Egyptian Transport Startup Halan Closes Series-A Round Led By Algebra Ventures And Battery Road Digital Holdings
Halan; a ride-hailing app for motorcycles and tricycles (commonly called ‘tuktuks’) has secured a multi-million dollar Series-A investment in a funding round co-led by Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings and Egypt’s Algebra Ventures. These investors were also joined by existing strategic shareholders and individual investors in the funding round.
Halan was founded in 2017 by Mounir Nakhla & Ahmed Mohsen. Nakhla, who serves as the startup’s CEO, is a veteran entrepreneur who is quite familiar with Egypt’s bustling alternative transport market. One of his previous co-creations was Mashroey; one of Egypt’s largest light-transport financing businesses, as well as Tasaheel; Egypt’s fastest-growing micro-financing business. His partner, Mohsen, who serves as the CTO, is an experienced technology entrepreneur & information architect who previously founded MusicQ & CircleTie.
The startup closed this multi-million dollar round of funding earlier this year and has since launched in parts of Egypt and Sudan. Halan claims to have facilitated over 3 million rides since inception. It prides itself as the first motorcycle & tuktuk ride-hailing app in Egypt and Sudan, having introduced smart mass transportation in large, untapped markets with operations across several governorates in both countries. The investment raised in this round is expected to fuel the startup’s expansion plans (into other cities and countries), as well as improve its offerings and drive further development of its technology.
Halan is one of the fastest growing apps in Egypt, providing safe, convenient, and affordable transportation for underserved communities while creating thousands of high-value jobs.
“I launched Halan to solve a real problem, to serve a real need in the market. While other people were looking at informal and rural communities as spaces full of challenges and poverty, my experience with micro-finance in underserved markets showed me how much wealth and opportunity there is,” says Mounir Nakhla, Halan CEO and Co-Founder in a statement.
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He further stated; “Halan is a technology solution that is built to put people first and improve their livelihoods. All over the country, it moves people and goods safely, efficiently, and economically and generates thousands of jobs. We will use this round of funding to expand to more cities and more countries, offer more services, and to build better technology.”
“We’re excited about this opportunity,” says Algebra Ventures’ Managing Partner, Karim Hussein. “Halan is providing a highly underserved and large segment of the population with affordable, convenient, and safe transportation. They’re helping people get to work and get their children to school, and they will continue to provide additional high-quality services to the community. We believe that Mounir and his team have the vision and the expertise to make accessible smart transportation a reality for all in Egypt and beyond.”
Halan currently boasts a roster of about 70 employees, most of whom work away from the company’s office in Cairo. In any case, it appears to be raining bills for transport-tech startups in Egypt as this development follows from a recent announcement which saw another Egyptian transportation startup, Swvl, raise “tens of millions” in a Series-B round that could be considered one of the largest ever in MENA.
Image Source: MENAbytes
