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Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Careem taps into food delivery services with investment in Elmenus

Uber subsidiary Careem is making an investment in homegrown Egyptian food ordering platform Elmenus, the Dubai-based company said in a statement cited by Bloomberg. The investment will “extend our reach in one of our largest ride-hailing markets,” Careem co-founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha was quoted as saying in the statement, adding that the move will also help the company launch its super app across the region.

Like its parent company, Careem wants to do more than just rides: The company previously reported plans to expand food delivery — a market worth an estimated USD 2.8 bn in Egypt — and launch courier and digital payments services. Its food delivery service is already available in cities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Pakistan and Qatar, according to Bloomberg.

Our friends at Elmenus have scored a handful of investments over the past two years: Just Eat’s former CEO invested in Elmenus last year, while Fawry led a USD 10 mn pre-series C round for the company in July, following on from a USD 8 mn round in 2020.

OTHER INVESTMENT NEWS-

White goods retailer BTech will nearly double its annual investments to EGP 800 mn this year, up from EGP 500 mn in 2021, Hapi Journal quoted CEO and Managing Director Mahmoud Khattab as saying in a presser yesterday. The retailer aims to add 38 new locations across the country, bringing its total branch count to 153. The company also plans to invest EGP 1bn in tech infrastructure over the next four years, Khattab reportedly said.

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