Egypt's "Elmetr" Partners With CIB and Etisalat to Help Its Customers Issue Government Documents

Cairo-based Elmetr, a startup providing legal services, has recently closed an agreement with Etisalat Egypt and CIB Egypt to help millions of customers with issuing their governmental documents in a completely hassle-free experience. "In other words, CIB and Etisalat customers can request issuing a National ID, passport, and birth certificate for a special discount,"Elmetr's Founder and CEO Adham Molokhia tells Startup Scene. 

Over 700 million governmental documents are issued every year, whilst many continuously suffer from the cumbersome process of getting them accomplished. The idea of Elmetr dates back to May 2018, when the founders initially set out to create a website that would help customers find a suitable lawyer for their particular case. However, they soon discovered that the market had a bigger pain point: the bureaucracy of paperwork.

"Technology should play an important role to help improve Egypt’s administrative development,” says Elmetr’s CTO George Sami. "There is a pressing need to reduce the long queues in front of the governmental offices, and the long hours spent to finish a single document.”

For more than 10 months, the team behind Elmetr has been experimenting with just over 250 governmental offices to shortlist those that can execute the process of issuing a variety of governmental documents as smoothly and quickly as possible. The company finally reached an agreement with nine offices all over Cairo and Giza and four in Alexandria. Taking operations a step further, the company also constructed a network of couriers to pick up the required documents from the clients’ doorstep and deliver it in return as well.

Elmetr is adopting a B-to-B-to-C strategy in which they are establishing partnerships with large corporations, social clubs, and syndicates to act as an online in-house governmental office. Thus, the members of a correspondent entity would have access to Elmetr's services by filling and submitting the online request forms on the website.

After validating the business model with the governmental services, part of the team started working again on the initial idea. They on-boarded Egypt’s best lawyers on their Elmetr.com, and getting ready to give the customers the chance to choose the lawyer that suit them best and book the first visit directly through the website.