Egyptian social e-commerce startup Taager has raised a US$6.4 million seed funding round to help it scale its platform and expand across the Middle East.
Launched in December 2019, Taager is a social e–commerce marketplace that provides online sellers and traders with a complete suite of backend and integrated services, from operational and logistical infrastructure such as storage and shipping to an online marketplace to host their products, connecting sellers with wholesalers.
The company uses technology, AI and data science to enable first time sellers to start and scale their online business seamlessly with relatively low risk. It offers a transparent pricing structure and an enhanced product selection process, freeing online sellers to focus on running their business while Taager handles the end to end operations.
Taager’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has grown at a rate of around 40 per cent month-on-month since it launched, and the startup now plans to scale even more quickly after banking a US$6.4 million seed round led by 4DX Ventures and also including Raed Ventures, Beco Capital, Breyer Capital, and a number of key private investors including Magnus Olsson.
The new capital raised will be deployed to expand Taager’s rapidly growing operations and presence across Egypt and worldwide. The company also plans to scale and boost its technology and expand its world-class talent pool.
“Small and medium sized businesses are the engine of Egypt’s economy and we want to empower them with the best tools to drive their growth. In just over a year, we have built a huge body of data that does just that and we want to enable many more social entrepreneurs and online merchants to grow their businesses throughout Egypt and the MENA region,” said Mohamed Elhorishy, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Taager.
“The pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce rapidly and in a relatively short time span and has driven our platform to a market leading position. This was no easy feat in one of the toughest markets to operate in. We are excited to have some of the leading investors in the world back our vision as we look to scale and grow our platform across the region. We have world class talent in our team and we are looking forward to taking the business to new heights in the coming months.”
Peter Orth, co-founder and managing partner at 4DX Ventures, said Taager had achieved very impressive results incredibly quickly, and also built one of the most impressive teams in the ecosystem.
“Their focus on quality and execution, and a very unique approach to empowering ecommerce entrepreneurs is a dominant combination. We’re thrilled to partner with the team in the next phase of the company’s growth,” he said.
