ExpandCart

Egypt-based platform for building online stores, with point-of-sale, sales-channel and marketing tools, serving about 25,000 merchants in 2022 mainly in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and the UAE.

Industry: E-commerce store platform | Location: Egypt | Founded: 2013 | Total Funding: USD 5.2M

About ExpandCart

ExpandCart is an e-commerce platform based in Egypt that lets merchants build and run online stores. Its website lists an online store builder, point-of-sale, sales channels including Google and Facebook, marketing tools for Google Ads, social media, SMS, email and WhatsApp, an enterprise plan, and reseller and affiliate programmes. It describes itself as one platform to sell, ship and market products on the web.

Sources disagree on when the company was founded. Wamda reported in 2020 that it was founded in 2013, while a January 2022 funding release carried by Wamda and Daily News Egypt gave 2016. Amr Shawqy is co-founder and chief executive, and the 2022 release names Sameh Nabil as the other co-founder.

In November 2020 Wamda reported that ExpandCart served about 20,000 merchants and named Facebook, Google, PayPal, DHL and Boubyan Bank as partners, with a focus on the Gulf, Egypt and North Africa. By January 2022 the company cited about 25,000 merchants, customers in more than 40 countries and more than USD 850 million in merchant sales, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as main markets. It said it aimed to serve one million merchants across the Middle East and North Africa within three years. Its product plans included ExpandBot, a chatbot that lets merchants answer customer questions through Messenger and WhatsApp.

ExpandCart announced a USD 2.5 million Series A in November 2020, led by Sawari Ventures with Agility Ventures, Graphene Ventures and two unnamed angel investors. In January 2022 it closed a USD 2.7 million pre-Series B bridge round led by Hong Kong-based Betatron Venture Group, with existing investors Sawari Ventures and Agility Ventures taking part. The funds were intended for growth in existing markets, research and development, and new products. Betatron said it had worked with ExpandCart since January 2019 and expected a larger Series B in 2022.

No later funding round or leadership change was found in the sources reviewed. The company's website carried a 2024 copyright notice.

Leadership