MaxAB, an Egyptian eCommerce platform that serves food and grocery retailers, has raised an additional $15M from existing investors bringing its total Series A funding to $55M, the largest ever by an Egyptian startup.
In addition, it announced its acquisition of WaystoCap, a Morocco-based e-commerce and distribution platform that connects retailers with suppliers across Africa.
Founded in 2015 by Niama El Bassunie, Mehdi Daoui, Anis Abdeddine and Aziz Jaouhari Tissafi, WaystoCap was originally a cross-border trade platform for transacting business goods in Africa. Two years later, the company got into the 2017 Y Combinator’s Winter batch, making it the first company accepted from Morocco. It subsequently raised a $3 million seed round.
WaystoCap expanded its cross-border services to Ivory Coast and Togo, and at some point, was processing over $3 million worth of transactions per quarter. It later pivoted to a model similar to MaxAB’s own, pulling out of Ivory Coast and Togo to focus on growing its network of over 8,000 retailers in Morocco.
The acquisition will see MaxAB accelerate its expansion into the Maghreb market – Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia – empowered by WaystoCap’s expertise in the region.
WaystoCap is the second African YC-backed company to exit over the past year after Paystack got acquired by Stripe for more than $200 million last October.
“We are about to take the food and grocery industry to another level in North Africa,” Co-Founder and CEO at MaxAB, Belal El-Megharbel, said on the company’s expansion and the synergies with WaystoCap.
“The creation of this new super-team, combining a powerhouse of talent, technological know-how, on the ground infrastructure, boosted supply chains and WaystoCap’s phenomenal experience of the region is very exciting.”
MaxAB’s acquisition will now see more than 70,000 retailers supplied with essential food and groceries across multiple markets.
Niama El Bassunie, CEO & Founder of WaystoCap who will take on the position of the managing director at MaxAB Morocco added: “We are thrilled to play a pivotal role in the new all-star team being created and led by experienced, innovative entrepreneurs to establish a regional market leader in food and grocery supply. We are looking forward to continuing our close working relationship with our new team and taking the business to its next phase.”
For MaxAB, the Maghreb market is a new territory and this new strategic acquisition will position the expanded team to be North Africa’s leading business-to-business eCommerce platform for retailers and suppliers.
