Egypt’s homemade food platform Mumm has raised a $200,000 investment from 500 Startups, it announced in a press release today. The investment was secured last month. Mumm was one of the 9 startups that were part of 500 Startups & QSTP’s Series A Program accelerator Doha Dojo’s first edition in Qatar earlier this year.
The online marketplace that delivers homemade food on-demand was founded in 2015 and has earlier raised a seed investment in 2016 from A15, an Egyptian VC that invests between 500,000 LP to 3,000,000 LP ($28,000 to $168,000) in early growth stage startups.
500 Startups had secured $15 million earlier this year for its MENA-focused fund named 500 Falcons. This $15 million was the first installment as 500 Startups aims to raise as much as $30 million for the fund to invest in early-stage startups from the region.
Speaking to MENAbytes about the investment, Waleed Abdel Rahman, Founder & CEO of Mumm said, “We will work on having more talent that will make our growth even faster, we will build stronger systems that will help us scale the business further and enable more people to work from home. The opportunity in the market is huge, this investment will be directed toward growing our team to make sure we grab a bigger part of it.”
The startup is not only helping local Egyptian women but refugees as well to earn money by selling home-cooked meals on their platform. The women who work as cooking partners with the startup can make up to 6,000 LE (about $340) a month without leaving their home as Mumm takes care of the logistics. With unemployment rate for Women in Egypt hitting almost 24% in 2016, it now ranks 16th on the list of countries with highest unemployment rate for women. In these times, Mumm gives women in the country an option to earn upto 6,000 LE right from their home.
They aim to expand beyond Egypt but this investment will be used to focus on Egypt alone.
“We have expansion plans beyond Egypt but they will not be executed during this year. For now our focus is on Egypt. But we will definitely make the expansion plans firm in order to raise another round at a later stage to grow beyond Egypt” he added
Speaking about the deal in the press statement, Sharif El-Badawi, Partner at 500 Startups said, “We’re incredibly proud to be a part of Mumm’s journey with Waleed. Mumm tackles the intersection of issues faced in Egypt and other markets whereby the cost of a healthy and convenient meal for the bulk of young employees has become prohibitive. Not only do we believe that Mumm will help corporate employees eat healthier and be more productive, we are keen on empowering women and providing a means to independence and job security for them.”
It is one of the most promising startups to come out of Egypt in recent times and has already won different honors and awards including recognition by World Economic Forum as one of the 100 Arab startups shaping the fourth industrial revolution, being a finalist in Arabnet’s Startup Championship in Dubai earlier this year and winning the 1st place in the Harvard Arab Alumni Association World conference startup competition.
“We are currently growing our team of high caliber young people as we expand our business. We will continue to build an organizational environment that is full of learning, and one that challenges the team to achieve more so we can realize our full potential” said Waleed Abdel Rahman, Founder & CEO of Mumm
They are now in the process of launching a B2B solution which will target companies to provide more value for money experience to companies and their employees while maintaining a high nutritional value.
