RabbitMart, or Rabbit for short, has raised $11 million in pre-seed funding.
The convenience delivery startup was able to raise the funding with the help of participants like Global Founders Capital which is based in San Fransisco, Raed Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Foundation Venture, and MSA Capital.
Lorenzo Franzi, a partner at Global Founders Capital, had this to say about the investment and Rabbit’s product offering:
“The Rabbit team is setting a totally new standard for the grocery industry in Egypt and the broader region. They offer a new experience to customers compared to traditional grocers and local stores.”
Talal Alasmari of Raed Ventures also gave the reason for the firm’s backing of Rabbit, stating that it had the foresight, expertise and capacity to lead the “ultra-fast delivery domain” in Egypt, Africa, and the Middle East.
The investment has placed Rabbit on a new pedestal for its level in Africa and the Middle East, as it has now surpassed Telda, an Egyptian fintech, at $5 million.
About Rabbit
Founded in June by Ahmad Yousry, Walid Shabana, Ismail Hafez and Tarek El Geresy, Rabbit has been silently running until its launch last month.
It is one of the pioneers of delivering groceries and other items from neighborhood fulfilment centers to people’s homes in 20 minutes or less.
Little wonder about 30 % of the orders delivered in its first two days were completed in less than 20 minutes. It surpassed that number last week as it reached a massive 90%.
Rabbit’s operation is similar to other international on-demand convenience delivery startups preceding it, going further to break down the Amazon model (large warehousing) and broken it down into small fulfilment centers in four neighborhoods across Cairo: Mohandeseen, Nasr City, Zamalek, and Maadi.
The categories of items that Rabbit purchases from third-party suppliers include groceries, basic fashion items, cosmetics, toys and household items.
It stores the items in its warehouses, adds a markup and through its app, sells the items to customers with a flat delivery fee.
The live inventory tracking system in its warehouses helps Rabbit monitor what it has on the shelf, equips riders with the necessary protective gear and technology to make the deliveries, and enables it to control the end-to-end experience on its platform.
The swiftness in Rabbit’s delivery process, according to Yousry, is because its tech and operations are run by an in-house team that receives and package orders in 2 minutes or less while the remaining 18 minutes is left for drivers to complete the order.
“The way we look at it is straightforward. If McDonald’s can deliver sandwiches in 30 minutes, and they still have to make the sandwich, then if we get things right, we can easily deliver in 20 minutes.”
“That’s exactly the reason why we went with 20 minutes and not 10. We could easily do 10 minutes, but if we do, we’re stretching our delivery riders aggressively and it wouldn’t account for their health and safety,” said Yousry.
“For us, there are two minutes under the roof, and there’s the rest on delivery time; it gives the couriers time to drive safely. They don’t need to rush, and they abide by traffic regulations and take things slower.
So far, only a few people have used the service, and while Yousry does not give hard numbers on traction, he said the company now completes more than 50 orders per location daily.
Rabbit currently has a little over 50 riders and is currently recruiting for more than 100 roles in professions such as driver, in-store and human resources in order to meet up with the expected high influx of demand after going live.
It also plans to cover several major cities in the next 12 months by adding a new fulfilment center every week till the end of the year.
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