Egyptian Brantu Scores a $1.2 Million Investment for their E-Commerce Venture ElPrices

Brantu, an e-commerce startup based in both the Swedish and Egyptian capitals has just raised $1.2 million in a seed funding round from Swedish firm Helhjärtad Finans AB, earlier this week. The investment is going directly to the piggy bank of "ElPrices," Brantu's newborn, soon-to-be-announced e-commerce venture, which is the first of its kind in the region.

Soft-launched in October 2017, Elprices provides online store offerings as well as a search engine and selling database for physical stores in Egypt. The Swedish company aims to build different e-commerce ventures in the emerging markets starting with the Middle East, that is set to double its size and reach $69 billion by 2020, according to Brantu.

"We are incredibly optimistic about this venture, and we believe that it has great potential for transforming the e-commerce scene in Egypt by offering buyers and sellers better options and giving them more control in the buying cycle," Brantu's CEO and Founder Mohamed Rizk says. "We have a lot of plans in the pipeline for Elprices; as long as there is room for improvement, we will continue to develop our offering to serve the evolving demands of the Egyptian online buyer."

Brantu has set its sails to build up ElPrices to become the largest online database of Egyptian market offerings, including listed items in online stores, as well as available products in physical stores. That is in addition to purchases from an ElPrices store, a feature that ElPrices continues to expand by signing in more sellers, with plans to launch its own e-commerce store down the line.  

To overcome the local trust barrier with online shopping, that is still hindering the progress of several e-commerce businesses, Brantu formulated an innovative buying mechanism which it will soon roll out in parallel with ElPrices, once it gains traction in the market.

Main Image: Brantu