Food Tech Is Still Hot In Egypt As Elmenus Raises A Cool $1.5 Million- Valutrics

Egyptian food discovery platform Elmenus has raised $1.5 million in its Series A funding round from Algebra Ventures, Egypt’s largest venture capital fund.

Elmenus, which was founded by Amir Allam, started as a tool to find the best dining option, and now aims to deliver comprehensive information on all restaurants in Egypt, via user generated photos and recommendations.

So far, Elmenus had only raised $60,000 in outside funding. However, it claims to have achieved widespread success across Egypt.

Currently, the platform features over 5,000 restaurants and says that it has already a million monthly users.

The funding will help it build new features such as an online ordering service and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered recommendation engine to personalize each user’s experience better, it said.

The startup claims to have crafted a hyper-targeted set of ad tools that help restaurants of all sizes target their exact customers, supported by deep behavioral data analytics.

Ziad Mokhtar, managing partner at Algebra Ventures, will join Elmenus’ board of directors, post the funding.

In December 2016, Algebra Ventures closed its first fund for Egypt. The fund plans to reach a final close at $50 million.

It aims to invest in over 25 technology startups, spanning span angel, Series A, and Series B investments. Ticket sizes will range from $500,000 to $4 million

Algebra Ventures is led by managing partners Tarek Assaad, Mokhtar, and Khaled Ismail.

Other investors include Cisco Investments and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Besides International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund (EAEF) committed $10 million in the fund.