Swvl, an Egyptian transportation startup secures $20m in a new round.

Swvl, an Egyptian transportation startup has secured over $20-million in a new round before the  COVID-19 invaded the country.

Swvl is a premium mass transit system that provides buses. It allows people to share a ride in a van or bus during morning and evening commutes for a fixed fare using technology.

Users can easily book a ride at an affordable rate through Swvl’s app.

According to Menabytes, the investment round has not been officially announced but it has already learned that both existing and new investors have taken part in the round.

Menabytes cited Swedish venture capital fund Vostok New Ventures’s 2020 first-quarter report which unveils that the VC invested $7-million in Swvl this February, as part of a larger funding round in the startup.

Meanwhile, Vostok’s report did not reveal the actual size of the round but stated that it is between $24 to $28 million.

The Swedish investor also took part in Swvl’s $42 million raised in June last year.

The startup was founded in 2017 by Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah, and Mahmoud Nouh but due to unknown reasons, Nuoh resigned from the company last year.

The startup stylized as SWVL is an Egyptian bus transportation network company that is based in Cairo. The company operates in about five countries along fixed routes and allows customers to reserve and pay for them using an app.

Swvl was one of the earliest startups in the region to introduce app-based mass-transportation but now it now has competitors like Uber & Careem both of which launched a similar service in Cairo last year. Careem, which has been acquired by Uber, has since expanded Careem Bus to Alexandria and Saudi as well.

Last year the company raised $42 million funds from venture- capital firms such as Sweden’s Vostok, Dubai-based BECO Capital, China’s MSA, and Endeavor Catalyst in New York.