Good news for Egyptian bus transportation startup Swvl as it landed an investment of $42 million and is looking to expand to other parts of Africa, including Nigeria. The investment comes months after the startup raised $8M in its Series A and $30M in Series B funding in 2018.
The two-year old startup began in Cairo, operating in Alexandria and Nairobi in Kenya, landed the Series C funding from venture capital firms. The investors include BECO Capital, otf Jasoor Ventures, Sawari Ventures, DASH Ventures, China’s MSA, Vostok New Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst, among others.
“The plan is to be in at least two or three more African cities by the end of the year,’’ Mostafa Kandil, the founder and chief executive officer, said by phone from Cairo. “Lagos, Nigeria, is most likely the next market.’’
Uber and Careem have both launched bus services in Cairo due to the growing concern of the unreliability and danger of public transportation, including buses.
According to Kandil, Swvl carries hundreds of thousands of customers each month, an engineering graduate who once worked for Careem.