Egypt’s Taager raises $6.4 million seed for its social commerce platform

Cairo-based social commerce platform Taager has raised $6.4 million in a seed round led by 4DX Ventures, it announced in a statement today. The round also included participation from Raed Ventures, Beco Capital, Breyer Capital, and some individual investors including Careem’s Magnus Olsson. It takes Taager’s total investment to $7 million.

Founded in 2019 by Mohamed Elhorishy, Ismail Omar, Abdelrahman Sherif, and Ahmed Ismail, Taager is building the Meesho of Egypt, enabling anyone to start selling online, by providing them with products to sell and managing the entire process. The sellers can use the platform to create their catalog of products and then share it with potential customers on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or any other platform, to receive orders. The merchants then submit the orders on Taager, which ships them directly to the customers, using third-party logistics services.

So, a seller is only responsible for finding the customers and getting orders, and the rest is taken care of by Taager. The sellers can choose to sell from different categories of products, home improvement and decor, fashion, car accessories, and mobile accessories. Since its launch in December 2019, Taager claims to have grown its GMV at an average of 40 percent month-over-month. The startup currently serves over 5,000 sellers and hundreds of suppliers.

Mohamed Elhorishy, co-founder and CEO of Taager, said, “Small and medium-sized businesses are the engine of Egypt’s economy and we want to empower them with the best tools to drive their growth. In just over a year, we have built a huge body of data that does just that and we want to enable many more social entrepreneurs and online merchants to grow their businesses throughout Egypt and the MENA region.”

“The pandemic has accelerated the growth of ecommerce rapidly and in a relatively short time span and has driven our platform to a market-leading position. This was no easy feat in one of the toughest markets to operate in. We are excited to have some of the leading investors in the world back our vision as we look to scale and grow our platform across the region. We have world-class talent in our team and we are looking forward to taking the business to new heights in the coming months,” added the CEO who previously worked for an investment firm in Cairo.

Peter Orth, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at 4DX Ventures, said, “The Taager team have achieved very impressive results incredibly quickly, and also built one of the most impressive teams in the ecosystem. Their focus on quality and execution, and a very unique approach to empowering ecommerce entrepreneurs is a dominant combination. We’re thrilled to partner with the team in the next phase of the company’s growth.”

Taager is Breyer Capital’s first investment in the Middle East & North Africa. The firm has previously invested in companies like Facebook, Spotify, and Etsy. Its founder and CEO, speaking about investing in Taager said that tits traction in the emerging social ecommerce space has been remarkable, “We are excited to help the company maintain this impressive momentum as it scales the business beyond Egypt. The MENA region is one of the most exciting right now and we believe there’s a great opportunity for Taager to replicate its unique data-driven approach for further growth across the region.”

The startup plans to use the investment to expand its operations and presence across Egypt, and further enhance its technology. It competes with Algebra and Endure-backed Brimore that has raised over $4 million to date.