Cairo, Egypt – January 11th, 2012 By Shorouk Newspaper 

Fawry, provider of technology for banks and electronic payments, plans to expand its payment network through retail stores, banks and agencies, to cover 100% of the governorates of Egypt by the end of this year.
 
Ashraf Sabry, CEO of Fawry, told «AlShorouk», “the company achieved significant growth in revenues of over 350%, which reached more than 28 million Egyptian pounds by the end of 2011, total users for Fawry’s bill payment network reached 10 million consumers by the end of  the year, and total collections reached an annual run-rate of  2 billion Egyptian pounds.”
 
Sabry added, “We now have over 15 thousand payment points nationwide, where  Fawry’s coverage reached 70% in Cairo and Alexandria, 30% in the Delta, and 20% in Upper Egypt. The target is to double this in 2012 to reach 30 thousand payment points, enough to cover 100% of Cairo and Alexandria, 80% of the Delta, and 70% of Upper Egypt by the end of the year.” 
 
Fawry is the first company in Egypt to offer bill presentment and payment services allowing customers to receive a receipt for payment on the spot in accordance with «EBPP».  This depends on a network that enables consumers to pay utility bills such as water, telephone bills and Egyptian Land Lines telecommunications companies and the three mobile companies,  besides the recharging balance, in addition to the payment of insurance premiums, and airline ticket payments, which enables consumers to pay at any time, via ATM machines in retail stores, pharmacies and Supermarkets.

http://shorouknews.com/news/view.aspx?cdate=11012012&id=c6188e22-a47c-4728-a31a-f219543637dc 

As Egypt stumbled through one of its most turbulent years in history, we thought it was a great time to continue investing in innovative ideas and smart entrepreneurs.  In fact, in 2011 we invested over EGP 40 million, 4 times the amount we invested in 2009.  Why?

Warren Buffet, perhaps the greatest investor of all time, once said “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”  We as investors believe there has never been a better time to invest in the technology sector in Egypt.  As Internet penetration reaches a tipping point, and the Internet generation comes of age, the online segment in Egypt is poised for exponential growth.  Therefore, while Egypt’s quarterly GDP growth rate reached a record low of -4.2% in March of 2011, and people started running for the hills, we saw opportunity.

We met with over 60 companies during the course of the year.  Some of the trends that we are seeing in new startups that are cropping up in Egypt include:

1. Cloud Computing and Software as a Service: We met with a number companies diligently working to create software solutions offered over the cloud for various sectors from tourism to healthcare.
2. Online and Mobile Games: From fresh grads to seasoned entrepreneurs, everyone seems to want to cash in on the boom in online and mobile games.  Most games companies we met with were very early in development but with grand visions.
3. Group Buying: As the Groupon phenomenon spreads like wild fire globally, Egypt remains no exception to the exceptionally high number of entrepreneurs wanting to try their luck at group buying.  I can safely say that Egyptian entrepreneurs ranging from the delusional to highly rationale are considering rolling the dice when it comes to group buying.

So after all of that, where did we decide to put our money?

Last year we invested in Nefsak, Egypt’s leading online e-commerce company, Offerna, one of Egypt’s leading Group Buying operations, and Nezal, Egypt’s soon to be leading online and mobile games producer.  In addition, we completed follow-on investments in Fawry, a company that no longer needs a description next to its name, and IdentityMinds, a company providing innovative solutions to the global marketplace for online payment fraud.

With that I’ll leave you with parting thoughts on 2012.  We expect the political and economic uncertainty to prevail over the year, however we remain optimistic on the long-term prospects for Egypt.  As our investment horizon is still way out in the future, we looking forward to another year of investing towards future prosperity.

Happy New Year!

Egypt is very close to seeing a long awaited Internet boom. Not like the one that started around year 2000 and ended up with a few moderate successes of limited impact, but one that will result in online services becoming household brands and will make millionaires out of their founders. Services like fawry, nefsak, fatakat, and others will become as popular as Carrefour, Mo’men, and El Bank El Ahly.

This boom is being driven by broadband penetration reaching a tipping point – with almost 2 million DSL subscribers, and multiples of this number in users. Online business has become economically viable. It is driven by a young generation, brought up side by side with the Internet, and starting to get their first pay cheques. Furthermore, it is amplified by a revolution that made facebook a must have feature on everyone’s mobile phones with 1 in every 10 Egyptians having a facebook account.

Many will attempt to seize this opportunity but few will succeed. The winners will be those who will be able to:

Many sectors are waiting for entrepreneurs to disrupt them- retail, travel, healthcare, and recruitment are among the first to come to mind. It is an exciting time for the online industry in Egypt, and today, very few things can be as rewarding as working at or with Internet startups.

Cairo, Egypt – October 20th, 2011 – Ideavelopers, managers of the Technology Development Fund (“TDF”), led a Series A round with an investment of $1 million in Social Games developer, Nezal. In this investment round Nezal also raised additional funds from Tamkeen Capital.

Based in Alexandria, Nezal delivers rich web and mobile localized games to users within the MENA region. Founder and CEO, Mohammad Ali is a passionate gamer with over 15 years of experience in working and managing technology startups.

Additionally, Nezal’s team includes Hany El Masry, previously Imagineer at Dinsey, DreamWorks and Pixar, and Muhammed Sanad, previously level designer at garena.com, one of the most successful game networks in Asia.

Nezal is well positioned to scale by channeling large untapped local engineering and design talent into the social and mobile games space, and potentially working together with other talent pools in the region. “We believe that localized social and mobile games have immense potential in the MENA region, and Nezal is one of the strongest companies developing original games targeting Arabic speakers” says Shayan Habib, Partner at Ideavelopers.

In his comments, Ali added, “Amongst the investors that approached Nezal, Ideavelopers had the strongest value proposition. Ideavelopers will be able to provide Nezal with the necessary capital and advice needed to capture a significant market share of the regional online and mobile games market.” Nezal’s investment announcement follows the heels of TDF’s investment in Offerna, Egypt’s first group buying website, and Nefsak, the largest Egyptian online retailer.

Shayan Habib and Ziad Mokhtar will be joining the board of directors of Nezal.

“After surveying the landscape of group buying sites in Egypt, we were extremely impressed with Offerna’s team and vision. We believe their team has what it takes to go the distance to build a successful e-commerce company in the region,” says Shayan Habib, Partner at Ideavelopers.

Established in March 2011, Offerna provides its customers with deals that feature discounts of 50-90% for various products and services, in return guaranteeing merchants a minimum number of buyers.

Offerna is lead by a team of exceptional professionals. Abdullah Assal, founder and CEO, returned to Cairo after completing his MBA at Stanford to bring the group-buying model to Egypt. Today he has successfully customized the business for local needs, and leads the company into rapid expansion in Egypt with his sight set to go regional.

Additionally, Offerna’s founding team includes Sinan Khatib, ex- Director of Business Development at BuyWithMe, one of the leading U.S. group buying sites, Yasser Lotfy, previously manager of Etisalat Misr’s Mass Market Revenue and Retention, and Tamer Adel, regional e-commerce expert.

In his comments, Assal said, “We chose Ideavelopers because of the value add nature of the investment. In addition to providing us with substantial capital, we believe Ideavelopers will be instrumental in providing strategic advice, and local and regional access.”

Offerna is TDF’s fourth investment in e-commerce-related companies including the Nefsak, Egypt’s online retailer, and Fawry, Egypt’s leading payment company. Through its e-commerce investments, Ideavelopers aims to build a network of companies that not only jump start e-commerce in Egypt, but also allow for Ideavelopers’ companies to benefit from portfolio company synergies.

Earlier this month, Ideavelopers closed a deal with Sherif Nassar, Founder and CEO of nefsak.com, where Ideavelopers will invest 10 million EGP in his company. Founded in 2008, Nefask has been the fastest growing Egyptian online retailer with sales increasing five times year over year. Today nefsak’s online catalogue has over 18,000 products covering a wide range of categories from computers and electronics to home decoration and fashion. The investment will help nefsak develop into a household brand and scale its operations to meet growth expectations.

In his comment on the investment, Ideavelopers Managing Partner, Tarek Assaad said, “We are delighted to work with nefsak, we believe they are the leader in their market. The level of dedication and passion that Sherif Nassar demonstrated while building this company is impressive. These characteristics are essential in an entrepreneur whose aspiration is to build an amazon.com for the Middle East”.

This investment comes as Ideavelopers’ third investment in an e-commerce related company. In mid 2008, Ideavelopers had invested in SMART Cards Applications, a company that runs an electronic network for distributing food rations. Later that year, it also invested in Fawry, the leading provider of payments services. “We believe that e-commerce is reaching an infliction point,” said Ziad Mokhtar, Partner at Ideavelopers, “the people who were 10 years old when the Internet first came to Egypt in the late 90s are now entering the workforce. Adding the increased proliferation of broadband, this translates into a critical mass of users who feel safe, spend more time, and can spend more money online.”

Sherif Nassar started attracting the attention of local and international investors in late 2010. “I chose Ideavelopers”, Sherif says, “because I knew they can help support the company as it grows. They can provide necessary funds, sound strategic advice, and access to local networks”. Both, Tarek Assaad and Ziad Mokhtar from Ideavelopers, as well as Mr. Sameh Farid have joined the board of directors of nefsak.

The objective is to have this as interactive as possible. So, please send us your suggestions, comment on our posts, and ask any clarifying questions.

This is intended to be a dialogue rather than a one way communication. So, please feel free to send us suggestions, comment on our posts, and ask for any additional clarifications you need.

Our new address is now:

5 Farid St., off Al Thawra St., Suite 4,

Heliopolis, Cairo.

Egypt.