Appetito, a Cairo-based grocery startup, just announced that it raised a $450,000 Seed round. The round was raised by a group of Saudi Angel investors led by Ahmed Al Alola, an early-stage investor who was one of the early backers of Nana and Sary, alongside with Afropreneurs Fund, an African early-stage technology fund that has previously backed top startups such as Andela, Flutterwave and Trella, in addition to the participation of Jedar Capital an emerging VC focusing on early stage start-ups in the Middle East, Africa and Emerging Asia.

The startup operates through a dark stores model, where products are sourced from manufacturers, stored in mini fulfilment centers then delivered to household customers. Established in March 2020, the company started with a wide range of private label products serving all areas of Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria with next day and pre-scheduled deliveries.

Recently, the company expanded its product portfolio to include more than 1000 SKUs from well-known consumer brands and entered the hyper convenience race by offering its customers less than 60-minute delivery in selected areas.

“We’re proud of what we have achieved in just [a year] from our launch,” says Appetito’s Founder and CEO Shehab Mokhtar. “We’re privileged to have such prominent investors backing us. With their support and the team we’re building, I’m confident we will be in a leading position in the global race of grocery delivery.”

“Observing the radical change in consumer’s behaviour post-COVID-19, the grocery delivery market is expanding rapidly in the region. I believe Appetito – with its stellar team – is well positioned to lead that segment and capture the market by delivering superior experience compared to what is currently available in most of the African space.”

Ahmed Al Alola, Saudi Angel Investor

On his part, Idris Bello, Managing Partner, Afropreneurs Fund said Our investment into Appetito’s seed round follows on our proven thesis of investing in strong founders with unique local insights and a bias towards execution. We are excited by what Shehab and his team have achieved so far, and we are very bullish on the Egyptian early-stage ecosystem.”

From early on, Jedar Capital said has been watching Appetito’s execution and the team’s growth-focused approach with very limited resources. “This was a clear message to us on how resilient and focused they are,” says Sherif Nessim, Jedar Capital’s founder and managing director. “Appetito is best suited for growth with the digital transformation happening in Egypt where online commerce growth is skyrocketing and saw a huge leap with covid, more and more customers now are adopting online grocery shopping as their standard now.”