Food Delivery Platform beU Bags Several Million Dollars in Seed Financing
36Kr reported on Tuesday that beU delivery, a Chinese company focusing on the African on-demand delivery market, has completed seed round financing worth several million dollars, led by Y Combinator and followed by Goodwater Capital and Ethiopian angel investor Addis Alemayehou. The newly raised funds will be used for market expansion and technological development.
Based in Beijing, XMT, Inc. is the operator of beU, a local life services platform for the expansive African market. Since June of 2021, it has carried out a food delivery business in Ethiopia.
The company’s founder Hao Zheng said that as of December 31, 2021, beU’s market share had reached 56.2%, ranking first in the local market. In February 2022, eight months after the business started, beU’s market share had exceeded that of Deliver Addis, which stood in second place.
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Regarding future development, Hao Zheng said that beU plans to kick off A-round financing early next year, intending to raise about $12 million. In terms of market layout, the company plans to enter the Ugandan and Tanzanian markets this year, followed by 10 more African countries early next year.
At the same time, in terms of business development, beU will start to try delivery services for supermarkets and drugs at the end of this year, and will also try to enter hotels, homestay reservations and 30-minute delivery of any goods in the future. It aims to become a super application covering many O2O services.
