FreshSource Raises Seven-Figure Seed Round for Expansion

MENA region’s B2B agri-supply chain platforms, FreshSource, has just announced a seven-figure investment from 4DX Ventures and Wamda. The funding round will be used to scale its operations across Egypt and serve more farming communities.

The Cairo-based, fresh food platform was launched in 2019 by Farah Emara and Omar Emara. FreshSource aims to leverage technology and data, to become the leading fresh food distributor in the region, by changing the way fresh goods are sourced, moved, and sold.

FreshSource looks to tackle the issue of food loss by enabling farmers to connect directly with businesses without the involvement of third parties. FreshSource wants to create more sustainable fresh food systems through their tech platform, disrupting the distribution model of horticulture produce.

Omar Emara, co-founder at FreshSource spoke on the development of agriculture and the value FreshSource aims to bring to the sector.

“I think Agritech in general is still gaining traction worldwide, and we’ve seen a lot of advancements throughout the industry over the past few years. I think Egypt will continue to establish itself as one of the worldwide agri pioneers. I believe the reason it has been overlooked is that it is an extremely difficult and complicated field.

Working with perishable goods with dynamic prices makes it hard to disrupt. Our cold chain expertise that is built three decades of experience in the field from the family business gave us a strong foothold in the industry and strategic advantage,” said Omar.

Farah Emara also explains that they have been faced with reluctance by its users who refuse to fully move away from pen and paper.

“In the beginning, we were just using WhatsApp and telephones to interact with users. We had people leave us a missed call, we can call them back so that they don’t have to pay anything. And then we started to introduce different payment methods for them to take their wages and also other means for them to communicate with us. And that’s how we’re going to continue to roll out our tech, in incremental phases,” she says.

For Omar, being one of the first agritech startups to address food loss carries “a lot of responsibility to prove that the agriculture industry is ready for disruption. It has incredible potential as one of the largest industries in Egypt and in the region. We will continue innovating and working towards our mission”.