Swvl公交叫车豪赌：15亿美元SPAC上市，股价崩盘，2023年扭亏

做的是什么生意

An app that books seats on fixed-route buses and minibuses, plus B2B and B2G shuttle services for corporates, schools and municipalities.

启动资金：Over $170 million in venture funding before listing, plus a $121.5 million PIPE when the SPAC merger closed in March 2022.

起因

Mostafa Kandil founded Swvl in Cairo in 2017 with Mahmoud Nouh and Ahmed Sabbah, starting as a bus-hailing service for markets with fragmented public transportation. After launching in Egypt it expanded to Kenya, Pakistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and moved its headquarters to Dubai as part of a strategy to become a global company.

经过

Swvl raised over $170 million, acquired European and Latin American transit tech (Shotl, Viapool, door2door, Urbvan), and announced a $1.5 billion SPAC merger with Queen's Gambit Growth Capital in July 2021. The deal closed in March 2022 — the first Africa-launched company to list on Nasdaq via a SPAC — with a $121.5 million PIPE. Within months the stock fell below $1, Nasdaq sent delisting warnings, and 2022 brought 450 layoffs, closed countries and reversed acquisitions. Revenue still doubled to $51.5 million with a first gross profit of $2.75 million, but operating losses hit $82.4 million.

结果

By 2023 Swvl had pivoted to B2B and B2G shuttles (over 78% of revenue), exited markets like Kenya and Pakistan that could not reach its margin targets, and posted net income of $3.1 million against a $123.6 million loss in 2022. After a 1-for-25 reverse split its share price rose more than 800% in six months, though it stayed far below the $10 listing price.

可借鉴之处

高估值SPAC迫使初创公司不得不增长以匹配市场不再买账的故事；Swvl通过收缩扩张、退出国家、围绕B2B合同重建而生存下来。