Egypt-based public transit tech startup, Swvl has secured USD 8 million in series A funding in an investment round led by BECO Capital with participation of Raed Ventures, DiGAME Investment Company, Silicon Badia, Oman Technology Fund, Arzan VC and Esther Dyson.
According to Mostafa Kandil, co-founder and CEO of Swvl, “the USD 8m round is the biggest Series A round in Egypt and one of the biggest rounds in the Middle East.” With the funding, Swvl will solidify its position in Egypt and establish the company as a global leader in the affordable smart mobility space, offering fixed routes for a fixed flat fare at prices that are up to 80% cheaper than on-demand ride-hailing services, with no surge or peak pricing. According to Mostafa, “Swvl intends to invest 300 million EGP in the local market in the upcoming 3 years to empower as many micro-entrepreneurs as possible in Egypt and the region and to become one of the biggest job creators in the country.” Swvl is expected to expand beyond Egypt to other emerging markets across the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa region within 2018 Swvl was founded by three young entrepreneurs – Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh, who have built a strong team with experience from Careem, Google, Instabug, Uber, Quora, MENA Commerce, Rocket Internet, DeliveryHero as well as finalists of the Global Maths Competitions. Established in April 2017, Swvl is an Egyptian mobile technology startup, a private premium alternative to public transportation that enables riders heading in the same direction to share a ride during rush hour. Swvl connects commuters with shared rides with a network of high-quality buses that Swvl established and covers now Cairo and Alexandria. Swvl runs its own fixed routes spread across the cities and customers gather at specific pick-up spots along the route to be driven to a common drop-off location. This lowers the overall cost of all these commutes and helps in saving time and money for all parties improving the overall system’s efficiency and making the process convenient and affordable to all stakeholders. By reinventing the daily commute of Egyptians, Swvl is appealing to a new generation of tech-savvy commuters as well as providing a social benefit. Swvl comes as a solution to a range of problems on both the demand and supply sides. From the soaring fuel prices due to subsidy cuts and Cairo’s and Alexandria’s notorious traffic that costs the country 4% annually of GDP (4X the congestion costs in comparable cities) to the idle fleets of buses that were caused by the slowdown in tourism.
