6-figure seed funding raised by Egyptian app & commerce marketplace Shiphaly
Shiphaly is a smartphone app and marketplace that connects customers looking to buy things from other countries with travellers willing to buy and transport the items in exchange for money.
The Cairo-based business, which was accelerated and got initial funding from Flat6Labs in 2019, has now secured further money from Saudi Arabian and Egyptian angel investors. Faisal Abdulsalam, the founder of Purity, is in charge of the round.
Shiphaly’s business was hampered in the first half of 2020 by various COVID-19 travel prohibitions across the world, but it rebounded in the second half of 2020 and the early part of 2021, fueled by high demand from shoppers unable to go overseas. It has witnessed a 25% month-on-month increase in delivered goods, as well as more than 15,000 posted orders worth more than $2 million, since the start of 2021.
“We are very proud of the traction that Shiphaly has had over the past months. We are also very happy and privileged to have a group of top-notch angel investors backing us in our journey to transform the way people shop from abroad in Egypt and other future markets,” said Kahled Elabd, chief executive officer (CEO) of Shiphaly.
Abdulsalam believes Shiphaly has a unique concept for resolving a problem that affects several Middle Eastern countries.
“Shiphaly’s unique team offers the technical and commercial depth and experience to ensure the success of the company. We strongly believe that Shiphaly has the potential to grow exponentially in many markets with the advantage of having low cost of entry to different markets being an e-marketplace,” he said.
