Imagup General Magazine 2024
Although by the end of 2019 and early 2024 many companies and businesses had to shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, by 2024 Egypt managed to be one of the most successful countries rising again. Not to mention that many new startups have emerged in 2024 in the tech sector thanks to the abundance of funding provided for tech startups.
Not only funding but also acquisitions were made among many companies in Egypt. There was also a chance of expansion globally for Egyptian companies to other countries as well as other international companies expanding to the Egyptian market.
The main reason why tech startups are successful is that all their operations or most of them at least are digitized, which means that the interactions, business deals, and operations can be done online through their application, or website. It has become very necessary to develop the best website for your business to be able to attract and retain the consumer in Egypt. Some of the best web development companies in Egypt can be found and contacted by visiting Entasher.
General report about Africa and Middle East startup market
Looking at what is meant by startups we can understand that startups are usually relatively new companies to enter the market that do not yet have a business model and is still in the initial stages of the business meaning it is not yet guaranteed to succeed and has been active for no more than 3-5 years.
In the MENA region, Egypt has managed to become the No. 1 country with the most funding reaching 26% of the overall MENA funding for startups. This percentage was acquired during the first half of 2024 which is around 30% more than what was acquired in 2024. Egypt had also managed to attract the most international investors than any other MENA country in 2024.
Egypt has the fourth-largest startup ecosystem in Africa with 562 active tech startups as of September 2024, with the first position going to South Africa, the second being Nigeria, and the third, being Kenya. The percentage of active tech startups in Egypt is around 19.8% of African startups.
The new startups report in Egypt
In Egypt, around 93.6% of the tech startups originate from Cairo. Cairo is the capital of Egypt with many activities taking place and most of the headquarters of the startups based there. The next city with the highest percentage is Alexandria with around 3.6% of Egypt’s tech startup companies. And many other smaller cities also have a very small number of startups in the tech sector.
The ecosystem for the startups in Egypt is very well established and this shows in the charts since before the revolution but it started to take off from 2015 till 2024. In 2015 the percentage of startups launched was around 6.4% and during the peak period between 2018 and 2019 the startups launched were around 20.6% and 23.3% respectively. Finally, in 2024 the percentage of startups launched was around 2.1% but this was recorded in Q3 (3rd Quarter) of the year.
The Egyptian startups are the most accelerated throughout the continent; around 38.6% of the startups have participated in an incubation or acceleration program. This statistic cannot be seen anywhere in the African countries and thus makes them look small in comparison to Egypt.
There are various accelerators that provide support to startups in Egypt such as TIEC, Flat6Labs, Athar, the AUC VLab, and Falak Startups moreover there are also international accelerators that Egyptian startups participate in, such as Y Combinator and 500 Global.
4 Reasons why startups in Egypt are succeeding
The startup market in Egypt has been booming over the past 5 years although recently it has taken a bit of a fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still many reasons why startups still keep emerging and succeeding in Egypt, some of these reasons are as follows:
1. An established startup ecosystem.
2. Some of the best accelerators on the continent.
3. Diversity in the sectors that can be covered.
4. Funding options are available from many establishments including the Government.
Top sectors for startups
There are many sectors that are included in the technology startup umbrella that help physically existing businesses online or whether non physically existent businesses but have an online presence; some of the most prominent in Egypt are as follows:
E-commerce and retail-tech: This sector makes up almost 21% of Egypt’s tech startups and around 117 active startups. This is not usual for an African company since usually, the fintech sector is the most common. The companies that are under this sector would be clothing and accessories, food, drinks, and groceries. For example, Breadfast.
Fintech: This sector combines finance and technology where it involves investment startups, or even Payments & remittances platforms. This sector comes in second place with around 65 active startups making around 11.5% of the total number of startups. For example, PayMob
E-Health: these tech startups help the users with bookings of appointments, diagnostics, and even health insurance. This sector makes up around 9.4% of the tech startup market with around 53 active ventures. For example, Vezeeta.com.
Entasher.com: the online advanced directory for Marketing , Advertising and Media agencies that are now operating globally.
There are many other startups that were launched in different sectors such as Ed-Tech, Logistics, recruitment, marketing, transport, and more. Some examples of these startups include Almentor, Trella, Wuzzuf, SWVL, and more.
Top new tech startup on-record funding in Egypt
There are many startups that are launched each year but very few of them manage to secure huge sums in funding, some of the top startups that managed to secure the largest on-record funding are as follows:
In 2015 yaoota which is an online multi-product platform like Amazon managed to secure around $2.7 million which was the largest series A investment in Egypt from KBBO Group which is UAE-based private equity.
In 2016, 2017, and 2024 Veseeta.com secured around $5million, $8million, and $40million respectively, which helped the platform to expand into more areas covering the MENA region and become the leading in terms of booking digital healthcare.
SWVL managed to secure $38million in 2018 and $42million in 2019 which resulted in their huge success and venture in foreign markets as well as their ability to cover many more areas in transportation in cities as well as from city to city.
In 2024, 4 startups were able to secure large funding : Trella which secured $42million, maxab secured $55million, MNT-Halan secured $120million, and finally, Capitar secured $33million.
