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Elmenus, an Egyptian food discovery and ordering startup, has raised $10 million in a pre-Series C funding round to expand its operations and transfer its database of millions of customers to online ordering.
Founded in 2018 by Amir Allam, elmenus is a comprehensive platform for restaurant information and food discovery in Egypt. Its AI-powered meal recommendation engine provides customized recommendations to users at the dish level.
The startup has grown rapidly, and it now has over 1.5 million users who can browse thousands of restaurants and order their favorite meals from a range of menus. Following a US$10 million pre-Series C round led by Fawry, Luxor Capital, and Marakez, the company now wants to expand further.
In early 2020, Elmenus raised a $8 million Series B funding round, which it added to earlier this year with an investment from David Buttress, the former CEO of global food-ordering firm Just Eat.
Elmenus intends to expand operations and convert its database of several million customers to online ordering with the new funding. Elmenus plans to empower 12,000 restaurants across 20 Egyptian cities by the end of 2021 with additional data and tool solutions to help them scale their operations.
“Attracting new investment from Fawry, Luxor Capital and Marakez – following the endorsement of industry veteran, David Buttress, earlier this year – validates elmenus’ unique strategy. We are accelerating the adoption of food ordering by users while enabling restaurants with new verticals, helping them scale. This funding demonstrates investors’ strong belief in our position in Egypt, and our capability to dominate the market,” said Amir Allam.
Ashraf Sabry, Fawry’s chief executive officer (CEO), said his company was determined to go beyond the role of investor and act as a strategic partner.
“Fawry is looking forward to its journey with elmenus, working closely with the executive team and entering many ventures together. By this investment, we show our desire to not only be a payment catalyst but to be a strategic partner to elmenus, its customers, restaurants and their riders. The Egyptian food space has high growth potential, with technology disrupting the status quo, as customers’ needs in food service provision rapidly change,” he said.
