Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Plug and Play invest in Odiggo’s $2.2M seed round – TechCrunch

Servicing one’s automotive personally is a time-consuming, costly and painstaking course of. It’s a cycle that may result in costlier repairs and issues of safety down the road, and no automotive proprietor likes that.

Egypt and Dubai-based auto tech startup Odiggo is a platform addressing this drawback. It permits automotive homeowners to get the assistance they want by discovering automotive providers and components suppliers from suppliers round them. Then for the suppliers, it will increase their gross sales and reaches extra prospects with out essentially spending on advertising and marketing.

Odiggo is a component of the present YC Summer season batch and has secured a $2.2 million seed spherical earlier than Demo Day. The rosters of current buyers taking part within the spherical are Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Plug and Play Ventures. Regional VCs like Seedra Ventures, LoftyInc Capital, and Essa Al-Saleh (CEO of Volta-Tucks) additionally took half.

Ahmed Omar and Ahmed Nasser launched Odiggo in December 2019. The corporate operates a market that connects automotive homeowners with service suppliers who can remedy their issues, from servicing and restore to washing and upkeep. A commission-based mannequin is used and Odiggo costs the automotive suppliers 20% fee on each transaction.

Over 50,000 automotive homeowners throughout three markets — Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia — use Odiggo. The corporate additionally works immediately with over 300 retailers. It claims service provider numbers have grown 40% month-on-month whereas its person base has elevated 200% for the reason that begin of the pandemic.

“We consider we’re at a watershed second. It’s unbelievable that since COVID hit, Odiggo has skilled over 10 occasions development within the final yr,” stated co-founder Omar. 

CEO Omar stated with this new spherical, Odiggo’s precedence shall be to attain constant development whereas increasing its workforce throughout the UEA, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

L-R: Ahmed Nassir (co-founder) & Ahmed Omar (co-founder and CEO)

He provides that since Odiggo faucets into a mixture of information sources — together with automotive metrics and inner software program, it would use that very same data to offer extra product choices.

Odiggo will use a part of the funding to proceed growing its tech and dashboard software program, he stated.

“For instance, the platform would be hooked as much as the automotive proprietor’s car and hyperlink the car to {the marketplace} and supply frequent updates of your car situation so that you’ll learn if the tires are low, the oil wants altering, or if a service is required.”

The pandemic has upended the mobility and logistics sectors, particularly in MENA, making gamers like Odiggo acquire a lot visibility from buyers. In an trade immediately value over $61 billion within the Center East and Africa alone, Odiggo is seeking to turn into a market chief. It has much more lofty plans to go public within the subsequent three years.

“We’re additionally aiming to be absolutely targeted on spending extra on our product and expertise, as constructing an ecosystem to monetize requires extra capital. Our goal is to go for IPO by 2024 and obtain one billion providers booked, and this requires a variety of community results, infrastructure and expertise,” the CEO stated.

“We goal to be the primary $100 billion firm popping out of the area,” added Nasser.

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A few of its buyers, Idris Ayodeji Bello, managing accomplice at LoftyInc, and Essa Al-Saleh, are onboard with the startup’s plan regardless of early days.

“We are excited to again Odiggo by our Afropreneurs Funds in its quest to remodel the automotive components market and supply superior service to shoppers, ranging from MENA. The management workforce of Omar and Nasser, supported by the remainder of the staff, have been a pleasure to work with and we’re on a countdown to the IPO,” stated Bello in an announcement.