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SOKNA, an Egypt-based start-up offering funeral services, has closed a $1 million seed round supported by Silicon Valley-based Mentors Fund, SBX Capital, ACE & Company, and Kabnoury Ventures.
The company was launched in 2020 to offer a wide range of professional post mortuary services, including support in releasing burial paperwork, body preparation, cemetery set-up, transportation, booking of condolences halls and obituaries.
With more than 50 employees, SOKNA services are customized in a way that caters to the beliefs of both the country’s Muslim majority as well as Christian minority. SOKNA also offers personalized give-ways known among Muslims as Sadaqa as well as post-loss support.
Image courtesy SOKNA
“As a mission driven team, we always have our ‘why’ at the forefront: to allow people to focus on the farewell instead of the paperwork, and to honor departing souls and their families by alleviating the logistical pain of those moments,” said Ahmed Gaballah, founder and CEO of SOKNA.
“With this new funding and the incredible group of partners that joined us, we are ready to scale across the country and be able to support more families during the difficult times of grieving loved ones,” added Gaballah, who had previously worked for some of world’s tech giants including Google and Facebook.
Several strategic angel investors have also participated to this funding round including Onsi Sawiris, co-founder and managing Partner of New York-based HOF Capital, Khaled AlMutabagani from Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Sadek El Sewedy and Farouk Kadous of ElSewedy Family Capital, Hisham Halbouny, partner at London-based Mansour Capital, Mo El-Bibany founder and general partner at Page One Ventures, Youssri Helmy, founder and managing director of ITWorx, CEO of Si-Ware, Mostafa Amin, Co-founder and CEO of Breadfast, as well as senior executives from tech giants Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
“For too long, the funeral industry in Egypt has been largely stigmatized and fragmented,” said Sawiris. “We believe that SOKNA has all the ingredients to radically disrupt this space and we’re excited to back them as they broaden their ambition.”
To ensure scalability and geographic expansion, the company intends to grow its team and augment its technology.
SOKNA has secured partnerships with 20 hospitals and corporates in Greater Cairo, amassed 70 partner vendors and performed more than 2,500 funerals, according to the statement.
(Reporting by Noha El Hennawy; editing by Seban Scaria)
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