CAIRO: Egyptian mass transit start-up Swvl said it plans to list of the Nasdaq stock exchange through a merger with US special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital.
Swvl will be valued at $1.5 billion in the deal, which will generate proceeds of as much as $445 million, including $100 million from investors including Kuwaiti logistics company Agility, Saudi telecoms company Zain and Luxor Capital Group, it said in a statement.
FASTFACT
$100 million
Investors including Zain, Agility, Luxor Capital inject $100 million. Proceeds to be used to expand to 20 countries by 2025.
The proceeds will be used to fund expansion of the company’s business to 20 countries by 2025, it said. Swvl operates buses along fixed routes and allows customers to reserve and pay for them using an app in 10 countries including Egypt, Ƶ, the UAE, Jordan, Kenya, and Pakistan.
More than 1.4 million riders have booked more than 46 million rides to date, it said.
“We have succeeded in executing our business plan in some of the most challenging emerging markets, where inefficiencies in infrastructure and related mass transit systems represent a universal problem, and have now reached a critical inflection point where we are ready to share our expertise and technology with the rest of the world,” said Mostafa Kandil, Swvl founder and CEO.
