Homzmart, an Egyptian furniture online marketplace, has raised $23 million in pre-series funding to expand its services.
Saudi Technology Ventures (STV), the largest technology venture capital fund in the Middle East with more than $500m in capital, invested in Homzmart for the first time.
Existing investors including Riyadh-based asset manager Impact46, Dubai-based Nuwa Capital, San Francisco-based Rise Capital, and Outliers Venture Capital, an early-stage fund also participated in the company’s latest funding round.
The company will use the new funding to build market share and expand services, including its logistics arm, which now has about 100 lorries.
The latest funding round brings the total amount raised by the Egyptian firm to nearly $40m. That includes $1.3m in February 2020 when the company was founded and $15m in November for its expansion into Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
The e-commerce platform is a one-stop shop that connects consumers with retailers and manufacturers selling home furniture, lighting, and decor.
Homzmart sales grew more than 30 times in its first year of operation, fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, as consumers swapped physical outlets for online shopping sites. It services 25 million houses in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and has more than 150,000 products on its platform.
“Another major double down on Homzmart’s expansion vision and the solid milestones that the company keeps achieving,” Mahmoud Ibrahim, co-founder, and chief executive of Homzmart, said in a LinkedIn post.
“Homzmart is building a category-defining company in the $80 billion furniture market with solid unit economics and an experienced team. We are thrilled to double down with [co-founders] Mahmoud and Ibrahim as they expand Homzmart’s footprint to the rest of the region starting with Saudi Arabia,” said Mohammed Almeshekah, managing partner of Outliers Venture Capital.
