Egyptian Delivery Startup Rabbit Restructures with $11 million Pre-seed

Egyptian delivery startup Rabbit is restructuring its services with a recently raised $11 million pre-seed capital. Rabbit is the latest in a long line of African businesses receiving investments. The operation of the platform is to deliver groceries and other products from neighbourhood fulfilment centres to people’s homes in less than 20 minutes.

Rabbit and Breadfast are currently the two pioneers of completing deliveries in less than 20 minutes in Egypt and Africa. Global Founders Capital, Raed Ventures, Foundation Venture, MSA Capital, and Goodwater Capital, all based in San Franciso, took part in the pre-seed round, which set a new record for its stage in Africa and the Middle East, exceeding Egyptian fintech Telda’s $5 million.

The founders of the Egyptian delivery startup Rabbit are Ahmad Yousry, Walid Shabana, Ismail Hafez and Tarek EI. They had the major concern of replicating fast delivery models in Egypt. Especially noticing that the country has constantly experienced a sequence of slow and failed deliveries whenever they ordered groceries.

“You make an order, but you’re not quite sure if it’s gonna come, or it’s going to be out of stock,” CEO Ahmad Yousry said. “You’re not quite sure if it’s going to be delivered 100% or if it’s going to be delivered on time or delayed. You’re not quite sure what you are going to get.” 

“Whatever the consumer wants under 20 minutes, we’re going to let the market dictate what we sell. We’re not limiting ourselves as a grocery player,” he added. 

The Startup Operations

Rabbit works similarly to other worldwide on-demand convenience delivery firms. It has broken down the Amazon concept of large-scale warehousing into small pieces – micro fulfilment centres – in four neighbourhoods across Cairo: Mohandeseen, Zamalek, Maadi, and Nasr City.

The startup buys groceries, basic fashion items, cosmetics, toys and household items from third-party suppliers. These items are stored in Rabbit’s warehouses, adds a markup, and sells them through an app with a fixed delivery price for clients.

Rabbit has been under the radar since June and only recently launched. There was 30% successful delivery of orders in the first two days, which was all in less than 20 minutes; by the third day, that percentage had risen to 90%.

“The way we look at it is straightforward. If McDonald’s can deliver sandwiches in 30 minutes, and they still have to make the sandwich, then if we get things right, we can easily deliver in 20 minutes”.

Ahmad Yousry expects the Egyptian delivery startup Rabbit to process hundreds of thousands of orders every month soon. But, with a little over 50 riders, how will it be able to do so? The company is currently recruiting over 100 positions across the driver, in-store, and human resources departments. With the aim of meeting the high demand when it goes live.

“The Rabbit team is setting a totally new stgandard for the grocery industry in Egypt and the broader region. They offer a new experience to customers compared to traditional grocers and local stores”, Lorenzo Franzi, partner at Global Founders Capital.

Raed Ventures’ Talai Alasmari, on the other hand, said his firm sponsored the six-month-old startup because the founders had the vision and expertise to lead Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa’s “ultra-fast delivery area.” 

READ ALSO: Egyptian Delivery Startup Breadfast Secures $26 Million Funding