Bekia raises seed funding for first B2B recycling software

EGYPT – Bekia has raised a US$765,000 seed round to deepen its consumer app and launch its first business-to-business software product, expanding digital infrastructure for Egypt’s recycling economy.

At the end of October, Bekia will launch Bekia Next, which converts collection data into verified carbon dioxide avoidance certificates for corporate clients using established international carbon accounting methodology. 

It becomes the first Bekia product sold as a subscription rather than a service, a shift that changes the company’s revenue model from transaction-based collection fees toward recurring software income. 

Corporate sustainability teams increasingly require auditable environmental data, and verified avoidance certificates allow clients to document emissions reductions tied to material recovered from landfill or open dumping.

Collection Layer Digitises Informal Waste Networks

Founded in 2019, Bekia positions itself as the collection layer for Egypt’s recycling economy. Its consumer app allows a household to book a pickup, after which a collector arrives at a scheduled time, material is weighed on the spot at a published rate, and payment transfers to a bank account or digital wallet. 

This structure replaces the cash-and-trust arrangements that have long governed waste collection in Egyptian cities. 

The resulting records give collectors transaction histories, factories traceable feedstock supply and households visibility into the market value of their discarded material.

African Investors Back Cross-Border Expansion Ambitions

The round is led by Madica, the Africa-focused investment programme affiliated with Flourish Ventures, with participation from Catalyst Fund and Dakar-based Jambaar Capital. 

Bekia will direct the capital toward growing its engineering team, bringing Bekia Next to market and testing the model in a second African market. 

The involvement of a Senegalese investor suggests appetite for replicating the platform in West African cities where comparable informal collection systems operate and digital payment infrastructure continues to mature.

Founder Frames Data Ownership as Competitive Advantage

Alaa Afifi, founder and chief executive of Bekia, said Egypt’s recycling sector had always functioned but operated invisibly, relying on cash and trust with no record of any transaction.

He explained that the company built the software layer changing that, giving collectors a transaction history, factories traceable supply and households awareness of their waste’s worth. 

He observed that while the material itself was a commodity, the record of it was not, and no player in the market owned that record yet. 

Emmanuel Adegboye, head of Madica, said the team was drawing on firsthand understanding of Egyptian waste collection to build a more interconnected, technology-driven ecosystem serving households, small businesses and large industrial producers.

Subscribe to our email newsletters that provide busy executives like you with the latest news insights and trends from Africa and the World. SUBSCRIBE HERE