INVESTMENT
previously at Nestle and Reckitt Benckiser, and most recently leading the communications department at 77 Media of Saudi Arabia. Abdelrahman comes from a computer science background and is currently completing his PhD at Brown University in the US, focusing on the applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in combinatorial optimisation. Together, the three founders joined forces in 2020 and began building ShipBlu, seeking to redefine the shipping experience in Egypt for thousands of merchants and millions of customers who shop online every day. “People are excited about shopping online in Egypt because it’s effortless and convenient. Unfortunately, a lot of times the delivery experience really puts people off. Some of it is due to a lack of infrastructure, some of it is due to poor resource management. At ShipBlu, we’ve solved both parts of that problem. We promise to
Egyptian AI, ML-powered last-mile delivery, ecommerce fulfilment
STARTUP SHIPBLU RAISES PRE-SEED ROUND
Cairo-based logistics startup ShipBlu in early July announced that it had raised an an undisclosed amount in pre-Seed funding in a round led by Nama Ventures, with participation from Y-Combinator and other prominent angel investors from San Francisco and Saudi Arabia.
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he startup, which was founded last October by Ali Nasser, Abdelrahman Hosny and Ahmed El Kawass. Ali, ShipBlu offers e-commerce fulfilment services, by providing delivery services using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology. The startup was recently accepted into US accelerator Y Combinator's summer 2021 batch. Through its fleet across Egypt, ShipBlu offers delivery within three hours to e-commerce customers with shipping transparency. Building on its last-mile technology, ShipBlu also provides e-commerce fulfilment services, with planned fulfilment centres across all of Egypt. Ali, the CEO, comes from an investment banking background, previously at Citi in New York City, returned to Egypt in 2018 and became painfully aware of the woes of last-mile delivery in the region. Ahmed, COO, comes from a supply chain and advertising background,
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SYNAPSE | 3RD QUARTER 2021
deliver a shipping experience that customers will look forward to so that merchants can stay focused on what matters, and customers can continue to enjoy online shopping,” says Ali Nasser. “We are super proud to have ShipBlu be our first investment in Egypt”. says Mohammed Alzubi, Managing Partner of Nama Ventures. “We have really enjoyed getting to know the founders and seeing their passion to disrupt the e-commerce shipping experience. The team is unparalleled to address this opportunity. We are witnessing first-hand what a well-rounded team with complementary skillsets can do in a very short time. Riding with Ali, Ahmed and Abdelrahman on the ShipBlu spaceship has already been exciting, but we can't wait to see what the future holds together”.
“ People are excited about shopping online
in Egypt because it’s effortless and convenient. Unfortunately, a lot of times the delivery experience really puts people off. Some of it is due to a lack of infrastructure, some of it is due to poor resource management. At ShipBlu, we’ve solved both parts of that problem
”
