Gahez, an Egyptian e-commerce startup with a focus on fashion, has raised $2 million pre-seed round led by Disruptech Ventures with the participation of Egypt Ventures, Tanmeya, Afropreneur fund, and other strategic angel investors.
Founded towards the end of 2021, Gahez operates as an online marketplace that aims to transform the wholesale distribution platform by streamlining the process between retailers and manufacturers, providing an improved online trading cycle.
Manufacturers and brands now have direct access to thousands of traders enabling them to enhance their margins and attract new types of buyers without having to deal with the logistical aspect of their business cycle.
Gahez’s platform supports manufacturers and brands by providing powerful sales, marketing, and analytics tools to simplify their operations, thus focusing on making the right products and growing their business.
Since its launch, Gahez has been able to expand its footprint to 16 governorates across the country, on-boarding over 15,000 retailers, 142 manufacturers, and over 4,000 SKUs (Gahez’s SKU is a wholesale set of sizes & colours) onto their platform with a focus on brick-and-mortar stores, online sellers and street vendors.
Gahez co-founder/CEO Wael Olama said: “We are on a mission to revolutionise the way retailers shop for their stores by relieving the stress of managing and sourcing. We believe that the Egyptian/African apparel market is untapped and widely fragmented, which provides Gahez with the perfect opportunity (relying on technology) to scale and position itself within the sphere.
“The market size of apparel in Egypt amounts to $24 billion rendering the market potential infinite. Alongside, Egypt’s exports around $2 billion worth of apparel mostly to the US and EU markets, there’s a huge potential for growth in the African markets, and this can happen rapidly only through the digital world.”
In response to strong demand from neighbouring African countries, Gahez will be accelerating its growth and geographical expansion within the region. The Egypt-based startup will channel its newly acquired funds into building world-class technology and hiring top talent that will enable Gahez to cater to all the targeted customer segments and future expansion.
Mohamed Okasha, Disruptech Managing Partner concluded, “We are excited to support Gahez’s business expansion plan through our board seat and strategic input. The team is paving the way to digitising the region’s fashion wholesale market. With this investment, I am certain that they will be able to fulfil their targeted milestones.”
