Source Beauty, the Egyptian e-commerce platform for beauty products, has successfully raised pre-seed funding from global venture fund, 500 Startups.
In an announcement on Sunday, Source Beauty will use the funds to deepen its platform capabilities, grow its team and expand its footprint to regional markets.
Established in 2018, Source Beauty was founded by its present CEO, Lydia Schoonderbeek, as an e-commerce start-up for locally sourced beauty products. With its new-to-the market business model, Source Beauty has grown its sales orders seven-fold and simultaneously increased revenues nine-fold since their launch.
“We are very pleased to receive funding from 500 Startups to support Source Beauty on its growth journey,” Schoonderbeek said, adding, “With a sustainable and scalable business model and substantial potential for further expansions, our strategy is to emulate Source Beauty’s concept in selected regional and global markets over the next three to five years.”
Sharif El-Badawi, Managing Partner MENA, at 500 Startups said, “Our mission at 500 Startups is to back talented entrepreneurs and help them create successful companies at scale and Source Beauty is one such company. Despite the current COVID-19 situation, we are delighted to have invested in this e-commerce beauty platform.”
Schoonderbeek also commented on the importance of supporting local products.
“The local beauty market remains widely untapped and growing year-on-year at around 15 to 20%. Keen on shaping the market while capturing a major share, we’ve introduced monthly beauty subscription boxes, a pillar in our value proposition, providing women with high-quality local alternatives that are affordable,” she said.
