Swvl Raises $13M Led by Sawiris-Backed Coefficient for US Expansion
Dubai-based Swvl will use the $13 million private placement to enter the US market, launch a lending product, and shore up its balance sheet.
Swvl Holdings Corp, the Dubai-based mobility startup, has signed a securities purchase agreement for a $13 million private placement led by Houston-based Coefficient LP. The money will fund US market expansion, launch a lending product for transport operators, and strengthen the balance sheet for enterprise and government contracts.
Coefficient, founded by Abdalla Ali and backed by Egypt's Sawiris family, put $10 million into the round. An existing Swvl shareholder contributed the remaining $3 million. Swvl will issue almost 9 million Class A shares at $1.40 per share. The transaction is expected to close in August 2026.
Closing will make Coefficient Swvl's largest institutional shareholder. Ali will join the board of directors. CEO Mostafa Kandil said the investment powers Swvl's next chapter in the US and cuts the ribbon on a market where operations have just started. He said the company has partners with deep roots in the US and its existing markets.
Nassef Sawiris, whose family stands behind Coefficient, had a net worth of $9.1 billion as of Tuesday. He ranked as the world's 365th richest person and fourth on a 2026 list of the World's Richest Arabs.
Swvl listed on Nasdaq in March 2022 via a merger with the SPAC Queen's Gambit Growth Capital. That made it the first company launched from Africa to list on the exchange through a SPAC, and the second Middle Eastern startup to do so. The deal valued Swvl at $1.5 billion and brought in $121.5 million in PIPE financing from investors including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Agility, and Luxor Capital Group.
The public ride was volatile. Swvl's market capitalization peaked at $10.7 billion and then slid to about $41.7 million by mid-2025, a drop of more than 99%. The company cut headcount and exited markets. It restructured around enterprise and government contracts rather than consumer ride-sharing.
The overhaul shows up in the operating numbers. In Q1 2026, revenue rose 68% year over year to $8.2 million, with Gulf revenue up 111%. Recurring revenue made up 88% of the total, and net dollar retention was 114%. Operating expenses fell to 23% of revenue. Swvl is approaching operating breakeven, with operations in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, the UK, and the US.
The $13 million round is small next to the $10.7 billion market value Swvl once commanded. It is aimed at specific targets: a lending product for transport operators and a US market entry built around enterprise and government contracts. That is a narrower bet than the consumer ride-sharing story that carried the 2022 SPAC listing.
