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Pylon, a Cairo-based infrastructure management platform led by Egyptian entrepreneurs Ahmed Ashour and Omar Mohamed Radi, has raised $19 million in seed funding from investors as it seeks to expand into other emerging markets.
The recent funding is consistent with Pylon’s strategic expansion plans, which include increasing its smart metering points to three million by 2023, resulting in a fourfold year-on-year growth for the startup.
Pylon was founded in 2017 by Ashour and Radi with the goal of democratizing smart grid infrastructure for energy and water distribution companies in emerging markets.
The Cairo-based infrastructure management platform’s business model was developed with the goal of addressing the $400 billion in losses and uncollected revenue in the distribution of energy and water.
Endure Capital, an early-stage investment fund led by entrepreneurs, led the $19-million capital injection to the infrastructure management platform.
The multimillion-dollar seed funding round, which is divided into equity and debt, was initiated by the U.S. technology startup accelerator Y Combinator, with participation from institutional investors and VC firms such as Cathexis Ventures, Khawarizmi Ventures and Loftyinc Ventures.
The capital injection will be used to accelerate Pylon’s growth through expansion into other emerging markets (Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America), as well as advance engineering and product development, according to the company’s management.
The startup is already collaborating with a number of companies on two continents that have deployed over one million endpoints of Pylon’s smart grid technology across 15 distribution companies.
Ashour, Pylon co-founder and CEO, commented on the deal, stating that with a $22-billion market opportunity, Pylon provides a compelling model for investors looking for a fast-growing, profitable company that, most importantly, has a significant impact on preserving our planet. The ultimate goal of Pylon is to benefit humanity, our customers, and our stakeholders.
“We are overjoyed that our solution has piqued the interest and acclaim of a diverse group of global investors,” he said.
“Our impact-driven vision of developing technology to better manage resources, eliminate inefficiencies, and eliminate pain points in the utility sector sparked a call to action, to which many responded,” Ashor added.
