Sylndr, a Cairo-based automotive marketplace that enables people to sell and purchase old automobiles, has secured $12.6 million in a pre-seed round, the highest of its kind in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa, surpassing Rabbit, a 20-minute convenience delivery firm, which secured $12.6 million in November.
RAED Ventures, a Saudi early-stage venture capital firm, headed the financing. Algebra Ventures, Nuwa Capital, 1984 Ventures, and Global Founders Capital were among the VC companies that took part as other regional and global angel investors.
El Defrawy was employed as an investment banker at EFG Hermes and the CFO of Elmenus, an Egyptian food delivery firm, before founding Sylndr. Mazen has worked for Souq.com, Hello Fresh, and Cazoo in the food delivery and e-commerce sectors.
Despite reports of venture capital getting colder amid public sell-offs and internet startups’ devaluation, they attribute their past, the make-up of their over 40 team members, and the capital-intensive nature of the used automobile industry to generating this substantial pre-seed round.
Retail sales, auction houses, dealerships, and B2B sales are all options for the pre-revenue firm. Sylndr may also look into additional income streams such as financing interest, insurance, roadside assistance fees, and other additional services, according to El Defrawy. The CEO stated that the company intends to develop this in the near future.
The funds will be used to expand the firm’s operational status, technical infrastructure, inventory growth, and retail and non-retail consumer channels, according to the founders.
Sylndr is not yet available to the general public. It is, however, modeling itself after India’s Cars24, which obtains automobiles from individuals who wish to sell them, buys them for a predetermined price, reconditions them, and then resells them to new owners.
Sylndr also promises to offer a seven-day money-back guarantee, warranty, and convenient payment alternatives to users, according to the creators.
Clients who want to sell their cars will be the first to benefit from the car retailer’s updates. Sylndr intends to open up to purchasers in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2023, according to Mazen.
Techbuild’s Take
Without a doubt, Africa has served as a dumping site for used cars, the majority of which are used for public transportation.
The transfer of secondhand autos to Africa has become more common. With approximately 6 million cars (80% of which are passenger cars) on the highways, Egypt has one of Africa’s biggest automotive fleets.
The majority are old cars, according to this data; their ratio to new cars is 3:1. This is due to the fact that new cars are quite expensive, and not everyone can afford one.
The automotive sector has been rapidly digitizing to make selling and buying new cars easier for car owners and aspiring car owners, with various entrepreneurs coming up with inventive ways to disrupt the market.
The fundamental problem that Sylndr is aiming to solve in Egypt, according to co-founder and CEO Omar El Defrawy, is a complete lack of confidence between buyers and sellers of used automobiles in the marketplaces.
Sylndr is attempting to fix this problem at its heart. The company’s objective is to become the most trustworthy used automobile vendor in Egypt and the region rapidly.
Sylndr stated in a statement that it plans to more than double its workforce size by the end of the year. Autochek, a Nigeria-based automotive platform that just acquired a company in North Africa, will be a competitor.
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