Breadfast: Egypt’s King of Quick Commerce | Emergent

This piece was originally published on the newsletter Emergent.

Egypt has always been famous for its rich history and culture and the subject of numerous Hollywood movies. But in the past few years Egypt is increasingly making a name for itself for something else — startups. Egypt has seen venture capital funding to startups in the country soar from a miniscule $6 million in 2015 to nearly $200 million so far in 2021, and things are only accelerating.

With a population of 100 million people, Egypt is the largest country by population in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and a high priority market for regional startups from across Africa and MENA to expand into. But in Egypt — as in India, China and Pakistan — local founders with local context are leading the charge and building the first-generation of leading technology companies. One of the flagship companies of Egypt’s new wave of technology innovation is quick commerce startup Breadfast.

Breadfast is a quick commerce startup offering same-day and next-day delivery of a range of household items from groceries to electronics and cleaning supplies. Breadfast was founded in 2017 and since then has scaled rapidly:

• Growing 25% month-on-month
• Serving 200,000 households across Egypt
• Offering over 2,500 different products (SKUs)
• Targeting 6 million deliveries over the next 12 months
• Raised over $30 million to date

Breadfast has emulated quick commerce models pioneered worldwide by startups like Getir, Rappi and GoPuff and is the market leader in Egypt today with significant regional ambitions in the years to come.

Products

Breadfast — as its name suggests — started as a delivery service for bread. The founders of Breadfast realized that bread is the most basic unit of the household and decided to start by perfecting the delivery of bread. In fact, in an effort to guarantee quality and a great customer experience Breadfast decided to bake all the bread it…