Egypt-based Muqbis, an online marketplace for handicrafts, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Seed funding from Nama Ventures aimed to help its artisans reach more customers.
Founded in 2021 by Iman El Wasifi, Mohamed Nasser and Kareem Hussein, Muqbis positions itself as the Etsy of the Mena region. It provides a platform for local artisans in Egypt to sell their products. The co-founders have a strong career background in technology innovation and business growth and have held strategic positions in Egypt Yellow Pages, in addition to other tech and startup companies in Egypt and the Middle East. Their passion for handicrafts, united their experiences and business strive to launch Muqbis as a full fledged marketplace tailored for the industry.
Iman, the CEO of Muqbis stated “We are super excited to be one of Nama’s Portfolio companies in our first round. Nama is an extraordinary VC that showed a strong belief in what we do and aim to deliver, even before we signed the final agreement for the investment, they bridged all possible ways to support our business growth through recommendations and business matchmaking. We believe the next phase for Muqbis will be a game changer. Through the past few months we showed a remarkable market footprint in our MVP phase, but it’s time for a greater impact that is specially tailored for the industry as we believe in Talented Hands and shall avail all the possible ways to deliver their uniqueness to customers’ doorstep in a world class experience.
The handcrafts market is valued in Egypt only by 22 Billion Egyptian pounds. Muqbis strives to be the umbrella for Talented Hands especially women in the Egyptian and MEA market to support them with a fair marketplace where they can sell their products, get educated on how to use the power of e-commerce to secure fair income and get exposed to the market locally and internationally.
“We’ve always wanted to make a bet on ‘the Etsy of Mena’ for a while now, the opportunities are massive and our region enjoys a great deal of artists and talented craftsmen that need the right medium to monetise their craft. Yet we were always challenged in finding the right complementary team to go after the opportunity,” said Mohammed Alzubi, founder and managing partner of Nama Venturers. “Well the wait is over, Iman, Mohamed and Karim are the definition of a complementary team with the right role clarity to tackle this exciting challenge. We are simply honoured and privileged that the super talented Muqbis team has chosen Nama Ventures as their funding partner, and we look forward to return the favor in providing the value add that we promised with our investment.”
