Don’t know about you, but we’ve been hearing a lot of interesting activity coming out of Egypt’s startup ecosystem so far – Careem Bus has officially launched, followed by Uber Bus, and let’s not forget how RiseUp Summit was a complete blast, as several monetary announcements aka investments were made during the event, including Little Thinking Minds and Halan.
Since 2018 was quite an eventful year for Egypt, we decided to list you with some promising Egyptian startups that we look forwards to seeing more of in 2019:
- Swvl – A cab is too expensive? How about the bus? Swvl is a ride-sharing service launched in 2017 by Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah, and Mohammed Nouh. The startup was launched with the aim of re-inventing public transportation in Egypt or so it claims. Available on iOS and Android, users can book fixed rate affordable rides through their various routes. The startups has recently raised a hefty amount in a Series B funding round last month in November. In addition, back in 2017 Middle-East’s leading ride-hailing service Careem has invested $500,000 in seed funding into the Swvl.
- Vezeeta – One of the leading digital healthcare booking platform and practice management in the MENA. Founded in 2012 by former Mckinsey Consultant, Amir Barsoum, the HealthTech startup allows users to book medical appointments and health services through its platform which is available on the web and through a mobile app. With over 200,000 verified reviews, users are able to search for doctors by geographical location, insurance provider, and speciality. Vezeeta is available on iOS and Android.
- Instabug – Your go to startup if you’re too busy to monitor your platform. Instabug provides a comprehensive bug reporting and in-app feedback software development kits for mobile apps. With Instabug, they provide you with in-app bug reports, get complete crash stack trace, in addition to surveying your users, and collecting features requests in one place. Some of Instabug’s customers include 9gag, Soundcloud, ebay, PayPal, Yahoo! And more.
- Edfa3ly – An e-commerce platform that makes ordering from anywhere in the world -especially the U.S- a piece of cake. Launched in 2011 by co-founder and CTO Ahmed Habashy and Mohamed Hisham, Co-founder and COO, Edfa3ly is an automated personal shopper service that allows you to know in advance the exact cost of any product with its shipping costs. So if you fancy some gadgets, or skincare products, and Amazon fails you, just use Edfa3ly and they’ll take care of it! Users simply copy the link of the product they want from any e-commerce website, paste it on Edfa3ly, and they’ll handle the rest!
- Eventtus – Have an awesome event coming up, but it’s missing some online engagement? Eventtus is your busy. An award-winning digital event management and engagement tech company, Eventtus helps you organize your event by building an interactive event app for your attendees to take a look at the agenda, know more about the speakers, and even network with others. Besides offering and event app, Eventtus also has a free ticketing solution that enables you to sell tickets for your events. Some of Eventtus clients include STEP Conference, RiseUp Summit, Startup Grind, ArabNet and more.
- Wuzzuf – Just graduated from university and you’re on the haunt for a job? Let us introduce you to Wuzzuf, the number 1 career destination in Egypt that connects job seekers to the country’s top companies. Launched in 2012, Wuzzuf is co-founded by the serial entrepreneur and CEO Ameer Sherif.
- Aqarmap – One of the leading real estate marketplace in Egypt. Founded in 2011 by Amad Almsaodi, Aqarmap allows you to buy, sell, and rent properties with ease. Back in September 2018, the startup has raised funds from Wamda Capital, Kuwait based KISP Ventures, and Saudi-based Raed Ventures.
- Yaoota – As Forbes described them “the Egyptian Version of Google Shopping”, Yaoota is an Egyptian search engine that allows users to search, compare and buy products from the many online stores in Egypt. Yaoota was launched in 2013 by the co-founder Sherif ElRakabawy, and also operates in Saudi Arabia.
- Nafham – A free K-12 crowd-sourced educational video platform in the MENA region, Nafham is embedded within public school curriculums to engage students and make it easier for them to understand and absorb information. The platform provides 5-20 minutes videos, that are revised by professionals, whereby it explains different topics and subjects in an interactive manner. The videos are categorized by grade, subject, term and academic schedule.
We’ve also compiled a list of promising Saudi startups that you should look forward to in 2019. You can check it out here.
If you think there are other cool startups that deserve to be on this list, feel free to voice out your thoughts on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.