La Reina, Egypt's first online platform for rental couture, announced receiving $1m in a series A funding round, led by Egypt's largest venture capital fund, Algebra Ventures, with participation from the global VC fund, 500 Startups. For her part, the co-founder of La Reina, Ghada El Tanawy, said that La Reina aims to grow its current closet in order to reach 5,000 items by next January, explaining that this would not only EGP 8m in revenue for dress owners using the platform, but also a humble boost for the local economy and a starting point for a transformative business model. Meanwhile, Amr Diab, La Reina's co-founder, added that the company also plans to use the acquired investment to expand its team. Meanwhile, Algebra Venture Managing Partner Ziad Mokhtar said that La Reina is taking the first big step in transforming the way Egyptians consume fashion, adding that startups that go after scalable multi-billion dollar industries, like fashion, attract Algebra's attention. "La Reina is leveraging shifts in consumer behaviour driven by technology, and that excites us," he stressed. La Reina was founded in 2016 and is Egypt's "couture closet," allowing women to rent their evening and bridal gowns to each other. It caters to women standing on either side of a demand and supply equation—with designer dresses as their meeting point. To date, the platform has garnered more than EGP 3.5m for dress owners. Meanwhile, Algebra Ventures is a $50m Cairo-based venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology companies. Its investments include Eventtus, Elmenus, GoodsMart, and Filkhedma. On the other hand, 500 Startups is a global early-stage VC fund and startup accelerator focusing on discovering and backing the most talented founders worldwide. Notable companies on its portfolio include: Twilio, SendGrid, and Credit Karma.
