Muqbis, a fully-fledged marketplace developed by IT nerds to link the MEA’s “Handicrafts Talented Hands” supply chain, announced that Nama Ventures had invested an undisclosed sum in a pre-Seed investment round.
Iman El Wasifi, Mohamed Nasser, and Kareem Hussein established Muqbis in 2021. The co-founders have a successful professional history in business expansion and technological innovation.
In addition to other digital and startup enterprises in Egypt and the Middle East, the three Musketeers occupied key positions at Egypt Yellow Pages.
They all shared a love of handicrafts and worked together to develop Muqbis as a fully functional marketplace specifically designed for the sector.
Muqbis’ competitive advantage is based on minimizing human involvement, and the product roadmap is based on a complete grasp of the nature and challenges of this particular market.
Through Muqbis, the entire team accepted responsibility for not only promoting crafters’ growth and increasing conversions to product sales, but also for promoting this distinctive industry and safeguarding cultural heritage by utilizing cutting-edge technologies to increase deserving publicity and expansion.
Notwithstanding the pandemic’s growth barriers, Egypt’s handicrafts industry only has a 22 billion Egyptian pound market value.
To provide them with a reasonable marketplace where they can market their goods, enlighten them on how to leverage the strength of e-commerce to ensure a fair income, and grant them publicity to the local and global market, Muqbis aspires to serve as the umbrella for Talented Hands, particularly women in the Egyptian and MEA market.
According to Iman, the CEO of Muqbis, the firm is overjoyed to be selected as one of Nama’s Portfolio Companies in its initial round.
Even before the firm signed the final agreement for the investment, Nama, an exceptional VC, demonstrated a great conviction in what Muqbis does and aims to offer by bridging all feasible capacities to help its business expand through advice and business matchmaking.
He added that Muqbis’ upcoming phase will fundamentally alter the situation. They have demonstrated a notable market footprint over the past few months while in their MVP phase, but now is the time for a more significant impact that is specifically tailored for the sector because they believe in Talented Hands and will take advantage of every opportunity to deliver their distinctiveness to customers’ doorsteps in a first-class experience.
Since there are so many chances and so many skilled artisans in our region who require the right platform to monetize their work, we’ve wanted to stake a bet on “the Etsy of Mena” for a while.
However, Mohammed Alzubi, the founder and managing partner of Nama Venturers, admitted that it was never easy to put together the most complementary team to pursue the possibility.
Iman, Mohamed, and Karim are the epitome of a complementing team with the proper role clarity to take on this thrilling assignment, thus the wait is over.
The fact that the incredibly brilliant Muqbis team has chosen Nama Ventures as their funding partner is simply an honor and a privilege for us, and we look forward to repaying the favor by delivering the value addition that we pledged with our investment.
Techbuild’s Take
Before, only fashion things like clothing and shoes and technological devices like phones and headsets could be sold online. Now, anything can be sold online; all you need to do is locate a suitable platform.
In several developing nations, producing crafts contributes significantly to employment and frequently makes up a sizable portion of the export economy.
Numerous new chances are produced by globalization and expanding markets for handmade goods, particularly with the aid of online shops like Muqbis.
Owing to the multiple intermediaries, handicrafts have long been a key focus for overpricing. There are innumerable artists who specialize in a particular kind of good.
Such brilliant talent requires a platform to display their abilities and earn a respectable life. Eliminating intermediaries and establishing direct contact with the producer would guarantee that the craftspeople received the greatest possible profit, which is what Muqbis is all about. The startup hopes to grow its business and attract new customers with the help of this seed money.
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