Egypt-based Sylndr raises $15.7m to expand beyond online marketplace for used cars

Sylndr, an Egyptian-based online marketplace for used cars, has raised $15.7 million in a funding round led by London-based Development Partners International’s Include Fund Venture Capital. The new funding, which brings its total raised since launch to over $30 million, will strengthen Sylndr’s expansion beyond online used car sales into auto financing, servicing, and tools for dealers.

According to the company, the latest funding round includes fresh equity and previously unannounced seed financing. Also, Sylndr raised nearly $10 million in debt financing from local banks in the past year. It also raised a $12.6 million pre-seed round in 2022, the largest of its kind in Africa. 

For the recently launched London-based VC firm, this marks the third deal announced in the past month, following investments in Egypt’s digital savings and credit platform MoneyFellows and proptech startup Nawy. Other VC firms, including Algebra Ventures, Nuwa Capital, Raed Ventures, Egyptian Gulf Holding, Uncovered Fund, Beltone Venture Capital, and Camel Ventures, participated in the round.

“Sylndr is building the digital backbone of mobility in a market where access, trust, and financing have long been barriers to ownership. Their integrated model brings together commerce, credit, and technology to fundamentally improve how Egyptians buy and sell cars,” said Ashley Lewis, Managing Partner at DPI Venture Capital.

Founded in 2021 by Omar El Defrawy, a former executive at local food discovery platform, Elmenus, the user cars platform initially focused on buying used cars directly from consumers, refurbishing them, and reselling them with a financial warranty. Since then, Sylndr has evolved into a broader mobility platform with car servicing, digital auto loans, and a marketplace for third-party dealers’ offerings.

“When we started the business, we were primarily focused on a consumer problem related to buying and selling cars. And when we started to scale that business, it became very clear to us that the market is much bigger than that, and creating value to customers would require us to build other compelling businesses that integrate with what we’re doing,” CEO El Defrawy said.

Also Read: Egypt used car e-commerce startup Sylndr gets $7.5 million capital financing.

The startup’s expansion beyond car sales is tailored to reducing its dependence on inventory and capital. One is Sylndr Swift, a digital automotive financing product that connects buyers with banks and underwriters. Through the product, El Defrawy, who was a former investment banker, said the platform provides financing approvals in under 10 minutes. 

Another is the recently introduced Sylndr Plus, a product that offers inspections, maintenance, and servicing for cars sold on its platform. The third, Al-Ajans, is a dealer-to-consumer marketplace that allows third-party dealers to list and sell cars with Sylndr handling inspection, ownership transfer, and payments. El Defrawy noted that each product runs under its brand name, but Sylndr has integrated them all into a single mobile app in a means to create a one-stop shop for buying, financing, and managing car ownership. 

“We’ve fully integrated these services to help customers buy, sell, finance, rent, and service their cars—and to help dealers operate more efficiently and go digital,” said El Defrawy.

Sylndr’s evolution into Egypt’s dealership market

Sylndr’s tap into the used cars market stems from widespread unregulated dealerships and classified websites where informal transactions often leave customers at risk of fraud in the country. 

With Egypt’s over 6 million cars on the road, the demand for used cars surged amid currency devaluation and rising prices for new imports. In 2021, the government banned used car imports, forcing the market to rely entirely on domestic inventory, driving prices to mirror the exchange rate. As a result, used cars in Egypt, while outnumbering new vehicles by 3:1, are primarily transacted via unverified means.

Sylndr seeks to fill this market gap, where it estimates a $10 billion market by formalising processes around inspections, standardised pricing, digital financing, and securing ownership transfers. According to the company, the average sale price on its platform is between $20,000 and $25,000. It stressed that the number has remained stable in dollar terms over the last three years, despite the Egyptian pound losing more than half its value. This stems from how used car prices in Egypt are marketed similarly to imported new cars, which are dollar-capped.

The company’s sales have increased almost tenfold since 2022, where revenue in Egyptian pounds increased by 22 times during the same period and by five times when adjusted for dollars. With its products, the company’s revenue is now evenly split between direct-to-consumer sales and B2B transactions with dealers. However, El Defrawy expects that the newer products – financing and servicing verticals will contribute up to 60 per cent of gross profit within two years.

Sylndr currently possesses over 1,000 dealers in Egypt, where it serves both buyers and sellers through its online and offline channels. In terms of market competition, El Defrawy said he doesn’t see other regional players such as Contactcars, OLX, and Nigeria-based Autochek, which made inroads into Egypt with AutoTager in 2023, as close competitors in terms of providing an end-to-end solution for buyers and dealers across the value chain.

In what it plans to do differently, Sylndr wants to deepen its presence in Egypt, unlike other startups that have traditionally used their home market as an elevator across borders. The CEO further attested that the company is the biggest used car trading company by volume and value.

Last year, the startup secured $7.5 million (370 million Egyptian pounds) in capital financing, powered by EFG Hermes, an EFG Holding company and the leading investment bank in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.