Convertedin, an Egyptian ad automation platform, has raised $3 million in its seed round. The round had leading participation from Merak Capital, which is a firm headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Other participants in the fundraise include 500 Global, and MSAS.

According to the startup, the funds would be used for research purposes. It will also be used to push Convertedin’s development, and also add competent hands to its workforce through strategic hiring.

Convertedin is planning an expansion into five new markets. The startup currently operates in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and most recently, Brazil. The firm noted that South America is a huge market with e-commerce revenue expected to reach $160 billion by 2025.

The CEO, Mohamed Fergany stated that the startup’s newly raised funds will help the firm push for this expansion further, alongside its plan for R&D, and strategic hiring:

“We focus on emerging markets and if you look at it from healthy unit economics, we can sell easily in those countries because there is low competition there. And customer acquisition cost is low compared to the U.S. or Europe markets.”

Convertedin was co-founded in 2019 by Mohamed Fergany (CEO), Mohamed Atef and Mustafa Raslan. Prior to founding Convertedin, Fergany worked with companies like Speakol Ads (an Egyptian advertising firm) and British telecommunications company, Vodafone.

During his time at his previous jobs, Fergany gained experiences useful in the operations of Convertedin. He had encounters that exposed him to the possibility of assisting offline retailers in re-targeting and retaining their clients online, while attracting new customers to their offline stores.

Convertedin works by integrating a number of e-commerce and advertising platforms. With this integration, brands are able to segment customers into high and low value categories. The startup uses insights created from data analysis to create personalised multi-channel marketing campaigns and drive various campaigns on social media, SMS, email, search, and other channels, all while tracking and attributing revenue conversion.

“If you walk into IKEA and they take your phone number down. After that, our engine works to find a similar product you might buy and we re-target you online. If you went back to IKEA for that product, we can calculate the cost of online conversion. This was the main idea at this time as we saw a huge problem where there was no analytics platform for the offline store or a retargeting mechanism,” Fergany said, while explaining how Convertedin operates.

Read also: South Africa’s DataProphet raises $10 million to push its global expansion

Speaking on Merak Capital’s investment in Convertedin, Ahmed Aljibreen, partner at lead investor Merak Capital, said:

“We are excited to back Convertedin, a martech company that has built a state-of-the-art platform to simplify digital marketing, improve customer acquisition and drive growth for its clients. Convertedin is led by a world-class team in which we have tremendous confidence as the company embarks on its next stage of growth in MENA and Latin America.”

In addition to having its services in English and Arabic, Convertedin plans to add Portuguese, which will enable it serve its customers in South America.