Kenzz, an Egyptian-based Mass E-Commerce Platform, Raises $3.5M Seed Fund to Scale
Kenzz, the mass eCommerce platform providing reliable online shopping options to the masses in Egypt and the MENA region, has today announced that it has raised $3.5 million in Outliers Venture Capital – a venture capital fund backing early-stage outlier founders in the US & MENA-led seed funding round with participation from HOF Capital – the global technology investment firm, Foundation Ventures, Samurai Incubate, and other investors – including angels.
The funds will be used to hire more top talent, expand product categories and assemble a diverse range of products to meet the preferences and tastes of various consumer segments, invest in technology, and launch its new app soon.
Speaking on the round, Ahmad Atef, founder, and CEO of Kenzz said “We are delighted to complete this seed fundraise, and we thank all our investors for their support. The time is ripe to fully optimize eCommerce in Egypt and MENA. We have designed Kenzz to appeal specifically to people not yet convinced that eCommerce is a practical and mainstream mode of shopping. We are revolutionizing the shopping experience to deliver relevancy, convenience, trust, and value, and look forward to the future with great confidence.”
Why the Investors Invested
While Sarah AlSaleh, Partner at Outliers Venture Capital, the lead investor in the round noted “Kenzz is solving two key issues that current e-commerce incumbents are not addressing: affordable and reliable last mile logistics and an uncompromising customer trust philosophy. The diversity and depth of Kenzz’s founding team strongly position them to combine a multitude of experiences and expertise into creating a category-defining company and e-commerce champion for Egypt.”
Also, Omar Barakat, Managing Partner at Foundation Ventures, on his part said “We are thrilled to be partnering up with an amazing team that has a wealth of experience across technology, marketing, and operations to build the region’s first truly inclusive eCommerce platform. Kenzz is socializing the purchasing experience, allowing people to unlock value by buying in groups. This leverages Egyptians’ social nature whilst providing them with affordable and reliable products. Kenzz’s platform is built to serve the masses.”
What you should know about Kenzz
Ahmed Atef, Mahmoud AlSilk, and Moataz Sami founded Kenzz earlier this year to provide Egypt and the MENA region with a leading, dependable mass eCommerce solution. Its customer-centric platform digitizes the offline experience, making it exciting, fun, and sociable for users across all customer touchpoints while offering up to 65 percent discounts.
Kenzz’s business model is based on long-term growth rather than short-term gains and aggressive cash burn. The model entails sourcing products directly from manufacturers and importers and providing consumers with greater discounts when they share/purchase with friends and family.
Kenzz can secure the best deals for customers thanks to this model. As referrals to Kenzz grow virally, its acquisition costs will fall even further. Group orders can also be sent to a single location to reduce consumer delivery fees and startup logistics costs. Kenzz is bridging the gap between traditional offline and online shopping with a model that reflects and makes easily accessible the everyday behavior and needs of the consumer masses. It addresses the main reasons consumers are hesitant to make online purchases: a lack of trust, the availability of bargains, complexity, a one-way transactional process, no personalization, little insightful relevancy, and redundant technology. Kenzz’s model also helps local manufacturers and SMEs grow their businesses by providing them with data, insights, and access to potentially hard-to-reach end users.