4DX Ventures and Wamda have invested in FreshSource, the MENA region’s first B2B agri-supply chain platform.
By revolutionizing the way fresh goods are sourced, moved, and sold, the Cairo-based fresh food platform hopes to become the region’s largest fresh food distributor by leveraging technology and data.
Additionally, FreshSource aims to transform the lives of producers, businesses, and consumers while also improving the environment by using their technology platform to develop more sustainable fresh food systems.
Farah and Omar Emara, a Cairo-based sibling duo, founded FreshSource in 2019. Since then, they’ve built a strong network of thousands of producers and hundreds of businesses, including restaurants, hotels, online retailers, and traditional retailers, who rely on them for their fresh fruit and vegetable needs.
The company is rapidly expanding, and it now has major customers in 11 Egyptian cities.
Farah was working at P&G after spending 4 years immersed in entrepreneurship through Endeavor, and Omar was studying Computer Science while working at Goldman Sachs in London when they came up with the startup idea.
Both recognized an opportunity to use technology and analytics to improve the fruit and vegetable sourcing experience for Egyptian businesses in a fairly traditional market.
For over 30 years, through the duo’s family company Emarco Group, one of the largest cold chain logistics in Egypt, they have worked day and night to source the best produce from around the world and keep it safe in their state of the art facilities.
Today, FreshSource is able to leverage on this generational know-how, to source, handle, store and deliver its partners the freshest, highest quality fruit and vegetables. With their diverse and distinctive experiences along with their family›s expertise in the sector, they sought to transform the agriculture sector through data and technology by using their platform to partner directly with producers and farmers and businesses.
Agriculture is a leading sector in the Egyptian economy, contributing about 11.3% of the country’s gross domestic product and accounting for 28% of all jobs.
The agriculture supply chain, which is highly inefficient and complicated, has led to inflated prices, food loss and low profits for farmers, all problems that FreshSource aims to solve.
FreshSource is taking a value chain approach to improve the economic and environmental efficiency of the food supply chain in Egypt where food loss has reached an all-time high nearly 45% due to improper handling and storage techniques.
FreshSource intends to use the funds to expand geographically within the Egyptian market, invest in their technological platform, and expand their workforce in Egypt, all while keeping an eye on future expansion in the area.
“We saw a substantial market opportunity and believed that with our Management, Finance and Tech background coupled with our family business know-how, we would build a high-growth and impactful business that will introduce new ways of sourcing in the country.” said Farah Emara, CEO & Co-Founder
“We are proud to have the confidence of some of the strongest investors in the region who share our vision of leveraging data and technology to streamline the inefficient agrisupply chain. This new investment will allow us to continue to bring top talent on board and build the team we need to achieve our mission and accelerate our growth.” – Omar Emara, COO & Co-Founder.
