Dear reader,
Startups serving local SMEs via software and financing is a mainstay in ecosystems across the world. The Realistic Optimist has written about a few of them:
- Temtem: digitizing Algeria's retail sector
- Smartlane: logistics & financing for Pakistan's e-commerce merchants
- Fina: SaaS & credit for Venezuelan SMEs
Today, we continue that series by publishing an exclusive interview with Mostafa Masry, co-founder of Egyptian startup Fincart.
Fincart exists in the same realm than the startups mentioned above. Fincart helps Egyptian e-commerce merchants deliver their packages by connecting them to couriers, and plugs their working capital holes by providing short-term financing.
In this article we speak about:
- What Mostafa's rich background in the delivery space taught him about the logistics business
- Fincart's analog MVP & and how it got initial traction
- How Fincart handles relationship with couriers
- The operational complexities and future of cash-on-delivery (COD)
- How Fincart is setting up its financing product
- Mostafa's view on VC & profitability
... and much more.
Enjoy.
Biography
Mostafa Masry is the co-founder of Fincart, an Egyptian startup.
Fincart provides Egyptian e-commerce merchants with shipping services and financing. They have onboarded 400+ merchants onto their platform. Fincart partners with 40 courier companies, providing shipping across Egypt and internationally.
Mostafa has deep experience in the delivery space. He previously held roles at Getir, DeliveryHero, and Glovo.
You have a uniquely rich background in the delivery space. What do you understand that other founders don’t?
People unfamiliar with the industry tend to oversimplify it. How hard can it be to deliver something from point A to point B?
That’s true for picking up a jacket from your house and dropping it off at your friend’s place. It isn’t true when you coordinate the pick up and drop off of 100,000 jackets across an entire country.
Newcomers often assume the answer is “muscles on the ground”. More delivery drivers equates to more delivery capacity, supposedly. That thinking underestimates the importance of tech in effectively coordinating your delivery network. Precise and dynamic coordination is the actual productivity unlocker, not sheer number of delivery drivers.
Operators also tend to overestimate their local market’s specificities. Delivery bottlenecks and pain points are actually very similar in both Cairo and Lagos, for example.
What problem is Fincart solving?