Egypt’s quick-commerce and logistics platform Breadfast has closed a $50m pre-Series C funding round led by Novastar Ventures through its People and Planet Fund III (NVIII), positioning the company as a rare bright spot in a North African tech ecosystem that has struggled with devaluations and downrounds over the last 18 months.
The round was backed by heavyweights including Mubadala, The Olayan Group, SBI Investment, Asia Africa Investment & Consulting, Y Combinator, IFC — International Finance Corporation, EBRD, and 4DX Ventures, alongside a prominent Saudi family office. The fresh capital is intended to bridge the gap to a larger Series C round projected for the first half of 2026, which the company says will precede a potential global IPO.
While many African startups have spent the last year cutting costs and facing valuation haircuts, Breadfast has managed to grow its valuation. According to portfolio data from Swedish investment firm VNV Global, the company is now valued at approximately $403m — up 31% from the start of 2025.
For VNV, which holds a 7.5% stake in Breadfast (originally purchased for $16.9m and now valued at $30.2m), the grocery platform has become the anchor of its African strategy, accounting for two-thirds of the firm’s exposure on the continent.
Bet on Infrastructure
Founded in 2017 by Mostafa Amin, Muhammad Habib, and Abdallah Nofal, Breadfast initially launched as a simple fresh bread delivery service. Its survival, however, is largely attributed to a pivot away from the asset-light models favored by VCs during the 2020–2021 boom.
Instead, the company built a capital-intensive vertical supply chain. Breadfast now operates:
- 47 fulfilment centres across Egypt.
- 7 production facilities for bakery and fresh goods.
- 35 branded coffee shops, blending digital and physical retail.
This infrastructure appears to have insulated the company from Egypt’s volatile inflation, which has historically squeezed margins for pure-play marketplaces that rely on third-party suppliers.
The Private Label Play
The primary driver of Breadfast’s unit economics is its aggressive push into private-label goods. The company currently lists over 1,000 private-label products among its 7,000 SKUs.
Management reports that these own-brand items now account for 40% of grocery sales. By controlling production, Breadfast can manage input costs more effectively than competitors reselling CPG brands, a crucial advantage in an import-restricted economy. The company claims the majority of its fulfillment centers are operating profitably — a metric that has become the primary litmus test for late-stage investors.
Fintech and Future Expansion
The $50m injection will be used to scale this infrastructure further and explore expansion into new African markets, though specific targets have not been disclosed.
Beyond logistics, Breadfast is attempting to replicate the “super app” trajectory seen in other emerging markets — drawing comparisons to Latin America’s Mercado Libre or Kazakhstan’s Kaspi. The vehicle for this is Breadfast Pay, a fintech arm launched in partnership with Visa and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.
By layering financial services on top of high-frequency grocery transactions, Breadfast aims to capture higher-margin revenue from Egypt’s large unbanked population.
Institutional Validation
The round follows a quiet accumulation of debt and equity financing from development finance institutions (DFIs), who typically conduct more rigorous due diligence than standard venture firms.
In 2025, the company secured $10m from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and has a planned $13m investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The company has set a target of capturing 3% of Egypt’s estimated $100bn grocery market within the next three years. With a $403m valuation validated by operational metrics rather than speculative growth, Breadfast is inching closer to the IPO exit door — a milestone that the Egyptian ecosystem desperately needs.