Agel, an Islamic invoice finance platform located in Egypt, has successfully completed the pre-seed round for an amount in the seven-digit range that has not been published.
MENA-focused venture capital firms Plus Venture Capital (+VC), Seedstars International Ventures, and Flat6labs led the investment round, which also included participation from SEEDRA Ventures, Banque Misr, and famous angel investors.
To cater to the requirements of Egypt’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Agel intends to revolutionize the conventional financial services that are now available and present alternative financing choices.
Murabaha is a cost-plus financing model that is compliant with Islamic principles. The objective of the company is to create financial products that are individualised, digital, cashless, and compliant with Sharia.
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The aim of Agel’s operation
A key tenet of Agel’s business model is to provide merchants with the financing opportunities necessary to obtain the goods and supplies essential to their trade on credit through the industry-specific network of suppliers that the company maintains.
It also helps suppliers increase their sales by enabling them to sell on credit and facilitating the easy management of their commercial transactions through the app.
The first year that Agel was in business, the company capitalized on Egypt’s textiles industry, which is worth an estimated $15 billion annually, and established a wide network of fashion-focused suppliers. The business intends to broaden its product offerings to include additional potentially lucrative markets, which will result in annual revenue of $85 billion.
Abdelrahman Saeed, CEO of Agel, made the following statement in response to the company’s most recent funding round: “We are proud to be backed by prominent regional investors, who offer not only financial support but also invaluable industry knowledge and experience. Their confidence in our business model will enable us to reach our objectives and take our operations to the next level.”
The freshly raised money will be used to turn Agel into a licensed non-banking financial institution, speed up the creation of innovative products to meet the demands of Agel’s fast-growing customer base and expand the company’s reach to include the major cities in Egypt. In addition to this, Agel will introduce, in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, a merchant co-branded banking card service as well as additional value-added services.
The expansion of the company is in line with Egypt’s 2030 vision of financial inclusion and contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals set forth by the United Nations.
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About Agel
Agel is the first Islamic financial technology company in Egypt, and its mission is to provide MSMEs with alternative financing solutions that are tailored to meet their specific requirements.
Agel aims to reshape the traditional financial services business model, operational model, and customer experience in order to unlock a unique finance avenue for (“MSMEs”), with an essential preposition of offering industry-agnostic merchandise credit limit for Merchants within the Agel network in a manner that is Digital, Cashless, and Sharia compliant, aligning with the United Nations Global (“SDG”) goals, and Egypt’s 2030 plan towards financial inclusion and sustainability.
Agel’s mission is to “empower” the growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), “accelerate” financial inclusion, and “eradicate” the informal economy. Increasing Knowledge of Financial Matters.