Back to the complete issue
Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Brimore invests USD 5 mn in a pre-seed round for logistics arm Milezmore + Milango acquires rival Circle

Social commerce startup Brimore has invested USD 5 mn in a pre-seed round for its delivery and logistics services arm Milezmore, the company announced in a press release (pdf). The funds will help Milezmore expand its cloud solutions and double the size of its team, with a goal of increasing its customer base by 50x. The funding round comes a few weeks after Brimore raised USD 25 mn in series A funding.

About Milezmore: Milezmore was founded last year after Brimore struggled to find a delivery and warehousing provider that could “keep up with our pace and cost structure,” Brimore co-founder and Chief Business Officer Ahmed Sheikha told us recently. The subsidiary, which is billing itself as the country’s “first startup to provide cloud fulfillment, last-mile delivery, and customizable operations solutions,” has built 15 delivery hubs across Egypt and delivered some 1 mn packages since its launch.

ALSO FROM PLANET STARTUP-

Digital services provider Milango has acquired rival Circle for an undisclosed sum, Milango CEO Amr Mostafa told us, confirming a report from Waya. The agreement consists of a mix of client and talent transfer as well as a financial transaction, Mostafa said. The acquisition will help Milango increase its market share and expand its contracted user base to north of 100k residential units.

About Milango: The proptech startup provides online services via branded mobile apps to residential communities and sporting clubs, including SODIC, Orascom Development’s El Gouna, Travco Properties’ Almaza Bay, Emaar, and Smash Sporting Club. Back in 2020, the startup secured an undisclosed six-figure USD seed investment in a round led by VC tech fund A15.

About Circle: Founded in 2020 by Nancy Kamal and Essam Maged, the platform allows real estate and property management to communicate with tenants, handle their requests, and reduce operational costs. The platform is backed by 500 Startups MENA.

Pan-African digital payments company Cellulant plans to roll out new SME services in Egypt and seven other main African markets, Reuters reported yesterday. Cellulant is currently looking to raise USD 100 mn in a Series D round, to help finance a pivot to small businesses by growing its SME merchant base to 50k firms from a current 1k. The Nairobi-based fintech company has traditionally catered to bigger merchants across its 35 African markets, including online retailer Jumia and food delivery firm Glovo.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.