Swvl completes business merger with Queen's Gambit Growth Capital

KARACHI: Swvl, a tech-enabled mass transit ride-hailing company that was formed in Cairo and has headquarters in Dubai, began trading on the NASDAQ in the US on Thursday 31st March, 2022. The company is valued at $1.5 billion. It is the first Middle-Eastern company that established itself from the East to the West.

Mostafa Kandil, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Swvl made things official for the IPO by ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ office in Times Square, New York.

Youssef Salem, Swvl’s chief financial officer, told The National, “It was quite incredible. Everyone was just so incredibly excited.”

Trading opened at 9.30am EST with shares starting at $9.95 per share. They were trading at $9.33 at 3.10pm EST.

This marked the completion of Swvl’s merger with Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital, which is the first special purpose acquisition company that was founded and is run entirely by women. The development took place following an extraordinary general meeting of Queen’s Gambit’s shareholders that was held on March 30, 2022. The combined company has changed its name to Swvl Holdings Corp.

“The key thing for us is that we're the first tech-enabled mass transit player to list on any exchange globally — so not just the first out of the Middle East, we're the first out of the entire world,” Salem said.

The Class A ordinary shares and warrants of the combined company will continue to trade on NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange, based in New York under the ticker symbols “GMBT” and “GMBTW”, respectively. From this point on, Swvl’s Class A ordinary shares and warrants are expected to commence trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbols “SWVL” and “SWVLW”, respectively.

Mostafa Kandil, Swvl founder and CEO, said, “Completing our business combination with Queen’s Gambit is a tremendous milestone for Swvl and for sustainable mass transit globally. Mobility and the empowerment that comes with it should be a fundamental right for all.

"As a public company, we plan to build on Swvl’s exponential growth to date and proprietary tech-enabled platform, ensuring that underserved populations have access to solutions that are safe, convenient and affordable. In turn, we will leverage our best-in-class team, established partnerships and proprietary tech stack with differentiated solutions.”

Swvl received gross proceeds from the transaction of approximately $164.6 million from its upsized, fully committed $111.5 million PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) and the receipt of approximately $53.1 million of cash from Queen’s Gambit’s trust account net of redemptions. Once the merger comes to an end, Swvl will have access to additional capital via an additional PIPE commitment of $10.0 million, which it expects to close in the second quarter of 2022, and a $471.9 million equity financing facility, depending upon the conditions.

About Swvl

Swvl is a global provider of transformative tech-enabled mass transit solutions. It was launched in Pakistan as a tech-driven ride hailing service in the year 2019.