SOKNA, an Egyptian firm that provides end-to-end funeral services to honour the departed and make the process easier for their families, has raised $1 million in early funding to expand across Egypt.
After winning early investment from prominent regional and international funders, the business has inked 20 hospital and corporate partnerships around Greater Cairo, with over 2,500 cases performed, and hopes to grow across other cities.
Mentors Fund, SBX Capital, ACE & Company, and Kabnoury Ventures are among the investors, as are a group of highly strategic angel investors including Onsi Sawiris, Dr. Khaled AlMutabagani, Ahmed Sadek El Sewedy, and Farouk Kadous of ElSewedy Family Capital, Hisham Halbouny, Mo El-Bibany, Youssri Helmy, and Mostafa Amin of ElSewedy Family Capital. Senior executives from Google, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as other renowned angel investors, are among the attendees.
“With this new funding and the incredible group of partners that joined us, we are ready to scale across the country and be able to support more families during the difficult times of grieving loved ones,” said Ahmed Gaballah, founder and CEO of SOKNA. “As a mission-driven team, we always have our ‘why’ at the forefront: to allow people to focus on the farewell instead of the paperwork, and to honour departing souls and their families by alleviating the logistical pain of those moments.”
SOKNA has gathered over 70 vendor partners in Greater Cairo alone and has performed over 2,500 funerals.
“We’re extremely proud of how far SOKNA has come in a relatively short period of time, and it just comes to show what the power of a truly strong team can do,” said Charles Lorenceau, founding partner at ACE & Company.
“We were impressed by the fact that Gaballah had quit his impressive career in Silicon Valley working for Google, Facebook, and Adobe, to create this company and that he spent years understanding the local practices and customs behind this major life event. We are confident that he is the best to utilise technology to lead SOKNA and are glad to be part of the journey serving such a noble cause.”
