Kevin Nyango
Hello and congratulations for your new fundraising GoodsMart, with Algebra Ventures. Can you first introduce yourself, your background and what brought you to build GoodsMart?
Founder and CEO Amr Fawzi, graduated with a bachelor degree in Mechanical engineering. Amr comes from a corporate background, he used to be regional technical manager at a company based in UK where he conducted different technical consultations to companies.
Co- founder and technical lead Ahmed Sudan, graduated with a bachelor degree in Computer Science from University of Wales. GoodsMart was Ahmed’s first interaction with the business world.
What brought Amr and the team to build GoodsMart is finding a huge need in the market.
Pioneering unattended delivery in the MENA region, GoodsMart offers clients an effortless and hassle-free shopping experience using the GoodsMart box, a sleek app, a wallet system for easy payment, and an efficient delivery model.
How long GoodsMart has been operating, and what were the key milestones in the past?
GoodsMart has been operating since 2014, and our key milestones in the past were to grow our business, which we successfully achieved and GoodsMart has grown three-fold in the last 6 months.
Tell us more about Algebra Ventures, how you involved them into the business and what they are bringing you.
Algebra Ventures is GoodsMart’s main investor, they were involved in the business as investors
continuously search for startups that fulfill customers’ evolving needs with a top-notch experience and have proper functional operational model and these were the main edges that got them participate in the first place.
They bring to us great support and connect us to brilliant consultants in areas like hiring, marketing, PR and Fund raising
What are the main challenges of the food and grocery delivery industry in Egypt?
When it comes to food and grocery delivery in Egypt, there are a couple of challenges that we face such as delivery duration hassle, usually the time given is not accurate, possibility of error while ordering through phone as well as having a minimum ceiling that suppliers require to proceed with the order.
Where are you active in the country?
Currently we are active in more than 100 compounds, west Cairo.
Any plans for expansion locally or regionally?
We are currently studying potential markets to scale GoodsMart services & after doing a deep research we’ve found promising potential to launch across the MENA Region. That’s mainly because GoodsMart Services solves daily household problems and offers convenience to its clients.
What are the goals for the next years to come?
Expanding the team as well as the operations.
How is the startup ecosystem in Cairo nowadays and how has it been changing recently?
Currently the ecosystem in Egypt is emerging and this is shown by having both sides of the equation, a lot of people are willing and having the grit to start their own businesses. And on the other hand, currently there are a lot of supporting organizations that help ease the process, spread awareness and promote entrepreneurship through different programs and initiatives.
Any startups that you would like to share with us in Egypt, that either inspires you or that you would like to share?
There are lot of startups in Egypt that are exceptional, not to mention specific names but most of them are of great inspiration and we can see a huge potential
Thanks for your answers!
You’re welcome!
