Egyptian startup Shiphaly, a platform connecting shoppers and travellers, has raised an undisclosed six-figure seed funding round from angel investors to help it build on its steady growth.
Launched in October 2019, Shiphaly is a mobile app and marketplace connecting shoppers who want to buy products from abroad with travellers who can buy and deliver the products in return for a cash reward.
The startup, which was accelerated and received seed funding from Flat6Labs in Cairo in 2019, has now banked further investment from angel investors in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The round is led by Faisal Abdulsalam, the founder of Purity.
Shiphaly’s business faced some challenges in the first half of 2020 from the different COVID-19 travel bans globally, but returned even stronger in the second half of 2020 and first half of 2021, fuelled by heavy demand from shoppers not able to travel abroad. Since the start of 2021, it has seen 25 per cent month-on-month growth in delivered orders, as well as more than 15,000 posted orders with a value of US$2 million.
“We are very proud of the traction that Shiphaly has had over the past months. We are also very happy and privileged to have a group of top notch angel investors backing us in our journey to transform the way people shop from abroad in Egypt and other future markets,” said Kahled Elabd, chief executive officer (CEO) of Shiphaly.
Abdulsalam said he believed Shiphaly offered a unique idea to solve an issue in many countries in the Middle East.
“Shiphaly’s unique team offers the technical and commercial depth and experience to ensure the success of the company. We strongly believe that Shiphaly has the potential to grow exponentially in many markets with the advantage of having low cost of entry to different markets being an e-marketplace,” he said.
