Swvl, an Egypt-based on-demand public transportation provider backed by conglomerate Almajdouie and on-demand ride platform Careem, has raised $42m to increase its overall funding to $80m, Menabytes has reported.
Venture capital firms Vostok Ventures and Beco Capital co-led the round, which also featured MSA, Endeavor Catalyst, Jasoor Ventures, Sawari Ventures, Arzan Venture Capital, Blustone, San Autotech Ventures and private investor Michael Lahyani.
Founded in 2017, Swvl operators a mobile app that enables users to find, book and pay for seats on private buses that operate on fixed routes in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria, and Nairobi, Kenya. The company recently established a partnership with carmaker Ford that will involve it also using Ford Transit vehicles in its service.
The funding will support an expansion to additional cities including Lagos, Nigeria, where the company plans to launch in the next few months. Mostafa Kandil, Swvl’s co-founder and chief executive, told Bloomberg it intends to expand to two or three additional African cities by the end of 2019.
Swvl raised approximately $30m in a November 2018 series B round co-led by Beco Capital, DiGame and Silicon Badia that included Almajdouie unit Raed Ventures, Arzan VC, Sawari Ventures, Oman Technology Fund, Dash Ventures and private investors Esther Dyson and Emilian Popa at a valuation of almost $100m.
Raed Ventures had already contributed to an $8m round for Swvl in April 2018 that also featured Beco Capital, DiGame, Silicon Badia, Arzan VC, Oman Technology Fund and Esther Dyson. Careem had invested $500,000 in the company in July 2017.