Egyptian cleaning services startup Jinni raises six-figure investment from AUC Angels

Cairo-based cleaning services startup Jinni has raised six-figure (USD) investment from AUC Angels, the newly launched angel group told MENAbytes today, without disclosing exact size of the deal. It is the first disclosed investment of AUC Angels, the first university-based angel network of the region.

Founded in late 2016 by a husband-and-wife-duo; Mostafa Ghannam and Alaa Shams, Jinni offers different types of cleaning services to both residential users and corporate clients. The startup that initially received orders through Facebook, phone and email, has recently launched its mobile apps for both sides of the marketplace; customers and cleaners, allowing customers to book cleaners through these apps.

Jinni claims to have served over 3,000 residential customers completing over 12,000 orders for them and tens of corporate clients including Uber, Modelez International, and Egyptian Steel since its launch, in Cairo, Giza and the North Coast. Jinni grew its GMV from EGP 1.3 million (~USD $81,000) in 2017 to EGP 3 million (~USD 186,000) in 2018 and has been able to grow it three times YoY to EGP 9.5 million (~USD 590,000) in 2019 (for the period until Oct 2019 – with two months still to go in the year).

The Cairo-based startup that had started with five cleaners has also grown its cleaners base to 150 with 60 of them getting trained earlier this year at Jinni’s recently launched training academy.

“The training academy will continue to train the cleaners to meet Jinni’s criteria of excellence and ensure that they provide consistent customer experience,” the startup said in a statement.

The residential cleaners, serving on Jinni (it claims), can earn up to EGP 8,000 (~USD 500) a month.

Jinni’s co-founder and CEO Mostafa Ghannam, speaking to MENAbytes, said that they plan to use the investment to further improve their tech and promote its launch. “We’ll also use part of the investment on an educational center for cleaners that will contribute to development of their soft and technical skills so they can provide a consistent service to every Jinni customer.”

Ahmed Amin, Portfolio Manager at AUC Angels, said, “We are confident in the Jinni’s team and their ability to achieve their targets for next year. The investment that Jinni has raised is critical to the current status of the business and we are looking forward to supporting Jinni with follow on services, including additional funding.”

The startup competes with Mermaid, another similar marketplace for home-cleaning services in Cairo, and Taskty, a home services startup that also offers cleaning services.

(Updated to include a comment by AUC Angels)