Flextock is a YC-backed e-commerce fulfillment service provider in Africa and the Middle East

When sellers start an e-commerce business, they can easily manage end-to-end operations in the early stages. However, as your business begins to grow, it can become difficult to manage your own operations, from warehousing and logistics to delivery and cash collection. This can prevent them from scaling efficiently despite a constant influx of demand.

Now we need to relieve some of this work. This is where e-commerce fulfillment services come in handy.

Today, Flextock, one such company providing this service to businesses and consumers in Egypt, announces that it is part of the Y Combinator Winter 2021 Bundle. Founded by Mohamed Mossaad and Enas Siam in September 2020, the Egyptian company launched secretly in January this year.

According to Siam’s COO, the founders noticed that as e-commerce activity accelerated in the Middle East and North Africa regions due to the pandemic, retailers left overwhelmed by the number of orders received.

“We saw this as an opportunity to build a technology-based platform to be able to help anyone who wanted to grow their own independent brand or store,” she told TechCrunch. “We wanted them to focus on their products and marketing, leaving us with the supply chain and logistics, which we do using our end-to-end proprietary software“

Mossaad, the company’s CEO, describes Flextock as a technology-enabled fulfillment provider. When sellers register on the platform, they send their products to one of the company’s fulfillment centers. Flextock downloads the entire catalog and tags products for tracking. Then integration is done between Flextock and any online store they use, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, and Odoo.

As orders are madeFlextock packages and ships products from the fulfillment center to customers. Flextock does not have delivery vehicles, so to achieve this, the company works with existing logistics companies in Egypt. This model has helped the startup create a marketplace for various last-mile delivery companies in the country.

Image credits: Flexstock

There is also a dashboard where sellers can track each order, gain greater insight into the shipping process, and find out how well their products are selling.

Flextock earns money on every order. This means that sellers on the platform pay a fixed fee that varies with respect to volume of transferred products.

Mossaad says that since the company’s beta launch in January to more than 20 companies, that number has grown by 50% week over week in 28 cities in the country.

According to the CEO, Flextock is the first end-to-end order fulfillment service in Egypt. Mossaad believes that in a market that is likely to see more competition over the next few years, Flextock has the opportunity to become a market leader.

There’s a six-month-old startup behind this rationale is powered by Y Combinator and also raised $850,000 Just the first part of the multimillion-dollar pre-seed round that will follow close sometime this year.

“We could very well Quick get YC approval given the size of the opportunity we are focusing on. We believe that trading does expected changes in the Middle East and Africa, and Flextock will be at the forefront of driving the next generation of trade,” he said.

The founders combine extensive corporate experience and extensive experience in scaling technology startups in the MENA region.

L-R: Mohamed Mossaad (CEO) and Enas Siam (COO). Image credits: Flexstock

Siam began her career managing Nestlé’s procurement operations in the Middle East and North Africa. She later became CEO of Careem Bus, a mass transit operator and subsidiary of Uber, where she helped build the product from scratch and scale it to 150,000 monthly rides within a year.

Mossad, on the other handworked on many changes in various African countries during his time at Bain & Company. He then joined Egyptian online food delivery platform Elmenus as chief strategy officer. Helped quintuple the company’s revenue in less than a year and played a key role in its $8 million Series B round.

The CEO says Flextock aims to expand into other markets in Africa and the Middle East – specifically Saudi Arabia – and the plan is to serve over a million businesses in these regions over the next decade.

“Our mission is to enable over one million sellers in Africa and the Middle East to sell online without having to run their own business. We are well prepared for this and let’s hope We will achieve this in record time.”

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