Egypt’s Brantu raises seven-figure Series A for its fashion ecommerce platform

Cairo-based fashion ecommerce platform Brantu has raised a seven-figure (USD) investment in a Series A round led by one of the leading Egyptian VCs Sawari Ventures, it announced today in a statement to MENAbytes without disclosing the exact size of investment.

Brantu (the company) had originally started as an ecommerce venture builder by Mohamed Rizk and Fredrik Granström in late 2016 with a price comparison platform Elprices as their first venture. Elprices was launched in 2018 but was apparently shut down in early 2019.

The founders and team then shifted their focus on building a fashion ecommerce platform with company’s namesake. Brantu was launched in July 2019 and enables customers all over Egypt to buy products including clothing, shoes, bags, and accessories from local and global fashion brands. The platform currently features products for women only.

(The website of Elprices now redirects to Brantu).

“At the heart of Brantu’s vision is to create a convenient and seamless fashion sales experience for the buyers and fashion brands. Brantu debuted with a women’s assortment, offering fresh and trendy apparel via a mobile-first platform with exciting and appealing content, speedy delivery, and free returns. Brantu also offers fashion brands various operational models, to simplify the onboarding process,” noted the statement.

Mohamed Rizk, the co-founder of Brantu, in a statement, said that they’re trying to change the consumer behavior in Egypt, enabling them to make their fashion purchases online, “Before Brantu, fashion consumers bought through international/cross-border websites, facing the issues of long delivery times & customs or local general merchandise platforms whose assortment and appeal do not cater to fashion consumers. We are providing speedy delivery, trendy products & appealing content to Egypt’s mass population, serving millions of fashion shoppers.”

According to its website, Brantu currently takes 1 to 5 business days to deliver the products. It also offers 14-day returns as long as the products are in appropriate condition and still have the tags on them.

Namshi, the Dubai-based fashion ecommerce platform that was fully acquired by in early 2019 had said a month after the acquisition that it was planning to expand to Egypt. Hosam Arab, its CEO (at the time) had said that Egypt is one of the markets they will be trialing from a distance first. He had later stepped down from his role at Namshi to start a fintech in the UAE. It is not clear if Namshi is still looking to expand into Egypt.

Brantu had started with three brands and currently claims to have products from over 70 brands. It also claims to have acquired over 20,000 users within the first year of its operations. The startup plans to use the latest investment to further grow its userbase, add more verticals to its platform, and increase its market share within the growing fashion and lifestyle industry in Egypt.

Wael Amin, a Partner at Sawari Ventures, commenting on the occasion, said, “Brantu is easily the best example of the tremendous acceleration in digital adoption that we have witnessed across all sectors during the pandemic. We have full faith in the ability of Brantu’s management team to take the company to market leadership.”