ArabFinance: GoodsMart, the leading online grocery service, announced today that it raised a new round of investment from Algebra Ventures, the largest venture capital fund in Egypt. The Series A investment of US$ 750,000 will help the company on its mission to transform grocery shopping into an effortless and more convenient experience. The new capital will go towards growing GoodsMart’s operational capacity, increasing service coverage in Cairo and raising awareness of the service. Joining the GoodsMart board to support this growth strategy are Tarek Assaad, Managing Partner at Algebra Ventures and Ahmed Badrawi, CEO of MARAKEZ (Fawaz Al Hokair Group), the leading retail and real estate conglomerate.
Through the GoodsMart mobile application, customers can browse thousands of premium grocery and home products from a variety of shops and suppliers from across the city. Customers can place orders on the mobile app all day until 9:00 PM and groceries are delivered overnight in a triple-insulated box outside the customer’s house before 6:00 AM the following day, all without a single door knock. Customers can also set up repeated delivery schedules for products they wish to never run short of. The service currently operates in the 6th of October and Sheikh Zayed areas.
“For the past two years we have been working on perfecting the business model, listening to our customers and relieving all the pains and constrains they have related to the grocery delivery service in Egypt, adding more flexibility, convenience and peace of mind to the experience,” said Amr Fawzi, CEO of GoodsMart. GoodsMart was established in 2014 by Amr and his three brothers Tarek, Rami and Ahmed.
“We were impressed by the passion and drive of GoodsMart’s team as well as their product innovation and execution capabilities. GoodsMart has incredible potential in the unattended home delivery market in Egypt and we are excited to support the company to become the leader of this high-growth category.” said Tarek Assaad, Managing Partner at Algebra Ventures. “We are also delighted to welcome Ahmed Badrawi to the board of GoodsMart. We believe that bringing such exceptional senior executives to startups is of tremendous value and we will continue driving this effort with future startups that we invest in.”
The Algebra Ventures fund plans to invest in up to 25 technology and technology-enabled startups in different areas including Fintech, industry platforms, core tech, e-commerce, business software and consumer internet. The investments will predominantly be in the range of $500,000 to $4million.