Financial product price comparison website yallacompare has just bagged $8 million in a new round of funding led by existing investors Wamda Capital and STC Ventures. Alongside these two, the investment arm of global insurance company Argo Group also participated in the round.
Yallacompare says it is going to invest the newly raised fund to expand to Egypt by the end of this year, while simultaneously strengthening its position in the UAE and Kuwait.
“Financial comparison websites in the region is still a nascent business,” said Jonathan Rawling, CFO at yallacompare, adding, “A big drive is to get people online, there is still a long way to go in bringing offline customers online.”
Rawling outlined that while consumers in the region usually like to compare prices online, the majority of them still prefer to turn to brick-and-mortar shops for the final purchase. This is a key issue yallacompare is trying to resolve by closely collaborating with insurance companies to better engage potential customers.
“It’s growing, we’ve seen four times as many people buying online last year compared to 2017. It’s a confidence thing, it’s a new industry before people spend a lot of money, they might want to hear a voice on the phone. We think we’re changing that and it will continue to improve,” he added.
Yallacompare successfully completed another round of funding earlier in May 2017 during which it bagged $3.5 million.
