Camlist, a pet video market, raised $1.3 million in its previous round of seed funding. The startup plans to use the funds to develop its platform and expand its workforce-because it wants to expand its influence in the UK. This is its second market (after the UAE), which it entered earlier this year.

Unlike other markets, Camlist (derived from the camera list) allows sellers to list videos of pets they wish to sell. Once contact is established, buyers and sellers can interact through in-app video and text chat.

The market currently only allows pets to be listed, but it will diversify to other items in the near future.

"Since the advent of eBay, classified ads or general peer-to-peer commerce has been stuck in the old way of operating. Since then, there have been no real major innovations. It's just a list, and possibly some pictures and phone numbers," Camlist co-founder Moustafa Mahmoud, Chief Executive Officer said.

"But at Camlist, we are changing that. We are turning the market into a video experience because every second-hand product has a story."

Mahmoud said that they work with third parties to ensure that verified health checks and interest-free financing are provided for those who cannot make a one-time payment, thereby establishing the safest way for anyone to find a pet. To date, Camlist has relocated more than 6,000 pets.

"Our in-app GMV (total merchandise value) grows 100% every two quarters, so we double every quarter, and our total GMV is about $2 million per month," Mahmoud said.

Last year, just before the Covid pandemic, Y Combinator was established and established in Dubai, UAE. It turns out that this release is timely, and as people are forced to stay at home and buy their own pets, the site has become more and more popular-partly to solve boredom, but also because they have time to raise them. .

"We are building market categories by category. We just feel that the pet list is so large and the service is very insufficient. As we grow, we plan to expand to different projects," said Mahmoud, who is also a computer scientist.

Other co-founders include Maha Refai, who is also the chief product officer of this startup, with 16 years of experience in building and expanding digital products. She is also the creator of MBC (the largest free broadcaster in the Middle East)'s premier video platform and many other video streaming products.

Camlist CTO Alsayed Gamal has 15 years of software engineering experience. He has knowledge and experience in mobile platforms, data engineering, DevOps, API design, microservices and serverless architecture.

Mahmoud said that the idea of ​​starting Camlist was inspired by his bad experience while shopping on the classified website in Dubai, UAE, because the items there are often distorted and the fraud rate is high.

Mustafa Mahmoud; CEO of Camlist, who co-founded the video market with Maha Refai; Chief Product Officer of Startups and Alsayed Gamal; Chief Technology Officer.

Mustafa Mahmoud; CEO of Camlist, who co-founded the video market with Maha Refai; Chief Product Officer of Startups and Alsayed Gamal; Chief Technology Officer.

Classified ads are popular in the foreign city of Dubai because people use them to dispose of their belongings, but they also provide opportunities for scammers to target unsuspecting people. To solve this problem, Camlist provides an in-app payment option-once the buyer confirms that the pet is received, the funds will be released. This feature ensures that buyers will not be deceived by preventing scams pretending to be suppliers.

Mahmoud and his other co-founders provide a marketplace that allows buyers to experience items of interest through video before buying. This is in addition to ensuring buyers are protected from fraud and ensuring high-quality services.

The company also follows up with sellers on its platform to ensure that they raise or keep pets in a healthy environment, as well as vaccinate them, deworm them, and implant microchips.

“We also support our buyers and sellers by providing them with free vaccinations, microchips, deworming, insurance and pet food. We strive to provide our buyers and sellers with the best experience,” he said.

This startup has raised new funds from Y-Combinator; a technology startup accelerator, Act One Ventures; an early stage venture fund and some angel investors from Houseparty, Mux and Facebook.

"We are very looking forward to investors who believe in our vision for the future market. We are really lucky to find people who believe in this vision, who actually work and build applications in the video industry," Mahmoud said.

After its success in the UK, Camlist plans to enter the US market, which it believes will be a huge and important market for them.

"So our current state is to expand within the UK because this is a fairly large market. We can see the impact of what we are doing here. But once we reach a certain stage where we have most of the market, We will start to expand into the United States," said Mahmoud, who was born in Egypt, whose family moved to Dubai when he was 6 years old.