Egyptian Logistics Startup Appetito raises $2m pre-Series A Funding

Egypt-based Grocery Delivery Startup Appetito has raised $2m in pre-Series A round, led by Jedar Capital. Golden Palm investments, DFS Lab, and a cluster of regional angel investors and family offices also participated in the round.

Appetito was launched in March 2020 by Shehab Mokhtar to store products for businesses and producers and deliver them to customers.  The startup engages in sourcing products directly from FMCG manufacturers, stores them in its warehouses and dark stores, and then delivers them to household customers in less than 60 minutes.

Shehab Mokhtar, CEO, and co-founder of Appetito speaking on the funding said that the FMCG retail market is estimated to be worth around $60 billion, of which 80 percent is traditional, while modern trade led by e-commerce-enabled supermarket chains and hypermarkets account for the remaining 20 percent.

“Through our technology, we can cut the middlemen who take out a decent margin of sold products and provide not only a convenient experience to our customers but also an affordable one as we compete on prices because we buy in bulk and sell at retail prices.

“The grocery market is very fragmented and there is a huge inefficiency in the supply chain itself. For any company to deliver its products to the consumer, they have to go through a network of wholesalers, distributors until the product reaches the retailers and then the final end-user in each chain. This inevitably increases the product prices, we look to change that,” said Mokhtar.

Appetito plans to use the funds to improve its product features and tech stack and expand its network of dark stores and expand internationally.