Camlist, the pet video market, sees growth in UK after raising

Pet video marketplace, Camlist, raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed round, funding startup plans to grow its platform and grow its workforce – while ‘it seeks to expand its reach in the UK, its second market’ (after the United Arab Emirates), which it entered earlier this year.

Unlike other marketplaces, CamList (obtained from camera listings) allows sellers to list the pet videos they want to sell, and once contacted, buyers and sellers can engage. Via video and text chat within the app.

The market currently only allows pet listings, but it is expected to branch into other items in the near future.

“Classified, or peer-to-peer commerce in general, has stuck to the same old fashioned way since eBay existed. Since then, there has been no real significant innovation,” said Mustafa Mahmoud, co-founder and CEO of Camlist. That said, it’s just lists, probably pictures and phone numbers.

“But at Camlist, we are changing that. We turn the marketplace into a video experience because every used item has a story.

Mahmood said they are creating the safest way for anyone to find a pet by providing verified health checks and interest-free funding in partnership with third parties for those unable to make payments on time. Camlist has welcomed over 6,000 animals so far.

“Our in-app GMV (gross value of goods) has grown by 100% every two quarters, so we’re doubling every quarter, and our total GMV is about $2 million per month,” Mahmood said.

The company Y Combinator was founded and launched last year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, just before the pandemic hit. The launch proved timely and the site became popular, forcing people to stay at home, buy their pets – partly to combat boredom, but also because they had time to raise them.

“We are building the market category by category, and we feel that the list of pets is so big and so little. We plan to expand into different articles as we grow,” Mahmood, who is also a computer scientist.

Other co-founders include Maha Refai, the startup’s product manager, who has 16 years of experience in building and scaling digital products. She is also the creator of the first video platform for MBC (the largest free-to-air broadcaster in the Middle East) as well as other video streaming products.

Camlist’s 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.

Mahmood said the idea to launch Camlist was inspired by the need to counter their bad experiences while shopping on classifieds sites in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where items were often misrepresented. And there were many scams.

Classifieds are popular in Dubai, an expatriate city, because people use them to get rid of their belongings, but they have also allowed miscreants to target unsuspecting people. To counter this, Camlist has an option for in-app payments – funds are released after the buyer confirms receipt of the pet. This feature ensures that buyers are not duped by stopping violators posing as sellers.

Mahmood and his other co-founders offer a marketplace that allows shoppers to search for items they’re interested in via video before making a purchase. This is in addition to ensuring that buyers are protected from fraud and that high quality services are guaranteed.

The company also runs with vendors on its platform to ensure they are raising or keeping pets in a healthy environment, as well as vaccinating, deworming and microchipping them.

“We also support our buyers and sellers by providing free vaccines, microchips, dewormers, insurance and pet food. We strive to provide the best experience for our buyers and sellers,” he said.

Startup raises new funding from Y-Combinator; technology startup accelerator, Act One Ventures; A start-up venture capital fund and multiple angel investors from Houseparty, Mux and Facebook.

“We look forward to investors who believe in our vision of building the market of the future. And we are really lucky to have those who believe in this vision, and who are working in the video industry and building applications.” have been,” Mahmood said.

After arriving in the UK, Camlist plans to enter the US market, which they believe will be a large and important market for them.

“So the current situation for us is expansion into the UK because it is a huge market. And we can see the impact of what we are doing here.