Last September, Egyptian startup Capiter raised $33 million in Series A funding to compete in the country’s growing B2B e-commerce and retail space. Fast-forward a year later, the startup has laid off multiple employees and now its CEO and COO have been relieved from their duties after allegedly mismanaging funds.

Here’s what we know so far. Between June to July, several ex-employees of Egyptian startups, including Capiter, wrote posts about layoffs at their respective companies even though the employers never addressed them publicly. Other companies include OPay Egypt, elmenus, ExpandCart and Brimore.

Some sources told TechCrunch that Capiter had laid off at least 100 staff in those two months. Others described a workplace with poor management and no structure and a company finding it hard to onboard merchants to its platform while running out of money simultaneously. The company had only a month runway as of August, they said. TechCrunch reached out to Capiter at the time but received no response.

As a result, Capiter investors have been searching for potential buyers to absorb the struggling company in the form of an acquisition or merger. This information was further corroborated in a local news report where Capiter’s Board allegedly said that the founders had not been reporting to the board, its representatives and shareholders during on-site in-person due diligence for a potential merger. Another publication stated the executives had refrained from appearing before the board of directors after internal disturbances and disagreements over their management method.

Before Capiter, Mahmoud was the co-founder and COO of Egypt-born and Dubai-based ride-hailing company SWVL (the company, which went public via a SPAC deal last year, laid off 32% of its staff this May). With his brother Ahmed, he launched Capiter in 2020 as an FMCG platform that allows small and medium-sized retailers to order inventory, arrange delivery and access financing to pay for goods. Some of its competitors include MaxAB and Cartona in Egypt, and in Africa, Wasoko, TradeDepot and Chari.