On-demand home cleaning start-up SweepSouth, which has been backed by Naspers, has acquired the entirety of Egyption start-up FilKhedma. We haven’t been informed what the deal’s value is, but it gives SweepSouth its first foothold outside of South Africa.
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In a statement SweepSouth has said that the acquisition of FilKhedma “almost doubles SweepSouth’s addressable market on the continent and paves the way for the launch of new services in South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.” FilKhedma is a service in Egypt very similar to that of SweepSouth, calling themselves a “home services marketplace.”
It currently operates in three major cities in Egypt, serving “tens of thousands of customers with cleaning, maintenance and beauty services, while empowering over 2 000 service providers through technology with consistent incomes and professional development.”
“We’ve proven our technology and operational expertise in numerous markets in sub-Saharan Africa, and this acquisition gives us the opportunity to extend that reach into Egypt, a huge market with millions of households,” said SweepSouth co-founder Alen Ribic. “Coming together with the FilKhedma team represents the next phase of building SweepSouth into a global platform that will continue to expand our services not only on the continent but further abroad as well.”
All FilKhedma employees will stay on after the acquisition, including CEO Omar Ramadan. Naspers, through its Naspers Foundry start-up fund, bought a stake in SweepSouth in 2019 for R30-million. SweepSouth was co-founded in 2014 by Ribic and Aisha Pandor. The platform matches demand for trusted cleaning services that was previously unfulfilled — the online platform connects clients to pre-vetted cleaners.
North Africa is a growingly attractive market for many South African start-ups, especially those in fintech or utilising technology to improve the experience of customers and optimising operations not only in the country, but abroad.
