Camlist - The Pet Video Marketplace Raises $1.3 Million Pre-seed Funding

Camlist, the pet video marketplace, has raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed round, funding for developing its platform and growing its market force as it hopes to expand its business in the UK, the second targeted marketplace after the UAE entered earlier this year.

Camlist allows its sellers to enlist the pet videos they wish to sell, and once contact is made, the buyer and the seller can engage through both video and text-chat within the app. The marketplace currently allows the listing of pets, but it is set to diversify to other items shortly.

Moustafa Mahmoud, Co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer, Camlist, “Classified or peer-to-peer commerce had not registered much improvement before eBay showed up. After the development of the eBay platform, there has been really significant innovation, and listings of some images and phone numbers can be made successful.”

“The arrival of Camlist is changing everything. The company is turning the marketplace into a video experience as they strengthen or bring out the story of a pre-owned item successfully.”

Mahmoud believes that Camlist strives to make a successful and safe way for all users to find a pet by ensuring verified health checks and interest-free financing, in association with third parties, especially for those who can't make one-off payments. The website has rehomed over 6,000 pets to date.

“The purpose is clicking to users as the website’s in-app Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has registered a growth of 100% every two quarters, so, it represents doubling every quarter, and the total GMV is around 2 million a month,” added Mahmoud.

Camlist, the Y Combinator company, was conceived and launched in Dubai, U.A.E., last year, before the COVID-19 hit the world. The launch proved to be timely, and the website grew business as people were forced to stay home and bought their pets to relieve their owners’ boredom. Mahmoud, a computer scientist, said, “Camlist is building the marketplace category by category as the listing is huge and underserved. The company plans to expand further into different items moving ahead in its growth journey.”

The startup’s other co-founders are Maha Refai - Chief Product Officer, with over 16 years of experience building and scaling digital products and the creator of MBC’s ( Middle East's free-to-air broadcaster) premier video platform well as multiple video streaming products.

Alsayed Gamal, Chief Technical Officer, with over 15 years of software engineering experience, has extensive knowledge and expertise in mobile platforms, data engineering, API design, DevOps, Microservices, and serverless architecture.

The Beginning Story

According to Mahmoud, the idea of Camlist was inspired by the need for unpleasant experiences he went through while purchasing from classified sites in Dubai, UAE and other locations where he experienced scam and misrepresented offers.

Being an ex-pat city, Dubai sees the popularity of classified as people dispose of their items as it provides an opportunity for scammers to target unsuspecting people. As an answer to this, Camlist offers an option for in-app payments that monitors the buyer and the seller transactions, especially on receipt of the pets. The website has a special feature that allows buyers not to get defrauded by cons acting as vendors.

Mahmoud, along with its co-founders, cultivates a marketplace that allows buyers to indulge in buying experience items of interest through video and before making a purchase to protect the buyers’ interests against fraud and getting high-quality services.

The website also ensures that sellers keep an eye on breeding, maintaining pets’ health, vaccinating, microchipping, deworming, etc.

“The website supports buyers and sellers by offering them free vaccinations, microchipping, deworming, insurance, and pet food. It provides the best experience for our buyers and our sellers,” Mahmoud said.

The Bright Future

Camlist raised the new funding from Y-Combinator - the technology startup booster, Act One Ventures; an early-stage venture fund, and several angel investors from Houseparty, Mux, and Facebook.

“The company looked forward to investors who believe and trust in the vision of building the marketplace of the future. Camlist is fortunate to find such support, and together we are building and creating milestones in the video industry,” said Mahmoud.

In the future, Camlist, after a successful entry into the UK market, is all set to make its main entry into the US marketplace, which will be huge and important in the coming future.

“The current expansion state within the UK marketplaces paves better opportunities to grow and expand into other bigger markets such as the United States,” added Mahmoud, an Egyptian national currently based in Dubai.