Egyptian cleaning service Jinni raises undisclosed six-figure investment

Jinni, a Cairo-based cleaning service has raised a reported undisclosed six-figure dollar amount from AUC Angels.

Jinni provides residential and commercial cleaning services and has also developed a customer and cleaner marketplace. It was founded in 2016 by husband and wife duo Mostafa Ghannam (pictured above) and Alaa Shams.

Menabytes revealed in an article yesterday that the startup had raised a six-figure amount (in dollars) from the investor. Shams said the deal was concluded in September.

Jinni was founded in 2016 by Alaa Shams and Mostafa Ghannam

Menabytes reported that the startup will use the funding to develop its platform, for marketing as well as on an training academy that it recently launched.

“It also helped in launching our mobile application to automate the ordering process and check customers’ rating or feedback process and schedule management for cleaners,” said Shams.

The same publication reported that Jinni has since launch completed over 12 000 jobs for 3000 residential customers.

On its website, the startup lists Cairo-based co-working space The District, Uber and US data analytics startup Incorta as some of its clients.

Ghannam pointed out in a Facebook post earlier today that Jinni’s other commercial clients include Imkan, Egyptian Steel, Souq.com and Mondelez International.

In the post Ghannam mentioned that he left a career in engineering to start the company backed by a small team, with the belief that he could build a “better environment” to help households and individual service providers to deal with each other in.

“Many kept telling us our idea was bad and sooner or later we’ll fail not because of the team capabilities but because many people believe a startup depending on blue collars and tech in Egypt can never succeed,” he added.

He pointed out that the startup has a 95% “satisfaction rate” and that its cleaners secure a monthly income that is four times what they would have been paid elsewhere — all while working fewer hours.

Shams said the startup, which currently operates in Cairo and Giza, has plans to expand to other cities next year.

*Update 10 December 2019. Editor’s note: The article has been updated to include comments from Jinni co-founder and quality assurance manager Alaa Shams.

Featured image: Jinni co-founder and CEO Mostafa Ghannam (Facebook)