Arabnet Arabnet

Offerna.com has acquired eDealo.me, a collective buying website which launched in Egypt in early 2011. The deal will solidify Offerna’s leading position in Egypt’s group buying market and allow it to uncover a wider audience within its business model.

“eDealo and its team bring a pool of fantastic talent and expertise to our company. Joining forces is a great step toward unifying efforts and capitalizing on the ecommerce growth trend in Egypt. In addition to acquiring eDealo, there will be some big news coming out which will allow us to continue leading in the Egyptian market and expand into new territories.” - Abdullah Assal, Offerna CEO.

The acquisition comes on the heels of a Series A investment into Offerna made by the Technology Development Fund (TDF) which is managed by Ideavelopers, an EFG-Hermes Private Equity subsidiary.

 “We had several choices when it came to joining forces with a group buying site in the Middle East, but we felt Offerna was the most poised to dominate in the Egyptian and regional market,” Ramy Khalil, eDealo.me founder and CEO.

The group buying model, initially made popular by Groupon in 2008, quickly shot up to become a multi-billion dollar global business; however it hasn’t picked up as fast in the Middle East.

“We are just scratching the surface of the potential of ecommerce in the region, particularly the two largest markets: Egypt and Saudi,” explained Abdullah, “with proper localization and awareness we will see phenomenal growth in the area. The market potential is in the billions of dollars, which will materialize as local consumers adopt online buying.”

When asked about the reasons why it has taken longer for group buying to flourish in the region, Abdullah attributed it to the novelty of ecommerce and online payment.

“In 2009 Neilsen research found that less than 2% of Egypt’s internet users ever purchased online. Although this number has changed in the last two years, we still haven’t reached widespread adoption of online buying yet.” Concerning payment on the other hand “we have a very effective process of Cash on Delivery, yet a wider adoption of electronic payment methods will yield more buyers and less operational overhead.”

Offerna is currently looking to expand into the region with Saudi Arabia on the horizon.