Middle East Venture Partners invests $1.9 million in three scaling companies
With a history of investing in tech and
e-commerce ventures, Middle
East Venture Partners (MEVP) is now diversifying a bit,
announcing investment in a fast food company alongside an
e-commerce company and a content portal.
The early stage investment vehicle, which is based in Beirut, has
announced a total of US $1.9 million in investment in these three
companies, under its new Building Block Equity Fund (BBEF), a US
$15 million fund that invests at the growth stage, with an 80%
focus on tech and 20% focus on non-tech ventures such as retail and
food and beverage.
BBEF re-launched in early 2013 when MEVP took over its management,
and the fund now invests up to US $1.5 million per company,
focusing on businesses that have demonstrated traction.
MEVP invested US $1 million, as equal co-investment between its
older fund, Middle East Venture Fund, and BBEF, in Cedar Books, a
global e-commerce and logistics company. Based in Lebanon and
co-founded by Sany Nawfal and Cyril Hadji Thomas, Cedar Books
sources books locally and internationally to sell them on 15 global
market platforms, including Amazon. The company has operations in
the U.S., U.K., and Europe, and has now crossed $11 million in
yearly revenues, says MEVP.
When it comes to the future of e-commerce, it's still a difficult
market, says Executive Director Walid Mansour. "Our biggest
challenge in the Arab world remains the lack of talent (especially
in internet/e-commerce plays), as well as the absence of proper
e-commerce formation and experience," he says.
"As for future trends, e-commerce investments will be more and more
expensive and therefore even more competitive. Just observe the
amount of capital attracted to the leading e-commerce websites in
our region only. Winning e-commerce teams will be teams who can
maintain a superior sourcing edge as well as build a sticky
brand."
BBEF has also invested $400,000 in Shawarmanji, a fast food shawarma
chain with eight outlets in Lebanon and the UAE. Co-founded by
Danny el Georr, Nizar Al Hashem and Elias Chabtini (CEO), the
company will use the funds to expand in regional and global
markets.
Following its announcement in October, MEVP and BBEF are also
announcing $500,000 in investment in
Shahiya.com, a Lebanese food portal Co-founded by Hala Labaki
(see our interview with Hala
here), Daniel Neuwirth, Cesar Gemayel & Carole Makhoul.
According to Effective
Measure, says MEVP, Shahiya.com is the largest food website in
the Arab world, attracting over 1.3 million monthly unique
visitors, many of whom are from Saudi Arabia. All of the site’s
growth is organic, says Neuwirth, who explains that Shahiya has put
some of its investment to work funding better user engagement.
“We’re not advertising on Facebook or buying traffic; we’re
simply spending on improved engagement, so 60% of our users are
repeat users, up from 35%,” he says.
The company’s next focus will be on deploying a video series soon,
and investing in mobile. “The consumption of content through mobile
is growing bigtime. Our Shahiya app has been downloaded 470,000
times,” he points out.
And why did Shahiya go with MEVP as investors? “Early on, they
showed very good understanding of our business model and our
market,” says Neuwirth, “So we’re very aligned in the way we see
the sector moving and the opportunity we are pursuing.”