline and online touchpoints, which is a huge benefit during the pandemic when in-person visits were limited and therefore customer acquisition would have typically been lost. I think Hussein and his team have the ability to reshape the future of the region’s on-demand food & beverage industry in the coming years,” he added.
Also assisting the startup in the new fundraising is the fact that all co-founders are serial founders.
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What You Need To Know About Koinz
Founded in 2018 by Hussein Momtaz, Ahmed Said, and Abdullah Al Khalidi, Koinz is a restaurant customer acquisition and retention platform. Its suite of products, which includes a consumer app, allows restaurants to gain insights into their online and offline customer base and reward them to keep them coming back. Its consumer app lists restaurants, allowing users to find new places to eat and place orders for delivery or takeout.
The restaurants handle the order fulfilment, but the Egyptian startup is currently in talks with various third-party providers to integrate their services into it so that they can also deliver orders on behalf of restaurants.
Users earn loyalty points as they place orders, which they can then redeem at the same restaurant.
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Restaurants (over 1,000 outlets) in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are currently using its platform. In less than six months of using Koinz, many of the startup’s restaurant partners say that it has been one of their top three revenue sources. According to a tweet, approximately 4 million users have won points on Koinz by ordering at restaurants that use its services.
Koinz charges restaurants a monthly subscription fee and takes a share of any order placed via its consumer app, according to Hussein Momtaz, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
The Cairo-based startup currently employs over 80 people across Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
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