Egypt’s Milango raises six-figure seed to help residential communities and clubs go digital

Milango, a Cairo-based startup that enables offline communities to offer different services to their residents and members through mobile apps, has raised a six-figure (USD) seed investment in a round led by A15, it announced in a statement to MENAbytes today, without disclosing the exact size of investment.

The startup had originally started as a service that Cairo-based digital agency Kijamii used to offer to some of its clients (since 2016) but was spun out as an independent platform earlier this year, with Amr Mostafa, who was previously with Endeavor Egypt, joining it as the CEO.

Milango works with residential compounds, sports, and social clubs, and some other types of offline communities to help them offer different types of services to their residents and members through branded mobile apps.

It is available as an off-the-shelf solution that can be customized according to brand guidelines shared by the community. The main product of Milango, however, is its digital solution for large developers and communities – that has a lot of custom components in addition to what’s available in the off-the-shelf solution. It comes with additional features some of which are built for a specific developer on their request.

According to its website, the developers can offer a directory (of the community), guest invitations, home service, payment of utilities and rent, alerts, and other services through the app. They can also add and manage community events on these apps, and communicate with the residents. The social clubs can use it to create digital IDs of their members for access control, offer all types of payments through the app, enable members to make reservations, and even showcase and sell their merchandise.

Its solution is currently being used by some of the leading real estate developers in Egypt including Orascom Development (who are using it for El Gouna), Travco Properties (Almaza Bay), SODIC, Emaar, and Smash Sporting Club.

The startup did not share the details of how it makes money but said it has multiple revenue streams.

Amr Mostafa, the CEO of Milango, in a statement, said, “With the support of our partners and A15’s strong technology ecosystem value they add to the equation, I am confident that Milango is on the right path to bringing the smart city of the future closer to today.”

A15’s Chairman, Fadi Antaki, said, “We invested in Milango because it makes sense due to the gap it is filling in the market as in digitally transforming communities whether compounds or clubs by making the experience served to its residents and members more seamless, appealing and meaningful.”

Milango plans to use the latest investment to further improve its product and expand its team. There are some other players that are active in this space in Egypt and as Covid-19 has accelerated the use of digital products in the country, Milango expects that the use of such solutions will grow multiple folds within the next few years.