With the participation of well-known Saudi angel investors, the round is led by Faisal Abdulsalam, the founder of Purity and an active investor in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Shiphaly is a mobile app and marketplace that connects buyers looking to buy goods from other countries with travelers willing to buy and deliver the items in exchange for a financial reward. Flat6Labs in Cairo accelerated the startup and received seed funding in 2019. The startup enables customers to buy their favorite products from other countries in a safe, secure, and affordable way, while also allowing travelers to earn extra cash from their unused luggage space to help subsidize their trip costs. Shiphaly’s unique selling point is around the platform’s safety and security for both travelers and shoppers, and it provides shoppers a 100 % money-back guarantee if their product is faulty. Shiphaly’s business was hampered in the first half of 2020 by various COVID-19 travel prohibitions throughout the world, but it rebounded in the second half of 2020 and the first part of 2021, fueled by strong demand from shoppers who were unable to travel overseas. It has experienced a 25% month-on-month increase in delivered orders, as well as over 15,000 posted orders worth over $2 million, since the start of 2021. Kahled Elabd, CEO of Shiphaly had the following comment on this round “We are very proud of the traction that Shiphaly has had over the past months. We are also very happy and privileged to have a group of top-notch angel investors backing us in our journey to transform the way people shop from abroad in Egypt and other future markets.” Abdulsalam said he believed Shiphaly offered a unique idea to solve an issue in many countries in the Middle East. “Shiphaly’s unique team offers the technical and commercial depth and experience to ensure the success of the company. We strongly believe that Shiphaly has the potential to grow exponentially in many markets with the advantage of having low cost of entry to different markets being an e-marketplace,” he said.
