Yasmine Abdel Karim, the Arab female entrepreneur who just raised the biggest funding for her logistics tech startup in the Middle East

Newsletter

08 Feb 2022

Yasmine Abdel Karim, the Arab female entrepreneur who just raised the biggest funding for her logistics tech startup in the Middle East

For our top talks today, we need to spot the light on Yasmine Abdel Karim, the Arab female entrepreneur who just raised the biggest funding for her logistics tech startup in the Middle East. The state of women in tech has improved in recent years, however, reports indicate, the number of female startups worldwide still lags that of men. One such ambitious female entrepreneur is Yasmine Abdel Karim, who co-founded African on-demand logistics startup Yalla Fel Sekka (YFS) in 2020 along with Khashayar Mahdavi. The firm specializes in instant delivery and dark store management and has now closed a 7 million USD Series A funding round. The round was led by DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture platform. What’s more, it is the biggest funding round raised by a logistics business headed by an Arab woman in the Middle East. (Tech Funding News)

Moreover, as per the company press release, YFS is Egypt’s only instant delivery company that provides efficient, reliable and affordable services within urban communities.
YFS has revolutionized the delivery industry in Egypt only 1.5 years after its debut. It is the top instant delivery service for urban businesses in the country. Its digital platform offers instant B2B2C delivery logistics and operations for businesses, providing a broad fleet, and dark store and micro-warehouse management. The service disrupts the regional delivery industry with its unique and scalable model that focuses on people, technology and speed. It serves several verticals such as groceries, pharmacies and e-commerce. Also, it helps SMBs grow by letting them access a booming e-commerce market with minimal investment. (Tech Funding News)
Egypt is seeking to purchase 4 million tons of Wheat in the 2022 season, an increase of 11% compared to last year, in which it purchased 3.6 million tons of farmers,
according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Supply. The wheat planting season starts from mid-November until the end of January, while the harvest season starts from mid-April until mid-July. Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, aims to buy larger quantities of local wheat this year to reduce its import bill in light of the increase in international prices. It raised the price of supplying the local wheat "Ardib" by 14% to 820 pounds in 2022. Note that an ardeb is equal to 150 kilograms. Egypt planted 3.62 million acres of wheat in the current 2022 season, the largest ever in its history. (Reuters)
The Egyptian government, represented by the Gas Regulatory Authority, is getting ready to ratify the new distribution fees of natural gas through the national grid in 2022.
The new tariffs/fees are currently being calculated by the Egyptian Natural Gas Company (GASCO) to be reviewed soon by the authority. These fees are determined on annual basis based on a pricing mechanism that takes a number of variables into consideration, including the new added lines to the national grid, expected volume of natural gas to be distributed, operating expenses, foreign exchange rates, and ongoing projects in gas development and production projects. This move comes within the framework of the Gas Regulatory Authority to organize the gas market and merging it with the global markets, in line with the state’s strategy to turn Egypt into a regional hub for oil and gas trading. (Al-Mal)
The Egyptian Ministry of Planning and Economic Development on Monday announced that the government is planning to sign a funding program for 2022 with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) in February.
The funding program aims at supporting the micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Egypt, the ministry added in a statement. This came on the sidelines of the visit of finance minister Hala El-Said to the headquarter of ITFC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Al-Mal)
In a similar context, Egypt’s net international reserves have recorded 40.98 billion USD at the end of January 2022.
This marks a monthly growth of 46 million USD in January, as the net foreign reserves hit 40.934 billion USD at the end of December 2021. It is worth noting that Egypt’s net international reserves rose at the end of December 2021 by 25 million USD from 40.909 billion USD in November 2021. The international reserves have been increasing gradually since June 2020 after it fell to about 36 billion USD at the end of May 2020 from 45.5 billion USD before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. (CBE)
And for our investments talks, first, Misr Italia Properties aims at pumping investments worth EGP 3.5 billion into various projects in 2022, according to the Managing Director and CEO Mohamed El-Assal.
The company targets achieving sales estimated at 7 billion EGP this year, El-Assal noted. It is worth noting that the company’s sales reached 5 billion EGP in 2021, surpassing targeted sales of 4 billion EGP. Moreover, Misr Italia is currently in talks with a number of banks to obtain up to 2 billion EGP in financing to fund the company’s expansions and projects over the coming period. The company is focusing on the delivery of units in three main projects, namely IL Bosco City in the New Administrative Capital, Kai Sokhna, and Cairo Business Park in New Cairo. (Al-Mal)
Second, Dubai-based water treatment company Metito aims at building floating desalination plants in Egypt, according to the CEO Karim Madwar.
The company is seeking to arrange the required financing for implementing this project through a number of financing entities, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The Emirati company has already submitted its proposal regarding this project to the Egyptian government, represented in the Ministry of Housing. Once the proposal is approved, the target capacity and cost of the project will be determined. (Al Borsa Newspaper)
Moving to our EGX and companies talks, e-finance for Digital and Financial Investments (EFIH) has signed a contract through its subsidiary e-Cards to supply and manage smart cards to (TGI) in Zimbabwe for a 10-year period.
This marks the beginning of e-finance’s strategic expansion plan in Africa, Chairman of e-finance Ibrahim Sarhan remarked. Under the signed contract, e-Cards will be managing cards on behalf of TGI in exchange for a fixed monthly fee. Moreover, the company will provide and operate 7,000 point of sale (PoS) machines to carry out payments for cardholders during the contract’s term. Through the 10-year term contract, e-Cards will offer cards for over 2 million beneficiaries via a dual-sim card with a registered databased of verified beneficiaries that enables them to pay for health services, according to the Managing Director of e-Cards Mohamed Kamal. It is worth noting that TGI is a leading health services provider and consultant in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). (EGX)
Macro Capital" raises 1.3 billion EGP from offering 45.8% of its shares on the Egyptian Stock Exchange at 4.85 EGP per share.
Macro Capital" expects to start trading on its shares on the Egyptian Stock Exchange next Thursday. We believe the market is thirsty for any new shares, especially if the price of the offering is attractive, but we hope to increase the shares allocated to the public offering in companies, because they are a source of attraction for the real liquidity in the market, especially of individuals. (EGX)
United Pharma is planning to pump investments worth 150 million EGP in upgrading and boosting the efficiency of its plant, according to the Chairman Abdallah Mahfouz.
The company is aiming at re-opening the plant by mid-2022 after being upgraded. The development process of the plant includes the addition of new production lines and boosting production capacity by 35%. United Pharma acquires a market share exceeding 25% of the Egyptian market. (Al Borsa Newspaper)
MM Group for Industry and International Trade (MTI) (MTIE) announced that it has entered an agreement with Apple Trading Egypt.
Under the agreement, MTI will become a non-exclusive authorized distributor of Apple products in the local market. Sales are scheduled to begin by the third quarter (Q3) of 2022, MTI highlighted. “The addition of Apple products to MTI’s portfolio will broaden our product offering, targeting a wider customer base and an increased market share in the mobile phone distribution market,” Chairman and CEO of MTI Khaled Mahmoud commented. MTI is one of the leading distribution companies by geographic coverage in Egypt, with access to more than 40,000 points of sale. (EGX)
Beyti for food industries has succeeded in investing 204 million EGP in the milk and juice production segment in 2021.
These investments were pumped into production and packing lines, noting that this marked a step towards leading the milk and juices market in Egypt. The company plans to boost its investment in 2022 by pumping a sum of 250 million EGP into the establishment of new production lines to contribute to meeting the market’s demand as well as increasing Beyti’s market share. Moreover, the company targets investing in technology through developing manufacturing system in accordance with the global standards. The company also plans to upgrade the quality supervision system throughout all production stages, which will be positively reflected on consumers. (Al-Mal)
Redcon Construction is planning to list its shares on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 or Q1 2024, according to the Vice Chairman Ahmed Abdallah.
The stake and the timeline for the initial public offering (IPO) will be set based on market conditions. The offering size will be determined as per Redcon’s future expansion plans and its growth finance’ views. The company is keeping an eye on the international economic scene and the repressions of the upcoming increases in the US Federal Reserve’s interest rates. (Enterprise)
And finally, Export Development Bank of Egypt (EDBE) (EXPA) announced that its ordinary general meeting (OGM) has approved raising the bank’s issued and paid-up capital to 5.27 billion EGP from 3.27 billion EGP.
The capital increase amounts to 2 billion EGP distributed over 200 million shares at a nominal value of 10 EGP per share, in addition to, issuance expenses of 0.10 EGP per share. Moreover, the OGM has endorsed the bank’s planning budget for 2022. (EGX)