Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Egypt’s Own Car Ride App Ousta Just Secured A $1.25 Million Investment

Valiantly stepping up to compete with Uber and Careem, the Egyptian startup closed one of the largest investment deals of the tech startup scene.

Staff Writer

Ousta, the Egyptian car-ride app battling Uber and Careem, has just secured a $1.25 million investment from an undisclosed Egyptian VC, one of the largest investment deals for a tech startup in Egypt.

The investment arrives only five months after their launch in March 2016, as founding entrepreneurs Omar Salah and Nader El-Batrawi stepped up to the challenge of battling industry giants with their English-Arabic based application.

“We have been approaching several different Angel and VC funds; we pitched the idea and they were impressed to see such fast growth,” co-founder and CEO Omar Salah tells CairoScene. Having kicked off with 3,000 vehicles, the company is present across 11 Egyptian cities, form Hurghada to Tanta and Mansoura, where they are growing at a rate of 30 percent per week. 

The company's logo is a thumbs up sign. 

“Our vision was to be part of the transportation revolution, as well as increasing household incomes and having a positive impact on the environment. While Careem has a regional strategy and Uber has global presence, our vision is to be ousta for everyone, not just in major cities but also other cities with relevant population,” Salah says. 

From an application standpoint, the service offers an SOS button for the user to automatically reach the company if there is any inconvenience, and they don’t apply price surge. “We are building the ethics of the industry, which is still virgin. We have one set fare, and for recurrent users, the overall payout is lower,” he adds.

Having racked up over 200,000 users in its five-month existence, the startup now sets off to accelerate growth and incorporate more cities.

With this record-breaking deal, the entrepreneurs join Egypt’s most successful startups in the investment scene, such as Instabug, which raised US$ 1.7 million from international investors earlier in 2016 and Wuzzuf, the Egyptian recruiting portal that received the same funding in 2015 from Europe-based investors.