Egyptian B2B e-commerce startup said Monday that it raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Jordan and US-based firm Silicon Badia as the company plans to cover all governorates across the country in addition to growing its product, technology and services.
Cartona said in a statement that the funding round also received participation from the SANAD Fund for MSME, an impact investment fund for the Middle East and North Africa, Arab Bank Accelerator and Sunny Side Ventures.
The latest investment round comes less than a year after Cartona raised $4.5 million in a pre-series A round led by Global Ventures.
Cartona connects buyers (retailers) and sellers (FMCG companies, distributors and wholesalers). It allows buyers to order inventory from a network of curated sellers via an app that provides a communication tool for promotions and a dashboard for market insights.
The e-commerce platform said that it has 60,000 users, works with 200 FMCG companies including blue-chip firms such as Henkel, Unilever, Bel, Mondelez and 1,500 distributors and wholesalers.
“Egypt has hundreds of thousands of mom-and-pop stores who are core to our business model,” Mahmoud Talaat, CEO and co-founder of Cartona said in a statement. “We will continue empowering them via efficient and seamless solutions in their trade and financial cycle with FMCG companies and wholesalers, aligning with our mission to help people better manage and control their businesses.”
Cartona operates an asset-light marketplace where it does not own a single product or vehicle. Compared to its rivals such as asset-heavy MaxAB or hybrid model Capiter, the company stands out by integrating BNPL services into its marketplace processes without the help of a third-party provider.
