Egypt is one of the countries with the fastest-rising used-car market. Despite the presence of notable competitors, Sylndr wants to conquer the market and become the most-trusted retailer. 

Egyptian startup Sylndr recently raised US$12.6 million from a group of investors led by Saudi VC firm Algebra Ventures. On Monday (May 23), the fundraising was announced by Omar El Defrawy, Sylndr co-founder and CEO. 

With the funds secured, the startup specialized in used car retailing wants to scale operational capacity, develop its tech infrastructure, and build its retail segment. It also plans to double its workforce by the end of 2022 and update its tech to allow users to list their cars for sale. Sylndr plans to double the size of its team by the end of the year and open up to buyers in late 2022 or Q1 2023.

For Omar El Defrawy, Sylndr’s ambition is to quickly become the most trusted used car retailer in the Middle East, Egypt particularly.  “The main problem that we’re trying to fix in Egypt is the complete mistrust between buyers and sellers of used cars in the markets.[…] imagine if you enable financing and make the cars much more affordable to people, that’s a core value proposition we want to ship as well,” El Defrawy told Techcrunch. 

According to Ken Research, Egypt is, since 2020, one of the countries with the fastest-growing used-car market. The reason for that growth is the high cost of new cars. Popular car models cost around US$15,000, which is quite expensive for many Egyptians in a market where car financing is quite burdensome.  In that context, Sylndr wants to capitalize on retail sales, auctions, dealership, B2B sales, financing, insurance, towing services, and other value-added services. 

Startups like Cazoo, Cars 24, and Spinny have also seen the potential of the Egyptian market and are developing strategies to conquer it.  

Ruben Tchounyabe