Falak Startups, the Egyptian government-backed startup support and investment platform, has exited its position in Delta Oil, the Cairo-based cleantech company that collects used cooking oil from households and F&B businesses for conversion into biodiesel feedstock, at a 25.5x return in EGP terms.
The stake has been acquired by Den VC, a US-based venture capital firm operating in emerging markets including Africa and the Arab region, which has added Delta Oil to its active portfolio.
Delta Oil was founded in 2018 by Serag Moussa and Karim Salah. The company operates in more than five Egyptian cities and hundreds of villages, running a structured collection network that sources used cooking oil from both households and commercial partners. Local collectors trained by the company gather oil from homes in rural and suburban areas and sell it in bulk to Delta Oil, which aggregates the supply and exports it primarily to European biodiesel refineries.
In five years of operations, the company supplied over 720,000 kg of waste oil to biodiesel firms, resulting in a reduction of approximately 218,000 kg of carbon emissions, and employs over 650 oil collectors from vulnerable communities across multiple governorates.
Egypt produces approximately one million tonnes of used cooking oil per year, much of which is disposed of informally by households into sewage systems or onto agricultural land. The global used cooking oil market is expected to reach $11 billion by 2028, driven by European demand for sustainable aviation fuel and biodiesel feedstock. The business is predominantly export-oriented.
Industry sources have estimated that 70 to 85% of used cooking oil collected in Egypt is shipped abroad, primarily to refineries operated by companies including Finland's Neste, France's TotalEnergies and Italy's Eni. Delta Oil's CEO told Enterprise in 2023 that Europe does not lack biodiesel manufacturing capacity but suffers from a shortage of UCO feedstock, which is the supply gap the company addresses.
Falak Startups entered during Delta Oil's accelerator phase and provided support beyond capital, including team structuring, sales strategy, financial modelling and partnership development. Falak is seeded by the Egyptian government and operates as both an accelerator and investment platform, part of the broader institutional infrastructure that includes Egypt Ventures, the investment firm established in 2017 by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation.
The exit, while modest in absolute terms, is notable for what it represents. Realised returns from early-stage startup investments remain rare in Egypt, where the ecosystem has historically been measured by capital deployed and rounds raised rather than liquidity events. Delta Oil's model, built around aggregating a fragmented waste stream into a consistent industrial input with export demand, is the kind of operationally intensive, unit-economics-driven business that has been attracting more investor interest across the region as appetite for narrative-driven growth without clear revenue pathways has cooled.
The company also has a partnership with SODIC, one of Egypt's largest property developers, to collect used cooking oil across SODIC's developments, and is the subject of a J-PAL MENA research study at the American University in Cairo evaluating the environmental and economic impact of its collection model, particularly in Upper Egypt where collection infrastructure is minimal.
