The “Shopify plus logistics” model is coming to the MENA region with more muscle. Flextock, an Egyptian e-commerce enablement platform, has raised $12.6 million in a Series A funding round to scale its “all-in-one” solution for merchants across the Middle East.
The round was led by TLcom Capital, marking a significant move by the Africa-focused VC into the MENA cross-border space. Other participants included Conjunction Capital, Capria Ventures, Access Bridge Ventures, Foundation Ventures, BY Venture Partners, JIMCO, Alter Global, and MSA Capital.
Moving beyond the ‘Delivery Guy’
While the first wave of e-commerce logistics focused on “last-mile” delivery, Flextock is betting that the next decade belongs to the integrated stack.
Founded in 2021 by Mohamed Mossaad and Enas Siam, the company isn’t just moving boxes; it’s attempting to build an infrastructure layer that combines warehousing, shipping, and finance. For a typical merchant in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, the status quo is a headache: they might use one provider for storage, another for delivery, a third for cross-border customs, and a bank for working capital.
Flextock’s pitch is a single unified dashboard that covers:
- Fulfillment: On-demand warehousing and inventory management.
- Delivery: Aggregating multiple shipping carriers.
- Cross-Border: Handling the regulatory “red tape” of moving goods between Egypt and the GCC.
- Financing: Data-driven cash flow management for SMEs.
“Merchants don’t need more separate tools, they need an operating system designed for growth,” says Mossaad. “We eliminate the operational friction that slows them down.”
The Saudi-Egypt Corridor
The timing of the raise coincides with a massive shift in regional trade. Saudi Arabia’s e-commerce market is projected to hit $23.8 billion by 2028, while Egypt remains the region’s largest consumer base with a digital economy estimated at $11.5 billion this year.
However, the corridor between these two markets is notoriously difficult to navigate for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). Fragmented logistics and unreliable cash collection (COD is still king in many areas) often kill growth before it starts.
By integrating Flexborders (cross-border enablement) and Flexcash (merchant financing), Flextock is targeting the structural issues that prevent an Egyptian fashion brand, for example, from easily selling to a customer in Riyadh.
The Investor View
For lead investor TLcom Capital, the investment reflects a search for companies that solve “boring” but essential problems. Mobola da Silva, investment partner at Capria Ventures, noted that “unreliable deliveries and limited access to working capital” have been the primary gatekeepers preventing millions of SMEs from entering e-commerce.
By making these processes “predictable and scalable,” Flextock moves from being a service provider to a critical piece of market infrastructure.
What’s next? Flextock plans to use the capital to:
- Accelerate merchant recruitment in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
- Expand operational capacity (more fulfillment centers).
- Refine the product suite, particularly the “Flexcash” embedded finance arm.