The problem
Cairo households and shops generate valuable recyclables that end up dumped or burned, while consumer-electronics and materials factories lack clean, traceable domestic feedstock and corporates lack verifiable local CO2-avoidance data.
How it works
Founded in 2019 by Cairo University computer science graduate Alaa Afifi, Bekia runs a digital platform connecting households and small businesses with waste collectors: each pickup records the weight, grade and payment for recyclable materials, building a traceable supply chain into industrial buyers. The next phase is Bekia Next, a B2B software product due October 2026 that converts this collection data into verified CO2-avoidance certificates for corporate customers — offered as a subscription rather than a collection service.
Pain points
Some 60,000 tonnes of municipal waste are generated daily with much ending in open dumps; informal collectors work without formal contracts, licences or digital records, so households get unreliable service, collectors get inconsistent income, and companies cannot evidence their waste outcomes.
Business model
Buy-and-aggregate economics on recyclables sold to factories, layered with Bekia Next subscriptions for audit-grade carbon certificates — a shift from selling collection to selling waste data.
Challenges
Door-to-door collection is logistics-heavy with thin margins; informal collectors set street prices; and enterprise revenue depends on auditors accepting Bekia’s data and on piloting in a second African market.
Funding
- Raised: $765K seed led by Madica with Catalyst Fund and Jambaar Capital for engineering, Bekia Next rollout and a second-market pilot (FinSMEs 21 Sep 2026; Techparley Sep 2026).
- Valuation: MISSING.
Latest — September 2026
In September 2026 Bekia raised $765K in seed funding led by Madica — the Flourish Ventures-affiliated Africa programme — with follow-on from Catalyst Fund (first invested 2023) and Dakar-based Jambaar Capital. Catalyst says Bekia has grown more than sevenfold since its initial investment while building the B2B platform; the round funds engineering hires, the October Bekia Next launch and a second-African-market pilot.