• Egypt-based marketing CRM platform Gameball, has closed a $3.5 million Seed round led by 500 Global, Africa-focused funds P1 Ventures and Launch Africa, as well as Middle East firms Seedra Ventures, Arzan Ventures, Propeller and Core Vision, alongside regional angel investors. 
• Founded in 2020 by Ahmed Khairy, Ahmed El Assy and Omar Alfar, Gameball is a customer intelligence and marketing CRM platform that helps consumer brands create personalised engagement with customers and monetise their customer base.
• Gameball will use the funds to accelerate product commercialisation, accelerate enterprise customer acquisition and strategic hiring.

Press release:

Gameball, the all-in-one customer intelligence and marketing CRM platform for consumer brands, has announced the completion of a $3.5 million fundraising to accelerate its international expansion. A roster of global investors joined the company’s seed round including 500 Global; Africa-focused funds P1 Ventures and Launch Africa; as well as Middle East firms Seedra Ventures, Arzan Ventures, Propeller and Core Vision. This round also saw participation from regional angel investors. 

Gameball’s platform is a powerful marketing solution, enabling omnichannel retailers to have a 360-degree view across all customer touchpoints and journeys. Gameball’s suite of products empowers businesses to analyse customer behaviour, leverage first-party data, identify monetisation opportunities, and execute retention strategies. Its fully integrated marketing suite equips marketers with customer analytics & segmentation, incentive & loyalty management, and cross-channel messaging; helping drive customer conversion and personalised engagement, while providing rich data and insights for brands.  

Gameball was founded by Egyptian entrepreneurs Ahmed Khairy, Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed El Assy, Chief Product Officer and Omar Alfar, Chief Technology Officer in 2020. Since its launch, Gameball has served more than 7,000 businesses, 20 million consumers, and processes over $260 million worth of transactions every month. As part of its growth strategy, Gameball will operationalise teams in Saudi Arabia, Germany and the United Kingdom while investing in the commercialisation of its product. 

Ahmed Khairy, CEO of Gameball said, “We built Gameball to help global brands to analyse customer behaviour, accelerate customer retention, monetise their user base and improve customer lift-time value (LTV), all through one platform. With 7,000+ clients, 20 million consumers and transactions worth $260 million processed every month, we are excited about entering new markets and building our on-ground presence. This seed round brings on board renowned investors who will help fuel our growth, marking a critical milestone for us, as we evolve into a truly global platform.” 

According to Gameball’s data, 61 per cent of businesses report that more than half of their revenue comes from repeat customers with new customer acquisition costing 5x more than it is to keep current ones. On average, Gameball’s customers see a 3x increase in purchase frequency over the industry standard. The company’s top 5 clients using Gameball’s rules-based promotions experience a 7x increase in purchase frequency over the industry average.  

Working with global brands, Gameball operates within the enterprise’s systems providing 360-degree visibility on customer touchpoints. This accelerates collaboration between teams while empowering businesses with insights to create impactful engagement. 

Gameball works with businesses across sectors in the digital economy through a powerful API-first engine, including e-commerce, retail, fintech, and more, while prioritising user privacy. Today global brands such as Sega, Xiaomi, Experience Philippines and Breadfast are among Gameball’s clients. Gameball also provides plugins for marketplaces like Shopify and Magento, and homegrown platforms like Zid (in Saudi Arabia) to get started immediately.  

Hisham Halbouny, General Partner at P1 Ventures said, “The consumer landscape is evolving rapidly with brands competing for customer engagement, trust and retention. Gameball is solving a large multi-billion dollar challenge that can transform digital marketing, customer loyalty and monetisation around the world. We are thrilled to back the team on their journey as they grow their footprint in new markets.”   

Built in the Middle East, Gameball works with clients globally. Over the next 12 months, Gameball will continue to invest in up-market expansion, new hires, doubling down on growth and product innovation.