Egypt’s leading grocery delivery platform, Breadfast, has announced it has secured $26 Million in Series A round that was led by Vostok New Ventures and Endure Capital with participation from JAM Fund, led by Tinder’s co-founder, YC continuity fund, Shorooq Partners, 4DX Ventures, and Flexport.
This brings the company’s total investments to more than $33 Million since its launch back in 2017. Which is one of the largest investments in the region so far.
The market for grocery delivery services across Africa and the Middle East is growing rapidly. This is thanks to the growingly large young population. We’ve seen e-commerce platforms like Jumia reporting shifts in customer purchases, and startups with similar approaches like Eden Life raising millions in funding.
How Breadfast will use the new investment:
- Expansion to 8 new cities in Egypt.
- Reducing delivery time
- Upscaling of the ‘pocket supermarket’ app and
- Growth of the grocery delivery service across MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa
Breadfast has an iOS and Android App where it offers scheduled and on-demand delivery of groceries and other household essentials. Currently, deliveries take under 60 minutes, and the company is planning to reduce this time to just 20 minutes by utilising the new funding to increase its web of so-called ‘dark stores’.
The company began as a scheduled bakery delivery service that delivered freshly made bread and pastries to customers’ doorsteps each morning. This was borne out of the pain of poor services, and the founders set out to improve Egyptians’ access to key staples as well as excellent services.
Breadfast says it has achieved more than 65% customer retention month-over-month and has grown its revenue by more than 4x from 2019 to 2020 while multiplying its product portfolio 10x.
The company says its customers can now access a far greater range of products with more than 2,500 supermarket times comprising of not only breakfast products bust also household items including coffee, dairy, meat, fruits, vegetables, personal hygiene products and a small selection of electronic items.
Every aspect of the supply chain – from the building of the technology, to the sourcing of goods, the delivery to its ‘dark stores’, and to the last-mile delivery to customers – is overseen directly by Breadfast. The company says it prides itself on its ability to handle fresh products.
What BreadFast CEO and Investors said:
Commenting on Breadfast’s growth ambitions, Mostafa Amin, Co-Founder and CEO at Breadfast, says, “We started out baking and delivering fresh bread, and today we are able to give Egyptians access to thousands of items of their basic supermarket supplies at the click of a button. Our mission is to change how people consume their daily essentials in Africa and the Middle East and, through our dynamic technology and deep understanding of the end-to-end supply chain process in the region, we are growing a simple idea into a product we believe can benefit millions of people across the MENA and Sub-Saharan regions.”
“We are delighted to be joined by a number of vastly-experienced and strategic investors, whose expertise will not only play a vital role ahead of our expansion across Africa, but also in our future ambitions outside of the continent.”
Reflecting on the growth and potential of Breadfast, Justin Mateen, head of JAM Fund commented “Breadfast is defining how consumers in emerging markets plan and carry out their grocery shopping. The team has managed to build a complex operation, that offers a seamless experience for customers. Supported by a massive demographic and favorable operating expenses in emerging markets, Breadfast is poised to become a leader in the grocery q-commerce market. I am excited about supporting this team in their future plans”
Björn von Sivers, Investment Manager at VNV Global, added “Over the past few years, Breadfast fueled its growth by offering something that’s highly scarce in emerging markets; an exceptionally good customer experience and solid operational excellence. We see Breadfast becoming one of the most successful companies to come out of Africa and the Middle East. We at VNV Global are excited to embark on this journey of changing the customers’ experience and making them happy. We look forward to taking over the Q-commerce space with the Breadfast team.”
With $1trillion spent in the MENA region and $50bn spent in Egypt alone on groceries, the region’s growing demand provides a unique opportunity for Breadfast to capitalise and become a regional leader in the sector.
