North Africa: Silver Lake, BII and DisruptAD back B2B e-commerce platform
MaxAB, the food and grocery B2B e-commerce and distribution platform, serving a network of traditional retailers across Egypt and Morocco, has today announced the close of a $40 million pre-series B equity round to fuel its expansion across the Middle East and North Africa region. The round included several new investors: Silver Lake, British International Investment and DisruptAD. The round also includes participation from existing investors: Beco Capital, 4DX Ventures, Flourish Ventures and Africa Platform Capital.
MaxAB is transforming the food and grocery supply chain by connecting suppliers with underserved traditional retailers and offering a wide range of embedded finance solutions. Since launching in 2018, MaxAB’s e-commerce business has successfully served approximately 150,000 unique traditional retailers, delivering 2.5 million orders. In 2021, MaxAB began rolling out its fintech solutions across its merchant base with the goal of digitising the flow of cash, transitioning MaxAB into a one-stop-shop for traditional retailers. Having solidified its position as the market leader in its industry, with a presence across all key cities in Egypt and in Casablanca, Morocco, MaxAB plans further geographic expansions to see full geographical coverage of Morocco by the end of 2023 and an entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The new capital will also be deployed by MaxAB to finance further growth in the e-commerce arm of its business, expand its technology and product teams, and further scale the fintech arm by offering a wider range of embedded finance solutions.
Belal El-Megharbel, CEO and co-founder at MaxAB said, “Within just four years of operations, we have been able to re-engineer the informal food and grocery market in Egypt and Morocco. We are thrilled to have gained the recognition and financial backing of world-class investors, adding to the reception and support we receive from the retailers and suppliers we serve. Going by the quality of investors who are partnering with us, we are excited about venturing into the next stage of the MaxAB journey, which is further consolidation of the informal grocery sector, heavy focus and investments in fintech and replicating our success in new markets to grow beyond borders.”
In Egypt, small traditional retailers serve as the backbone of the grocery industry with a similar dynamic existing in many other markets across the region. MaxAB estimates there are more than 750,000 mom-and-pop businesses requiring its services in Egypt and Morocco alone while Saudi Arabia is particularly attractive due to the government’s drive to digitise the informal sector.