Cairo-based Sylndr has raised $15.7 million because it expands past on-line used automotive gross sales into auto financing, servicing, and instruments for sellers. Improvement Companions Worldwide’s Nclude Fund led the spherical.
The corporate, which operates in Egypt’s fast-growing however under-digitized car market, mentioned the newest spherical contains each recent fairness and beforehand unannounced seed financing.
Sylndr additionally raised practically $10 million in debt financing from native banks prior to now 12 months, bringing its whole raised since launch to over $30 million. Sylndr raised a $12.6 million pre-seed spherical in 2022, the most important of its variety in Africa.
Omar El Defrawy, former govt at an area meals discovery platform, Elmenus, based the used vehicles platform in 2021 and initially targeted on shopping for used vehicles immediately from customers, refurbishing them, and reselling them with a guaranty and money-back assure.
It has since developed right into a broader mobility platform, providing digital auto loans, automotive servicing, and a market for third-party sellers.
“After we began the enterprise, we had been primarily targeted on a client drawback associated to purchasing and promoting vehicles,” mentioned the CEO, El Defrawy, in an interview with TechCrunch. “And once we began to scale that enterprise, it grew to become very clear to us that the market is far greater than that, and creating worth to clients would require us to construct different compelling companies that combine with what we’re doing.”
Egypt has over 6 million vehicles on the street, with demand for used vehicles rising amid forex devaluation and rising costs for brand new imports. In 2021, the federal government banned used automotive imports, forcing the market to rely solely on home stock, driving costs to reflect the alternate fee.
In consequence, used vehicles in Egypt, whereas outnumbering new automobiles by 3:1, are primarily bought by means of unregulated dealerships or categorized web sites, the place casual transactions go away patrons carrying a lot of the threat.
Sylndr sees alternative in that mess, which it estimates as a $10 billion market by formalizing processes round inspections, standardized pricing, digital financing, and securing possession transfers.
The common sale worth on Sylndr’s platform is between $20,000 and $25,000, El Defrawy mentioned. He defined that the quantity has remained secure in greenback phrases during the last three years, regardless of the Egyptian pound dropping greater than half its worth. It’s because used automotive costs in Egypt are marketed equally to imported new vehicles, that are dollar-pegged
Sylndr declined to share income or transaction quantity however mentioned gross sales have elevated practically tenfold since 2022. Income in Egyptian kilos elevated 22 occasions throughout that interval, and by an element of 5 when adjusted for the greenback, the CEO, who beforehand led finance operations at meals discovery Elmenus, claimed.
Digitizing Egypt’s automotive market
Sylndr’s enlargement past automotive gross sales to 3 new verticals is to cut back its dependence on stock and capital.
There’s Sylndr Swift, a digital automotive financing product that connects patrons with banks and underwriters. The platform gives financing approvals in underneath 10 minutes, in line with El Defrawy. Sylndr doesn’t lend from its personal stability sheet, he added.
Along with Swift, Sylndr not too long ago launched Sylndr Plus, which provides inspections, upkeep and servicing for vehicles bought on its platform. The third vertical, Al-Ajans, is a dealer-to-consumer market that permits third-party sellers to listing and promote vehicles with Sylndr dealing with inspection, possession switch, and funds.
Every vertical runs underneath its personal model identify, however Sylndr has built-in all of them right into a single cell app—making a one-stop store for purchasing, financing, and managing automotive possession. “We’ve totally built-in these companies to assist clients purchase, promote, finance, lease, and repair their vehicles—and to assist sellers function extra effectively and go digital,” mentioned El Defrawy, who’s a former funding banker.
The corporate’s income is now evenly cut up between direct-to-consumer gross sales and B2B transactions with sellers, he added. Nonetheless, he expects that the newer financing and servicing verticals will contribute as much as 60% of gross revenue inside two years.
Sylndr at the moment works with greater than 1,000 sellers nationwide and serves each patrons and sellers by means of its on-line and offline channels. Whereas different regional gamers akin to Contactcars, OLX and Nigeria-based Autochek, which made inroads into Egypt with AutoTager in 2023, have related choices, El Defrawy says he doesn’t see them as shut competitors by way of offering an end-to-end resolution for patrons and sellers throughout the worth chain.
Sylndr’s infrastructure of inspection, refurbishment, and financial institution partnerships makes it tough for outdoor gamers to duplicate its mannequin, he says.
As such, not like different startups in Egypt which have historically used their dwelling market as a springboard to the Gulf, Sylndr plans to deepen its presence in Egypt, the place the CEO asserts it’s “the largest used automotive buying and selling firm by quantity and worth.”
“Sylndr is constructing the digital spine of mobility in a market the place entry, belief, and financing have lengthy been boundaries to possession. Their built-in mannequin brings collectively commerce, credit score, and expertise to basically enhance how Egyptians purchase and promote vehicles,” mentioned Ashley Lewis, Managing Companion at DPI Enterprise Capital.
This marks the third deal introduced by the not too long ago launched London-based VC agency prior to now month, following investments in Egypt’s digital financial savings and credit score platform MoneyFellows and proptech startup Nawy.
Different VC corporations, together with Algebra Ventures, Nuwa Capital, Raed Ventures, Egyptian Gulf Holding, Uncovered Fund, Beltone Enterprise Capital, and Camel Ventures, participated within the spherical.
