At Raed Ventures, we have had an eventful second quarter this year.
We expanded on our exceptional logistics portfolio by participating in Swvl’s series A round, one of the largest of its kind in Egypt. Established in April 2017, Swvl is an Egypt-based mobile technology startup providing a private premium alternative to public transportation. Swvl connects commuters with shared rides in a network of high-quality buses. We are proud to join the journey of the three young entrepreneurs – Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh, who have built a strong team with experience from Careem, Google, Instabug, Uber, Quora, MENA Commerce, Rocket Internet and Delivery Hero. We were also very proud to lead Salla’s seed investment round last May. As e-commerce in the GCC continues its exponential growth, Salla is making it super simple for small merchants to set up shop online with a variety of integrations to payment, delivery and fulfillment services. We are excited to support the Salla team in their acceleration phase as they grow in Saudi and the GCC in addition to expanding on their offerings for merchants and customers. As our portfolio is growing, so is our footprint in the GCC region. We have now set up an office in the UAE, in partnership with Area 2071. Area 2071 is an initiative aiming to build an ecosystem of startups, investors, the youth, corporates, governments, and the public in order to co-create the future. Raed is proud to be part of this thriving ecosystem and excited to support more startups out of the UAE. To support Raed’s continuous growth we have welcomed 2 new associates to our team: Mohammed Bakhsh joined the Saudi office. Mohammed has 8 years of experience in accounting and internal audit at Ernst & Young and Mawared Food Supplies Company. He has BA in Accounting from KFUPM and MBA from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Nermine Chatila joined the UAE office. Nermine has 8 years of experience in innovative finance, management consulting and venture capital at NetGuarantee (New York), PwC and Womena. She received her BA in Economics from the American University of Beirut and MA in Economic Policy and Education at Columbia University. Stay tuned to more updates on exciting new investments and initiatives for the next quarter.
