{"id":17871,"date":"2022-07-27T09:38:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T09:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/?p=17871"},"modified":"2022-07-27T20:43:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T20:43:46","slug":"cartona-closes-12-million-series-b-funding-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2022\/07\/27\/cartona-closes-12-million-series-b-funding-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartona closes $12 million Series B funding round"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nCartona, Egyptian-based B2B platform connecting mom-and-pop stores, fast moving consumer goods producers<\/a>, wholesalers and distributors, has closed a Series B funding round of $12 million, led by Silicon Badia, venture capital firm for technology entrepreneurs, and SANAD Fund, investment fund for micro, small and medium enterprises in the region.<\/p>\n

The funding will help Cartona support its platform, technology and services, explore other verticals besides fast moving consumer goods and expand to cater to all governates in Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to partner with the Cartona team to help them continue to disrupt the $120 billion Egyptian retail market through its B2B technology platform and embedded financial service offerings,\u201d said Namek T. Zu\u2019bi, founding managing partner of Silicon Badia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market is hungry for these types of solutions and we believe Cartona\u2019s asset-light approach will allow them to serve as many marketplace participants as possible in a highly efficient manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cartona aims to establish a \u2018cashless\u2019 society with finance and payments integrated with its stakeholders.<\/p>\n

In addition, the platform helps partnered companies grow their business more efficiently and reach more end consumers with products at reasonable prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly proud of this transaction as it is the first investment of SANAD ESF II in Egypt, continuing the success of ESF I investments made in the country,\u201d said Dr. Daniela Beckmann, chairperson on the board of SANAD.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy providing both financing and a software tailored to the market, Cartona\u2019s digital platform is supporting innovative micro, small and medium enterprise retailers across Egypt, which will greatly contribute to SANAD\u2019s mission of pursuing growth and employment creation across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cartona boasts an \u2018asset-light\u2019 business model, owning no products, warehouses or vehicles to remove the inefficiencies of supply chains.<\/p>\n

The business model also helps digitise the country\u2019s offline trade industry by implementing digital financial services to up-and-coming stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted to complete our Series A fundraise,\u201d said Mahmoud Talaat, co-founder and CEO of Cartona.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe endorsement of new investors, and re-participation of existing investors, validates our strategy of a capital-efficient, asset light business model focused on enabling all stakeholders in the industry, boosting operational efficiency and underpinned by strong unit economics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market context for Cartona is hugely attractive and we are just getting started. Egypt has hundreds of thousands of mom-and-pop stores who are core to our business model.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue empowering them via efficient and seamless solutions in their trade and financial cycle with fast moving consumer goods companies and wholesalers, aligning with our mission to help people better manage and control their businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other investors of the series funding round included Arab Bank Accelerator, Sunny Side Ventures, Global Ventures and Kepple Ventures.<\/p>\n

Cartona processes one million transactions each year, connects 60,000 users and works with 200 fast moving consumer goods businesses, including Henkel, Unilever, Bel and Mondelez and 1,500 distributers and wholesalers.<\/p>\n

Last year, Cartona received a pre-series A funding round of $4.5 million, with Global Ventures as the primary investor.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s retail market is valued at $120 billion, with the food and beverage industry accounting for $70 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egyptian B2B e-commerce site closes Series B funding round worth $12 million. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":17276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[154,1],"tags":[4224,4223,3973],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17871"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17904,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17871\/revisions\/17904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}