Egyptian e-commerce startup, Efreshli, lands US$550k to scale its operations
Efreshli, an Egypt-based home furniture e-commerce startup, has bagged a seed round worth US$550k to help it build on strong early growth.
The seed round was led by angel investor Tarek Sakr and property developer Marakez, with participation from other investors. The startup will now focus on strengthening its technology solutions and opening its first GCC location in 2022.
Read also: Kenyan startup, Twiga, lands $50mn in a Series C funding round to scale its operations
“Efreshli solves multiple pain points for home-furnishing customers, culminating in a practical and convenient process that brings their ideas to life,” Heba El-Gabaly El-Gabaly, Founder, Efreshli stated.
“The mission of Efreshli is to bring everyone on to the design market to enable them to create homes that reflect their vision. With the intersection of software engineers, designers, and logistics professionals, we create a product that is affordable and fills a gap for a large segment of customers.”
“The Egyptian home furnishing industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and is one of the later entrants into the e-commerce space as customers still need to touch and feel expensive purchases with high variability,” Sakr said.
“We are excited to support Efreshli and believe the company is well-positioned to transform this industry in a significant way.”
Tarek Sakr is the co-founder of Kuwait’s 4Sale Sakr and his partners acquired 4sale in 2014 following six years of experience with online sales through Q8car, an e-commerce platform for vehicles.
This was still the case in 2014 with 4sale and so the company also had the advantage of being one of the early players. Using his previous experience with Q8car, Sakr moved fast adding all of the verticals he found in print classifieds to the site to attract users and achieve market dominance.
Marakez is the leading Mixed-used developer in Egypt, with an ever-growing portfolio of commercial and residential projects including; Mall of Arabia, Mall of Tanta, Town Center, D5M, Mall of Mansoura, Aeon towers, District Five and Mindhaus Offices; bringing a breadth of experience from a dynamic team of experienced and innovative Egyptian professionals.
Fawaz Al Hokair’s group is the holding company of Marakez, founded in 1989, currently operates 80 international fashion brands and more than 2,100 stores across 16 countries.
The group is a multinational conglomerate that focuses on five main sectors: fashion retail, shopping centers, F&B, entertainment, and hotels. Managing over 1.5 million square meters of prime retail real estate spread across a network of 21 shopping malls.
The group’s current investments span across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, the USA, and Central Asia making it one of the largest retail and real estate developers in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
As a result of the group’s unrivaled success, further expansion into new business sectors was inevitable covering today’s sectors such as construction, financial services, health care, hospitality, and energy.
What You Need To Know About Efreshli
Founded in early 2019 by Heba El-Gabaly, Efreshli is a technology-enabled furniture design and shopping solution that has created a new way for consumers in Egypt to shop for their homes, from their homes.
Since its launch, Efreshli has grown rapidly, and it currently carries thousands of curated products from the top 100 furniture design brands in Egypt.
Read the original article here
