Based on Cairo Notice After expanding auto financing, services, and dealers’ tools tools, it has collected 15.7 million from sales of online used cars. Development Partners International’s N Club Fund led the round.
The company, which operates in Egypt’s rapidly growing but low -digit vehicles, said the latest era involves fresh equity and earlier seeds financing.
The cylinder collected about $ 10 million in loans from local banks in the past year, leaving it a total of $ 10 million. Cylinder In pre -seed.6 12.6 million collected Goals in 2022, the largest of its kind in Africa.
Omar DefraviFormer executive of a local food discovery platform, Elmens, founded the platform used in 2021 and initially focused on buying, renovating cars directly from consumers, and renovating them with warranty and mini -back guarantee.
It is then developed in a broader movement platform, which offers a market for digital auto loan, car services, and third -party dealers.
“When we started a business, we were primarily focused on the consumer issues related to buying and selling cars,” CEO, L. Defravi, interviewed Tech Crunch. “And when we started to measure this business, it became very clear to us that the market is much larger than that, and by creating the value of consumers, we will need to create other compelling businesses we are doing.”
Egypt has more than 6 million cars on the road, demanding used cars between the reduction of currency value and the increase in new imports prices. In 2021, the government banned car imports, forcing the market to rely on domestic inventory, to mirror prices exchange rates.
As a result, the cars used in Egypt, while the number of new vehicles is more than 3: 1, are mainly sold through unorganized dealerships or classified websites, where informal transactions take the most risk to buyers.
The cylinder sees the opportunity in this dirt, which is estimated to be a $ 10 billion market, making the process of inspection, standard prices, digital financing, and safer of ownership transfer.
The average sale price on the cylinder platform, 000 20,000 and 000 25,000 on the cylinder platform, said. He explained that despite the Egyptian pounds losing more than half its price, the number of dollar terms has been stable in the last three years. The reason is that used car prices in Egypt are similarly marketed by imported new cars, which are dollar pigs
The cylinder refused to distribute the tax or transaction volume, but said that the sales have increased by almost tenfold since 2022. Egyptian pounds have increased by 22 times during this period, and when adjusted for the dollar, the Finance Operation in Food Discovery Eliminis led.
Digitizing Egypt’s car market
The sale of cylinder cars has to reduce its dependence on inventory and capital extension by more than three new verticals.
Cylinder Swift is a digital automotive financing product that connects buyers to banks and underwriters. According to L -Defrawi, the platform provides approval for financial support for less than 10 minutes. He added that the cylinder does not lend his balance sheet.
In addition to Swift, the cylinder recently introduced the cylinder plus, which offers inspection, maintenance and service for cars sold on its platform. The third vertical, al -Jinn, is a consumer market from a dealer that allows third -party dealers to list and sell cars with selender handling inspection, property transfer and payments.
Every vertical runs in the name of its brand, but the cylinder has merged them all into the same mobile app-which produces a stop shop to buy, finance and manage car ownership. “We have fully integrated these services to help consumers buy, sell, finance, rent and serve their cars – and to help dealers run more efficiently and go digital.”
He added that the company’s revenue is now divided directly with consumers directly between consumers and B2B transactions. However, he expects the new financing and services vertically to contribute to 60 % of the total profits within two years.
The cylinder currently works with more than a thousand dealers across the country and serves both buyers and sellers through its online and offline channels. While other regional players such as Contact Cars, OLX and Nigeria -based Autocick, who enrolled in Egypt in 2023, have similar offers, L. Defrawi says they do not see the closing solution for buyers and dealers across the value of China as a closing solution.
He says the cylinder inspection, renovation and bank partnership infrastructure makes it difficult for external players to copy their model.
Thus, unlike other Egyptian startups, which traditionally used their domestic market as a Gulf Spring Board, the cylinder plans to deepen its presence in Egypt, where the CEO claims that it is “the largest car trading company in terms of volume and value.”
“The cylinder is building a digital backbone of movements in a market where access, confidence and financing have long owned ownership barriers,” said Ashley Lewis, Managing Partner at DPI Venture Capital. Their integrated model is to improve and improve technology as a basic sale.
After investing in Egypt’s digital savings and credit platforms, the third deal announced by a recently launched London -based VC firm has been identified last month. Mini fellows And propertic startups Nevi.
Other VC firms, including Algebra Ventures, Nova Capital, Red Ventures, Egyptian Gulf Holding, Belt Fund, Beltone Venture Capital, and Camel Ventures participated in this period.