MaxAB has raised $15 million from existing investors – RMBV, IFC, Flourish Ventures, Crystal Stream Capital, Rise Capital, Endeavour Catalyst, Beco Capital, and 4DX Ventures, in an extension of its Series A funding round. The extension round brings the total amount that the Egypt-based procurement and grocery delivery startup raised to $55 million.
MaxAB is a Business-To-Business (B2B) platform that is targeted at retailers. In July, the startup raised the sum of $40 million in a Series A round. MaxAB started in 2018 and was founded by the duo Belai El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim. What the startup does with its eponymous platform is that it provides retailers with a platform where they can purchase goods, request that these purchased goods be delivered to them at their shop, and makes the whole stocking process a lot more convenient. The startup also provides its users with a customer support team that is always available to help them resolve challenged and provide useful information.
As peculiar with startups, MaxAB plans to use the acquired funds to expand beyond Egypt. It is looking to expand across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. The startup has also mentioned that the funds will be geared towards expanding its team and launching new products for users to enjoy.
The startup also made another important announcement that it has acquired Morroco-based Business-To-Business model e-commerce and distribution startup WaystoCap. The amount for which the deal was concluded was, however, not made known to the public.
WaystoCap fits properly into MaxAB’s expansion plans and will help the startup to scale its operations. WaystoCap is a much older startup and knows its way around the Moroccan market and even beyond its primary market. It was founded in 2015 by Niama El Bassunie, Mehdi Daoui, Aziz Jaouhari Tissafi and Anis Abdeddine. When it started operations, WaystoCap was a cross-border trade platform for transacting business goods in Africa. This was the business model that earned the startup its place in Y Combinator’s Winter batch in 2017, giving it the title of the first Moroccan company that made it into the Y Combinators program.
Speaking on the WaystoCap acquisition, Belai El-Megharbel – one of MaxAB’s founders said that “I love the team. They share the same values and they’re on a mission that is using a tech-enabled supply chain to optimize food distribution across the continent. For us, our strategy is to build a global team that can think local and execute properly. And we figured out that they’re already a perfect fit for that”. The acquisition, therefore, signals MaxAB’s move into the Moroccan market.
“At the end of the day, what we want to do is build a tech-enabled supply chain, in all the African countries, in the Middle Eastern countries, and then connect them together. That’s where the magic happens. This is where we can actually have a real impact by putting the right amount of food at the right place at the right time, and minimizing the waste which MENA cannot afford”, MaxAB’s Co-founder and CEO Belai El-Meghabel added.
The WaystoCap acquisition by MaxAB is similar to Plentywaka’s acquisition of Ghana-based Stabus as part of its expansion plans into other parts of Africa. Plentywaka and Stabus already share similar business models just like MaxAB and WaystoCap, and this is the beauty in the WaystoCap acquisition.
