Cairo-based startup Turuq has secured its first external investment in a seed round led by tech-focused venture capital firm "Den VC", according to a press release (PDF) issued yesterday, Monday. The e-commerce fulfillment startup did not disclose the size of the round, its valuation, or Den VC's stake. Ahmed Atta, co-founder of Turuq, told Enterprise Morning News that the company does not require this funding to cover its operational expenses, and is already eyeing a larger funding round by mid-2027 to finance more ambitious expansion plans.
Turuq consolidates various e-commerce fulfillment services onto a single platform, ranging from warehouse management, order processing, packaging, and shipping, to dispatching couriers and delivering orders to end customers. Atta explained to us that he co-founded the company with his partner Karim Kamal through self-funding, starting from storage space at his home. The company has been operating since June 2023, prior to its official incorporation in January 2025. During this period, the company opened its first warehouse in April 2024 and introduced order pickup services for merchants with their own storage facilities in March 2025. In August 2025, it launched the F.I.R.M. system, an in-house AI-powered solution developed to track unreliable order updates, according to its website.
Turuq is already profitable, generating a gross profit margin of 40-45% and a net profit margin of 10-15%, according to Atta. He added: "We did not raise this funding to cover operational expenses," noting that the company's business model "does not rely on heavy burn to acquire market share." The proceeds of the round will be directed toward developing the company's accounting systems, accommodating a larger volume of orders, establishing a marketing team, strengthening the legal and regulatory framework, and covering certain capital operational expenditures—which Atta described as institutionalizing the company's operational foundation. He also affirmed that Turuq is capable of funding its expansion plans from its self-generated resources through next year.
Where does the company stand today? Turuq handles between 50,000 to 100,000 orders monthly depending on the season, and expects to reach around 200,000 orders during the White Friday season, according to Atta. The company has served over 300 merchants since its launch, regularly dealing with approximately 90-100 merchants. Its total warehouse space spans around 1,500 square meters, including a fulfillment center in the Fifth Settlement and a sorting hub in Maadi, where all orders originating from its micro-fulfillment centers are consolidated prior to shipping. Turuq relies on its own couriers and fleet in certain areas, while outsourcing delivery in other regions to third-party providers.
Why is Turuq betting on micro-fulfillment centers? Atta says that fulfillment providers relying on massive centralized warehouses spanning 10,000 to 20,000 square meters "lose operational control during peak demand periods, as everything bottlenecks in a single facility." Conversely, distributing orders across multiple centers limits the spread of strain from a single site to the rest of the locations, explaining: "If one site faces a temporary delay or a massive surge in orders, it does not cascade across the network or disrupt it." Atta emphasizes that this model allows Turuq to maintain agreed-upon service level agreements (SLAs) 95-100% of the time.
Turuq builds its tech in-house: Turuq owns proprietary warehouse management and courier dispatching systems, alongside its supporting tech infrastructure, with its tech team being one of the company's largest departments. Atta noted: "Although developing proprietary tech requires upfront capital expenditure, it delivers significant operational leverage over the long term and protects our profit margins, especially with the integration of AI into our operations."
Turuq may enter the Saudi market with an asset-light approach. Atta stated: "Several Egyptian logistics companies attempted to expand into Saudi Arabia and failed." Therefore, Turuq plans to enter the market through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, rather than establishing its own logistics network in the Saudi market. "We can license our proprietary warehouse management system to third parties that already own warehouses, allowing them to manage their facilities using our technology. This enables us to scale our software and build a logistics ecosystem without taking on direct asset risk abroad," though he did not specify a timeline for this step.
What's next: The company looks forward to launching same-day delivery services through its micro-fulfillment center network, which will enable it to cover wider geographical areas faster, according to Atta. It also plans to expand its order fulfillment capacity and launch its SaaS platform.
The toughest challenge: Atta notes that "regulatory and legal complexities are undoubtedly among the most challenging aspects of this sector," also highlighting difficulties regarding commercial licensing, liability allocation for merchant goods during transit, as well as matters concerning couriers and delivery vehicles.
Context: This investment comes a year after Turuq graduated from the Invest IT investment readiness program, organized by the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) and managed by Flat6Labs, which marked the initial contact between the company and Den VC. Two other companies operating in the same sector also raised funding; Khazenly raised USD 2.5 mn in 2022 and ShipBlu secured USD 2.4 mn in 2021, while Mylerz turned to its existing shareholders to secure over EGP 100 mn in new hybrid equity-debt funding last July.
Den VC backed a number of Egyptian startups last year, including edtech platform Career 180 and cybersecurity firm The White Guard, and also participated in a USD 3 mn Pre-Series A round for Riyadh-based AI company WideBot.
