Cartona, Egyptian B2B e-Commerce Platform Completes $12 Million Series A Round

SANAD Fund for MSME, an impact investment fund committed to assisting business owners in the Middle East and North Africa, and Silicon Badia, a venture capital firm investing in global technology entrepreneurs, both actively participated in the $12 million Series A fundraise for Cartona, a B2B platform with headquarters in Egypt.

Along with already established investors Global Ventures and Kepple Ventures, other participants included Arab Bank Accelerator and Sunny Side Ventures.

Since its establishment in 2019, Cartona has been digitizing Egypt’s conventional trading sector, which includes mom-and-pop shops, FMCG manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. The firm invests on embedding finance, payments, and operational integration with all stakeholders and supports the idea of a cashless world.

This offers suppliers and retailers a comprehensive solution that promotes financial inclusion, enabling them to run and expand their businesses more successfully and provide end customers with necessary goods at competitive costs.

The business strategy used by Cartona is asset-light; it does not own a single item, warehouse, or vehicle. By removing inefficiencies throughout the supply chain and delivering seamless financial services solutions to an underserved network of hundreds of thousands of shops, enables Cartona to carry out its objective of digitizing Egypt’s conventional, primarily offline trading industry. The CEO and co-founder of Cartona, Mahmoud Talaat, said: “We are thrilled to have finished our Series A fundraise. The market environment for Cartona is incredibly appealing, and we are only beginning.

Our business concept is based on the hundreds of thousands of mom-and-pop shops in Egypt. In line with our aim to assist people in more effectively managing and controlling their businesses, we will continue empowering them through effective and seamless solutions in their trade and financial cycle with FMCG firms and wholesalers.

The market opportunity in Egypt for Cartona is strong. The Food & Beverage market alone is worth $70 billion out of the $120 billion total retail market size. In Egypt, there are more than 400K stores and thousands of national and international brands, and the industry is expanding by 8% annually.

“We are happy to join with the Cartona team to assist them to continue to disrupt the $120 billion Egyptian retail sector with its B2B technology platform and incorporated financial service solutions,” said Namek T. Zu’bi, Founding Managing Partner of Silicon Badia. These kinds of solutions are in high demand, and we think Cartona’s asset-light strategy will enable them to provide highly effective service to as many market participants as they can.

All governorates in Egypt will be covered, Cartona’s product, technology, and services will be expanded, and new verticals outside of FMCG will be explored using the money. “We are immensely proud of this transaction since it is the first investment of SANAD ESF II in Egypt, continuing the success of ESF I investments made in the nation,” said Dr. Daniela Beckmann, chair of the SANAD Board. Cartona’s digital platform is assisting creative MSME shops around Egypt by offering funding and software that is suited to the industry. This will significantly help SANAD achieve its goal of pursuing growth and job creation throughout the area.