The SME Story: Ahmad Coucha, co-founder and CEO of FlapKap

What is the USP of FlapKap’s model?

FlapKap is the MENA region’s first company to offer the globally rising revenue-based financing (RBF) model. We provide smart and alternative financing solutions to accelerate the growth of the region’s e-businesses. In a way, we are the locally contextualised version of global pioneers such as Pipe, Clearco and Wayflyer. We help e-businesses realise their growth potential through AI-powered insights guiding our partners when determining the optimum ad spend budget for their growth as well as through alleviating the cash flow crunch associated with growth by giving our clients the option to pay their media to spend at a later point in time as a percentage of their future revenues.

How did the idea for FlapKap come to you?

In 2011, I co-founded Kijamii, a digital advertising agency which has since grown to become GP&K – one of the biggest independent media networks in the MENA region, with offices in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Lebanon. In late 2021, I took some time off work to pursue a master’s degree in economics at Harvard. This is where my passion for helping SMEs further grew and the seeds of FlapKap were sown.

Give us a business overview of FlapKap.

This year, we raised $1.2m in seed funding from A15, MENA’s leading venture capital firm for early-stage start-ups. Currently, we operate in Egypt, the UAE and Turkey, while working on plans to imminently expand into Saudi Arabia. Since our inception, we have doubled the number of our merchants each month and expect this growth to accelerate. The founding team consists of four people, all of who have strong and complementary skill sets in digital banking, entrepreneurship, private equity and consulting.

What are your forecasts for the growth of e-ecommerce within the MENA region?

In a report that was published by Bain & Company prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, they estimated MENA’s e-commerce market to reach $28.5bn in 2022. Over the course of the pandemic, we have seen a dramatic rise in ordering goods online as well as a sharp increase in the creation of online businesses. As a result, we expect the e-commerce market size to be materially higher than this estimate. FlapKap’s goal is to guide these new online businesses as a growth partner and help them unlock their full potential.

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