Cairo-based Sylndr has raised $15.7 million because it expands past on-line used automobile gross sales into auto financing, servicing, and instruments for sellers. The spherical was led by Growth Companions Worldwide’s Nclude Fund and included follow-on investments from Algebra Ventures and Nclude.
The corporate, which operates in Egypt’s fast-growing however under-digitized car market, stated the newest spherical consists of each contemporary fairness and beforehand unannounced seed financing.
Sylndr additionally raised almost $10 million in debt financing from native banks up to now 12 months, bringing its whole raised since launch to over $30 million. Sylndr raised a $12.6 million pre-seed spherical in 2022.
Omar El Defrawy and Amr Mazen, former executives at native meals supply and e-commerce startups, based the used vehicles platform in 2021 and initially targeted on shopping for used vehicles straight from customers, refurbishing them, and reselling them with a guaranty and money-back assure.
It has since developed right into a broader mobility platform, providing digital auto loans, automobile servicing, and a market for third-party sellers.
“After we began the enterprise, we have been primarily targeted on a client drawback associated to purchasing and promoting vehicles,” stated co-founder and CEO Omar El Defrawy in an interview with TechCrunch. “And after we began to scale that enterprise, it turned very clear to us that the market is way greater than that, and creating worth to prospects would require us to construct different compelling companies that combine with what we’re doing.”
Egypt has over 6 million vehicles on the highway, with demand for used vehicles rising amid foreign money devaluation and rising costs for brand new imports. In 2021, the federal government banned used automobile imports, forcing the market to rely completely on home stock, driving costs to reflect the change price.
Because of this, used vehicles in Egypt, whereas outnumbering new autos by 3:1, are primarily bought via unregulated dealerships or categorised web sites, the place casual transactions go away patrons carrying many of the threat.
Sylndr sees alternative in that mess, which it estimates as a $10 billion market by formalizing processes round inspections, standardized pricing, digital financing, and securing possession transfers.
The common sale worth on Sylndr’s platform is between $20,000 and $25,000, El Defrawy stated. He defined that the quantity has remained steady in greenback phrases during the last three years, regardless of the Egyptian pound shedding greater than half its worth. It’s because used automobile costs in Egypt are marketed equally to imported new vehicles, that are dollar-pegged
Sylndr declined to share income or transaction quantity however stated gross sales have elevated almost tenfold since 2022. Income in Egyptian kilos elevated 22 instances throughout that interval, and by an element of 5 when adjusted for the greenback, the CEO, who beforehand led finance operations at meals discovery Elmenus, claimed.
Digitizing Egypt’s automobile market
Sylndr’s enlargement past automobile gross sales to 3 new verticals is to scale back its dependence on stock and capital.
There’s Sylndr Swift, a digital automotive financing product that connects patrons with banks and underwriters. The platform offers financing approvals in underneath 10 minutes, in keeping with El Defrawy. Sylndr doesn’t lend from its personal stability sheet, he added.
Along with Swift, Sylndr just lately launched Sylndr Plus, which gives inspections, upkeep and servicing for vehicles bought on its platform. The third vertical, Al-Ajans, is a dealer-to-consumer market that permits third-party sellers to checklist and promote vehicles with Sylndr dealing with inspection, possession switch, and funds.
Every vertical runs underneath its personal model identify, however Sylndr has built-in all of them right into a single cellular app—making a one-stop store for getting, financing, and managing automobile possession. “We’ve absolutely built-in these companies to assist prospects purchase, promote, finance, lease, and repair their vehicles—and to assist sellers function extra effectively and go digital,” stated El Defrawy, who’s a former funding banker.
The corporate’s income is now evenly cut up between direct-to-consumer gross sales and B2B transactions with sellers, he added. Nevertheless, he expects that the newer financing and servicing verticals will contribute as much as 60% of gross revenue inside two years.
Sylndr at present works with greater than 1,000 sellers nationwide and serves each patrons and sellers via its on-line and offline channels. Whereas different regional gamers comparable to Contactcars, OLX and Nigeria-based Autochek, which made inroads into Egypt with AutoTager in 2023, have related choices, El Defrawy says he doesn’t see them as shut competitors when it comes to offering an end-to-end resolution for patrons and sellers throughout the worth chain.
Sylndr’s infrastructure of inspection, refurbishment, and financial institution partnerships makes it tough for out of doors gamers to copy its mannequin, he says.
As such, not like different startups in Egypt which have historically used their residence market as a springboard to the Gulf, Sylndr plans to deepen its presence in Egypt, the place the CEO asserts it’s “the most important used automobile buying and selling firm by quantity and worth.”
“Sylndr is constructing the digital spine of mobility in a market the place entry, belief, and financing have lengthy been limitations to possession. Their built-in mannequin brings collectively commerce, credit score, and expertise to essentially enhance how Egyptians purchase and promote vehicles,” stated Ashley Lewis, Managing Associate at DPI Enterprise Capital.
This marks the third deal introduced by the just lately launched London-based VC agency up to now month, following investments in Egypt’s digital financial savings and credit score platform MoneyFellows and proptech startup Nawy.