Capiter, an Egyptian B2B startup that brings together FMCGs, Wholesalers, and Merchants in one platform, has sacked the two founders of the company for mismanagement of funds.
In September 2021, Capiter raised $33 million in series A funding to compete in the country’s growing B2B e-commerce and retail space.
However, fast forward to exactly a year later, Mahmoud Noah (Co-Founder & CEO) and Ahmed Noah (Co-Founder and Chief Commerical Officer), the two founders who led the fundraising, have been accused of funds misappropriation and were eventually relieved of their executive positions by the board of directors, largely the investors in the company.
Here are some of the crisis that has been rocking Capiter lately
It was learned that the decision to sack Capiter’s Founder and Co-founder, came after the two brothers Mahmoud Noah and Ahmed Noah refrained from appearing before the board of directors after internal disturbances, and disagreements over their management method.
They refused to attend the meetings that were held because they were outside Egypt without a clear justification.
News spread on social media that the brothers, Mahmoud Noah and Ahmed Noah were not in Egypt, which was confirmed by sources close to the matter.
As a result of this development, Capiter investors have been searching for potential buyers to absorb the struggling company in the form of an acquisition or merger.
Before Capiter, Mahmoud was the co-founder and COO of Egypt-born and Dubai-based ride-hailing company SWVL (the company, which went public via a SPAC deal last year and lay off 32% of its staff this May).
With his brother Ahmed, he launched Capiter in 2020 as an FMCG platform that allows small and medium-sized retailers to order inventory, arrange delivery, and access financing to pay for goods.
Some of its competitors include MaxAB and Cartona in Egypt, and in Africa, Wasoko, TradeDepot, and Chari.
Capiter had 50,000 merchants and 1,000 sellers with more than 6,000 SKUs on its platform.
It was revealed that Capiter startup was on its way to reaching an annualized revenue of $1 billion this year.
