Seed

Series B

Series A

Pre-Seed

Others

Series C

Rest of World

Africa

Riyadh

Abdulaziz Alomran

Basmah Alsinaidi

Turki Alyahya

If you're ready to make an impact with your business, we want to hear your pitch.

Investment in Startup

IMPACT46

Fintech

Retail & Wholesale

Mobility

Transportation

Healthcare

Foodtech

Art-Media-Entertainment

Digital & ICT

Software Dev/Test

IMPACT46 is an asset management and advisory firm established in 2019, focused on alternative investment opportunities.

Tamara

E-Commerce

Tamara offers a buy now, pay later platform that enables customers to pay in installments.

Nana Direct

Grocery

Grocery shopping and delivery platform that offers grocery and other home essentials delivery.

Floward

Floward is an online flowers and gifts eCommerce solution sourced from local and international brands with same-day delivery schedules.

Playhera

Gaming & E-Sports

Playhera is a gaming and esports platform that connects stakeholders across the industry, allowing them to compete, promote, recruit, and monetize worldwide.

Syarah

Automotive

Marketplace

Syarah specializes in online car sales, offering assistance with purchases and financing options in Saudi Arabia and the region.

Zid زد

eRetail enablement company that enables any retailer or merchant to move from traditional retail to modern retail.

Cairo

Homzmart

Homzmart is an online end-to-end platform that sells home furniture, home décor, lighting, and home supplies.

Jahez

Deliveries

Food Delivery

IT Services

IT Consulting

Jahez is a Saudi Arabian online food delivery platform that connects customers with a wide range of restaurants and food vendors across the country.

Dubai

Merit Incentives

Technology

Merit Incentives is a global engagement technology and solutions company that helps businesses boost customer and employee engagement through its innovative enterprise solutions.

Lendo

Finance

Lendo is a fintech startup that provides a range of financing products and offers a peer-to-peer lending platform with a core focus on SMEs' debt finance.

California

Augmented Reality

VUZ is a social app that allows users to stream and experience XR and the Metaverse.

Rasan

Insurance Technology

Digitalization

Banking Technology

Internet Marketplace Platforms

Rasan is a leading fintech company that provides innovative solutions in the insurance and banking technology sectors, enabling individuals and businesses to carry out their financial transactions with ease.

elmenus

Elmenus is an online food discovery platform that provides its users with digitized restaurant menus from food carts to hotel restaurants.

Mala'a Technologies

Financial Services

Mobile Apps

Predictive Analytics

Mala'a Technologies is a leading fintech company that offers a range of data-driven financial products and services for individuals and institutions with its financial app.

Nejree

Fashion

Lifestyle

Nejree is an online shopping platform that offers a personalized shopping experience to customers with a wide range of products and categories that cater to all demographic groups.

Trukkin

Logistic & Storage

Trukkin is leading techno-logistics platform providing world-class cloud-based intelligent operations and services that unite shippers, transporters, brokers and drivers through one seamless, integrated interface.

Telgani

Leading car rental platform in which customers can quickly and easily rent car at a very competitive price.

Hala

Hala is a prominent fintech company that seeks to transform financial services and develop the future bank for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Dawul

Social Network

Dawul is a platform that allows investors to share details of the financial status of their portfolios with other investors.

Raqamyah Platform

Raqamyah Platform is a regulated peer to peer (P2P) financing platform by Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA).

Speero

Speero is the largest marketplace for car parts and services in Saudi Arabia, with a mission to accompany car owners in maintaining their vehicles, while helping repair shops and part vendors move their operations online and boost their businesses. Speero is the ultimate one-stop shop for all car owners.

Bonat

Support & Management Services

Customer engagement solution that provides advanced tools to help in managing businesses.

DataLexing

Analytics

No-Code Apps

Productivity

DataLexing is a productivity platform that provides an all-in-one solution for businesses looking to streamline their data management with insights, apps, notifications, forms, and sheets.

Spades

Payments

Hospitality

Food and Beverages

Spades is a web-based solution that allows guests at restaurants to scan a unique QR code at each and every table to view the menu, go through their bill, split it in real-time with their friends if they desire to, tip the staff, and pay using their preferred payment method all in 10 seconds and in 2 taps. With Spades, customers never wait, tables are turned faster, staff earns more tips, and all transactions are synced with the restaurant POS making it a seamless experience.

Cognna

Computer

Cybersecurity

Security

Cognna, a leading cybersecurity startup, is on a mission to simplify cybersecurity with their innovative platform to empower users by providing effective tools to detect, prevent, and resolve threats effortlessly.

Jeddah

Taffi

Taffi offers on demand personal styling & shopping services.

Sanad Cash

Sanad Cash helps employees relieve financial stress by getting them instant access to their salaries between paychecks.

The Chefz

The Chefz operates as a gourmet food and sweets delivery platform. The Chefz allows users to order food and sweets from ‘top elite restaurants, bakeries, and chocolate stores’ in Riyadh, using its mobile app (available for both Android and iOS).

Torod

Smart solutions for shipping and managing online store shipments

Raseed

Funding

Crowdfunding

Invoice Financing

Investment Platform

Stock Exchange

Stock Market

Raseed is a fintech platform that aims to  make investing easy, simple, and affordable for users in the region with a focus on providing secure access to US financial markets.

Shuttle

Logistics & Storage

AI/IoT

Digital Logistics platform with IoT based Smart Lockers distributed in cities forming a stop station for a mass transit for moving parcels.

Sanar

Healthtech

Hospitals and Health Care

Telemedicine

Sanar is a leading online healthcare company in Saudi Arabia, dedicated to providing high-quality medical services and products to its patients.

Muscat

Al Matar Group

Travel

Tourism

Al Matar Group provides individuals and businesses with technical travel solutions.

Postpay

Bondai

Leisure

Saudi-based Retail enablement company, Zid has successfully raised $50 million (~188 million SAR) in a Series B funding led by IMPACT46 with participation from new investors: Aramco venture capital arm (Waed Ventures) and Endeavour Catalyst. Previous investors: Global Ventures, Elm Company, Arzan and MSA also participated. 

This is the third round of investment Zid has received since the business was founded in 2017, and follows a Series A investment round of $7 million in March 2021. 

The proceeds will be used by Zid to expand into new markets in Saudi Arabia and in the region, conquer new retail verticals, plus digitise and automate more innovative solutions to modernise the retail sector.

Zid has continued its growth in both acquiring new merchants and in transactions. Milestones include doubling its revenues from subscriptions and transactions and a 50% increase in orders made via Zid’s merchants by over 7 million lifetime consumers. Zid’s merchant network now reaches over 7,500 stores across 19 different categories, from small to large merchants in the retail sector.

Zid started by enabling retailers to sell and grow their own online channels. Now, Zid is expanding into a new mission - “modernize the retail sector”. The company’s goal is to up game the retail sector by offering and enabling business owners and retailers with tools and products that will improve the efficiency of their operations and grow their bottom line. 

The company rolled out products and solutions to enable Zid retailers in shipping (ZidShip) and payment (ZidPay), achieving significant growth and adoption of their products. Zid's intention is to expand the offering of these products to cover: financing retailers and cross-border shipping. 

Commenting on Zid’s growth, Co-founder and CEO of Zid, Sultan AlAsmi, said: “We appreciate the continuous belief and trust that our investors have put into the company, the leadership, and the team. We are focused on being the regional optimum solution for each economy we operate in, having proved it in Saudi Arabia.”

Mazen AlDarrab, Zid’s Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, added: “Zid and its team showed the ability in the past years to turn challenges into solutions that can enable retailers and partners to grow. We will be continuing in the same direction with the aim to modernize the retail sector in the region”

Abdulaziz AlOmran, the Managing Partner at IMPACT46, commented on the investment: “Zid is building a community by enabling merchants to master online presence with a full-fledged e-commerce infrastructure equipped with sophisticated features. The deep connection with merchants is what makes a difference in strengthening this community. Excited to lead the round and welcome Zid to IMPACT46’s family, we see amazing founders that balance each other while pushing the team forward to new frontiers."

Zid raises $50 million Series B round led by IMPACT46

Saudi Arabia-based productivity platform DataLexing, has raised $3 million in a Seed round led by Sadu Capital, with participation from Impact46 and other, unnamed investors.
Founded in 2018 by Rayan Alfaheid and Abdulelah Alganas, DataLexing helps organisations and individuals acquire data without relying on technical personnel, by bringing insights, apps, notifications, forms, and sheets together in one place.
The funding will be used to expand its GCC-wide operations and leverage DataLexing’s development.
Press release:

The advanced All-in-One Data-Driven Productivity Platform DataLexing has raised $3 million in a Seed Round led by Sadu Capital, with participation from Impact46 and other investors. The objective of the funding is to expand its GCC-wide operations and extend the Research & Development of DataLexing.

Founded in 2018 by Rayan Alfaheid and Dr Abdulelah Alganas, DataLexing is an All-in-One Data-Driven productivity platform that brings Insights, Apps, Notifications, Forms, and Sheets together in one place. DataLexing platform helps organizations and individuals get the right data at the right time without relying on technical personnel.

To simplify getting the right data at the right time, the users start from prebuilt productivity templates and correlate them with current business apps to have a single source of truth. As a result, more than 1,000 questions get asked per day using the DataLexing platform without needing a data expert. In addition, opening a dialogue with your data provides an unparalleled experience, unlike waiting weeks to get the answers from the data analyst.

Salem Washeely, Managing Director at Sadu Capital, commented on the investment: "The link between data and centralized reporting usually goes through different applications, platforms, data engineers, and multiple integrations. That wastes business users' time and effort to produce a report on time and even with questionable accuracy. However, DataLexing managed to bridge the gap that clients locally and globally require to cut through this hustle. We are proud to invest in this incredible team geared to solve this massive global pain."

Rayan Alfaheid, the CEO & Co-Founder of DataLexing, commented, "At DataLexing, our mission is to empower everyone to get the right data at the right time by themself. I'm very proud to see our platform positively impacting 10 countries and more than 50 organizations, varying from startups to government agencies, at an early stage in DataLexing life."

Dr Abdulelah Alganas, the CTO & Co-Founder of DataLexing, commented, "Being a Startup brought us closer to our clients, where we walked miles in their shoes. That infused customer-centricity into the fabric of DataLexing. A customer-centric approach is the cornerstone of our development framework where the user is at the heart of technology."

DataLexing raises $3 million seed round led by Sadu Capital

Furniture and home goods e-commerce platform Homzmart has closed one of the past year's biggest funding rounds for a Middle Eastern and North Africa start-up, raising $23 million, its chief executive said.

The company, launched in 2020, will use the new funding to expand services, especially logistics, and fill gaps that appear in supply chains, co-founder and CEO Mahmoud Ibrahim said in an interview with Reuters.

The latest pre series B round funding round, which included participation from Riyadh-based technology venture capital fund STV, Impact46, Outliers Venture Capital, Rise Capital and Nuwa Capital, brings its total funding to about $40 million.

It raised $15 million in an earlier round that closed in the second quarter of last year, after an initial round in which it raised about $2.5 million.

Homzmart started by connecting brands and manufacturers with customers in the Arab world's most populous country. But it found gaps in supply chains that prompted it to create a logistics arm, and now has about 100 trucks.

It also in March acquired Berlin-based home interior design firm MockUp Studio, which uses artificial intelligence to make designs.

Earlier this year the company's activities expanded to Saudi Arabia, and Ibrahim said it had achieved solid growth there. "The percentage of activity in the Kingdom is now between 25% and 30% of the total volume of Homzmart business," he said in the interview on Sunday.

The company says it serves 25 million houses in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with more than 150,000 products on the platform.

Homzmart has not yet achieved profitability but Ibrahim said it is still focused on expansion and building market share "through lazer-focused profitability milestones".

Investment in MENA start-up Homzmart rises to $40 million after latest round

In most parts of Africa and the Middle East, a consumer journey and experience in buying furniture is not fun. A typical shopping process would entail looking for the best price and quality and asking for recommendations and checking offline stores, one after another.

It is rare to find one-stop shops, especially large offline ones, that can adequately cater to the needs of consumers in the MENA region. Home goods and furniture marketplaces have launched in the last three years around the region to meet this need. Egypt’s Homzmart is one such, and today the company is announcing it has closed its $15 million Series A investment.

The company was founded in 2019 by Mahmoud Ibrahim and Ibrahim Mohamed, but it didn’t launch until the first quarter of 2020. This round of financing follows a $1.3 million seed investment raised in February last year. According to the company, this brings the total amount raised to $17.2 million. 

China’s MSA Capital, one of the investors in Homzmart’s seed round, co-led this Series A investment alongside Nuwa Capital. Other participating investors include EQ2 Ventures, Impact46, Outliers Venture Capital and Rise Capital.

The furniture industry in Egypt has been historically characterized by poor accessibility for consumers. Homzmart’s marketplace collects designs, price ranges and other details of its retailers’ products and solves high distribution costs for them by providing access to consumers who have flexible financing options. In addition, Homzmart said it incorporates AI to optimize content for retailers and intelligent tools to help customers with their purchasing decisions.

“As a marketplace, we stand between the supply and demand. So we connect furniture and home goods suppliers with consumers,” CEO Mahmoud Ibrahim told TechCrunch in an interview. “It’s almost like a big hassle to buy furniture in Africa and the Middle East. And I think it’s a pain all over the world when it comes to having a place that you can shop all your needs when it comes to home products.”

Over the last 12 months, Homzmart claims to have grown 30x in sales. It also showcases more than 55,000 products from thousands of brands and merchants. The online marketplace is tapping into the rapidly expanding $80 billion industry where 14 million customers in the region search online for furniture monthly.

When Homzmart kicked off its hard launch and raised its seed round, it was right at the start of the pandemic. Ibrahim said the company was uncertain that it would survive due to anticipated behavioral changes in consumer spending. But the opposite happened. Customers in Egypt grew to like the product, resulting in more sales like most marketplaces and e-commerce platforms witnessed this past year.

“At the beginning, we were very worried and not sure how customers would react to buying furniture during the pandemic in the Middle East online. So we’re actually amazed by the traction as it seemed like the region was waiting for something like this to happen.”

The growth experienced within the pandemic was one reason MSA Capital decided to double down on the startup. As stated by Ben Harburg, the firm’s general partner, “The pandemic exposed the extreme vulnerabilities and inefficiencies of the Middle East’s archaic offline retail ecosystem, logistics and supply chain. Into the void stepped Homzmart as the next-generation, digitally enabled online marketplace and optimized logistics provider for large-item retail addressing both consumer and enterprise customers.”

Another reason behind the investment, the firm said, is the vast experience of both founders in e-commerce and fulfillment. Mahmoud was the VP of Operations for Jumia Egypt before becoming the Group COO of Daraz, a Southeast Asian company acquired by Alibaba in 2018. Mohamed is also a Jumia alumnus and was part of the logistics development and expansion team in Egypt. 

Although their experience with different verticals in everyday commerce in Jumia and Daraz was invaluable, the founders chose to launch in the niche furniture market instead of building a similar model as their former employers. “We decided this was a really good vertical that we needed to focus on and hold ourselves accountable to digitizing in the region,” Mahmoud said about developing the niche product.

Homzmart’s first year in business was all about understanding supply and demand. The next couple of years is a strategy to expand across the MENA region, helping fulfill demand from a young and fast-growing consumer middle class.

“Whatever we did in Egypt, we need to do across the region. Homzmart isn’t looking to be just an Egyptian platform, rather a regional platform,” the CEO said.

The company has strategically launched operations close to Damietta City, Egypt, to focus on this regional market opportunity. The city is known to be one of the largest furniture manufacturing hubs in the Middle East and thus allows Homzmart to streamline the region’s vertical industry supply chain. An integral part of this supply chain is handling logistics and the movement of products from merchants to buyers. The company said a sizable tranche of investments would be used for this effort.

What’s next for the company when logistics is handled?

“I’ll say the thing that keeps me awake at night is the fact that our business is growing very fast. And we need to make sure that we’re building the right institutional infrastructure for that business, to make sure that after two or three years, we’re building like a very solid, multibillion dollar business,” Mahmoud remarked.

Egyptian furniture marketplace Homzmart lands $15M Series A for MENA expansion

Raqamyah Platform, a Saudi based Peer-to-Peer (P2P) SME lending platform (approved by SAMA Regulatory Sandbox), secured seed funding from Impact46.

As a FinTech company, Raqamyah uses innovative technology to connect small businesses seeking fast, affordable finance with lenders who could help fund their growth. By lending directly to businesses through Raqamyah, lenders earn attractive returns while businesses get fast, easy access to funding at competitive rates to grow, create jobs, and drive the economy forward. Raqamyah’s mission is to empower small businesses to thrive by simplifying and expediting their funding needs.

Raqamyah is one of the first Saudi companies approved by SAMA to offer P2P lending including invoice, inventory, and term finance. With its first lending opportunity fully funded through the Platform, Raqamyah is gearing up to publish its subsequent opportunities in the coming days. The startup is led by Ammar Bakheet and a team of experienced bankers with more than 25 years experience in the financial sector (credit, investment and marketing). “Innovating the traditional SMEs lending by making the whole borrowing and lending experience digital and adopting new technologies to improve credit assessment is the team’s passion” noted Ammar Bakheet, the Managing Partner at Raqamyah.

Impact46 Seed Fund, a newly established fund based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia investing in early stage startups. The fund focuses on supporting local disruptive technologies across sectors and seeks to play the role of a catalyst to help prepare them for the next stage. With a team of diverse expertise in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, from angel investing, working with incubators, accelerators, and being entrepreneurs themselves, the team believes in a value add approach to their investments.

“Looking at disruptive technologies, FinTech is on the top of the list in terms of sectors. Saudi Arabia has one of the most advanced infrastructure to support creative solutions, and the new regulations supporting those solutions and allowing for a safe test environment will play a driving role in growing the market” noted Abdulaziz Al Omran, a managing partner at Impact46.

P2P SME lending Platform, Raqamyah, raises Seed funding from Impact46

Saudi-based fintech peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, Raqamyah, has secured a $2.3 million investment round led by Impact46 with participation from Vision Ventures, Mad’a Investment, Alyusur Company, Fadeed Investment and several angel investors.

Founded by Ammar Bakheet, Raqamyah operates as part of the Central Bank’s SAMA Sandbox to connect qualified companies seeking different types of financing products with individual and institutional lenders looking for alternative investment with higher murabaha returns.

The new funding will enable the company to meet SAMA’s full licence requirements, invest in technology and talent and facilitate easier access to alternative investment opportunities for investors.

Raqamyah has been growing at a monthly double-digit rate with more than 40 fully-funded loans in one year. It was also the first P2P platform to introduce an automatic lending feature where lenders can choose to set automatic investment options based on their lending criteria.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, the platform expanded from lending to micro enterprises only to small and medium enterprises. It launched a point of sale (POS) lending service in partnership with Skyband, the first POS loan posted in January 2021 was oversubscribed by SAR 2 Million and was fully funded by the automatic lending tool.

Furthermore, the company plans to enhance the credit assessment process by reducing origination cost and improving borrowers’ experience through technology.

According to Bakheet, P2P lending is one of the fastest growing areas in fintech and it is at its early stages in terms of innovation and disruption.

"Prospects of growth for the company considering developments in the fintech scene in Saudi are exciting. We have great faith in Ammar and his team to pave the way in this front,” said Basmah Alsinaidi from Impact46.

“SMEs are one of the main pillars of any economy and the region is no different. SMEs need funding to expand and prosper and Raqamyah is here to support SMEs in their growth journey. We believe Raqamyah’s team is well equipped to lead this space,” said Kais Al Essa, founding partner and CEO of Vision Ventures.

Raqamyah raises $2.3 million investment

Taffi, an AI-empowered fashion marketplace, announced its latest funding round of $2M+ Seed financing led by Impact46 & Al-Rashed group (ARG). In addition, the round also includes prominent angel investors from WomenSpark, Sultan Al-Hokair, founder of the fashion retail company Eyad Mashaat and Abhishek Sharma, and Jamil Ahmad, founders of the apparel manufacturing marketplace Fashinza. 

Taffi is the AI-empowered fashion marketplace platform enabling fashion stylists to manage their clients online in a hyper-efficient manner with the tools and built-in scale to serve many more clients than they could have without Taffi. The platform allows clients to acquire new customers easily, showcase their online portfolio to new audiences, and broaden their global reach. For brands and clothing providers, Taffi is a robust global market that provides deeper connections and a better understanding of their customers in ways that current e-commerce or local retailers could not offer today.

Taffi is creating opportunities for over 28 million women in the Middle East. They are homemakers, fashion enthusiasts, and very interested in styling as a source of income from the comfort of their homes. 

“This latest funding round allows us to continue our mission to bring global fashion styles to consumers in the most intimate and personalized manner. Today, e-commerce still has many challenges. From discovering styles to the right fit for you or the moment, the current e-commerce experience is still not the shopping experience we know modern technology can deliver” said Shahad Geoffrey, the Founder and CEO of Taffi. Moreover, the logistics and operations to achieve this experience are still tricky for regional retailers today, but the world is no longer a regional marketplace. Customers today demand global access and purchase opportunities and, at the same time, want it deeply personalized. 

Taffi has already started to connect customers, clothing providers, and individuals across the style, fashion, and merchandise ecosystem to deliver a global, on-demand personalized style marketplace in the EMEA region. Seeing the traction here in Saudi Arabia has been exciting, but most importantly, our platform is helping people and businesses from at least three different segments; shoppers, stylists, and clothing. This opportunity is what is the most rewarding for us here at Taffi. 

“Whether our customer wants access to the latest local Paris fashion, from Dubai, or the trending Tokyo street fashion, on the streets of Cairo. Taffi’s mission is not simply about delivering clothes; it’s about opening new possibilities by empowering our customers with no constraints on how they could look, what they can access, and, more importantly, how they can feel about themselves every day. Our technology and platform are built to deliver this connection. But, of course, clothes are a crucial component” Added Pradeep Bisht, Co-Founder, and CTO. “So getting support from these key strategic investors, who share our vision of e-commerce, is an important next step in making it a reality for everyone.”

“Fashion is one of the largest segments of e-commerce in our region. With such a big market and potential, there come challenges and gaps for all stakeholders of this ecosystem. Taffi is uniquely positioning itself to complete the loop between consumers, fashion brands, and fashion stylists. This segment has yet to be tapped in our region, and we believe Taffi's team, led by Shahad Geoffrey, is well equipped with the right mindset and background to address this segment.” Commented Mohammed Alnasyan from Impact46

Taffi will deploy the latest funding into the growth of the technology platform, continued nurturing and scale of the stylist community, and build on the excellence of their customer experience and continued customer growth.

“As the world continues to become more connected and more personal, Taffi aims to be the leader in not just clothes, but that platform that creates meaningful connections between people, brands, and styles across the globe, united by fashion” said Shahad.

Fashion marketplace Taffi raises $2 million Seed round

There’s no denying that the Middle East is growing fast and its restaurant scene is growing even faster. Dining in the UAE means exploring one of the most diverse, vibrant, and delicious food destinations on the planet. Restaurants are increasingly turning to Spades to keep up with dynamic demand while providing a seamless checkout experience for dine-in customers to pay their bills. 

Spades was founded by Mehdi Chraibi, Adnan Haque, and Sameer Poonja after successful careers building digital products used by millions of users at VISA, Emirates Airline, Oracle, Millicom, and Rocket Internet. The team is backed by executives with leadership roles at global Payment Service Providers (Adyen, VISA & MasterCard), Cloud Kitchens, and multiple Hospitality Houses in the Middle East. Their oversubscribed angel round of $2.5M also included prominent European business angels, such as Thibaud Elzière (Founder, Fotolia & eFounders), Eduardo Ronzano (Founder, KelDoc & Managing Partner, Secret Fund), and Yan Hascoet, Othmane Bouhlal, Omar Benmoussa - the Founders of Chauffeur Privé - Kapten (acquired by Free Now), which was closed with early investments from global & regional VCs such as Nordstar and Impact46.

The fintech payment startup has already signed over 150 restaurants in its first 12 weeks and launched with major brands in UAE such as NOLA, Couqley, Alaca, and The Sum of Us. The company is growing fast and recruiting multiple roles across the board this year to cope with its expansion in the GCC and beyond.

How it works:

Spades allows guests to easily pay their bill by scanning a code or tapping to pay, without any downloads or registration, translating into shorter wait times. Trustworthy, and reliable, the platform provides the fastest and most secure payment solution that integrates seamlessly into all major POS systems, making refunds and reconciliation just a click away. 

Partner restaurants have already reported doubling their staff tips, turning tables faster, saving trees, and improving guest service. With a solution that caters to both restaurants and customers, Spades is set to revolutionize F&B in the region with just a quick scan and a couple of taps!

Customer journey: 

A simple tap to pay or  QR code scan allows diners to conveniently and securely clear bills at partner restaurants. The solution also allows diners to split the total bill with friends and add their own tip individually for staff, while paying using their method of choice. Customers can receive a digital receipt for their records and also review their experience. Through its partnerships, the platform integrates seamlessly with all major POS systems making transactions, refunds, and reconciliation just a click away. 

Human-centric approach:

While other like-minded rival technologies create a disconnect between customers and restaurants, Spades has a human-centric approach to challenge the status quo by increasing engagement throughout. The actual order is still placed in person with the wait staff which has been designed to ensure customers continue to get a chance to interact with their server and seek the right dine-in experience, an issue widely encountered by other online ordering platforms. The automated end-to-end payment integration with any Point of Sale removes all manual errors and simplifies daily reconciliation. By bringing payment to the table, customers can now choose traditional forms of payment or use Spades directly from their phone. 

Co-founder of Spades, Adnan Haque said, “With Spades, we have created a seamless payment portal that is fast, secure, and convenient. Our goal is to give back time to customers and restaurants, and create a perfect "phy-gital" harmony that helps achieve an exceptional dine-in experience.”

Investment Associate at Impact46, Saud Alsahaf said, "F&B is an important industry in the local market, and Spades is offering a powerful digital solution to improve the experience for all stakeholders in the value chain. We look forward to making Spades the standard for restaurant payment."

Co-founder and Managing Director of NOLA Social House & Eatery, Alex Economides said, “Since starting with Spades we’ve noticed our staff having more time to engage with guests at the end of their dine-in visit. Rather than running around at peak hours printing bills and collecting payments. Exceptional service has always been one of the WOW factors at Nola, so with Spades’ efficient and convenient payment method we see a perfect fit.”

Spades launches in UAE after raising $2.5 million

Saudi Arabia-based fintech Malaa Technologies, has raised $1.7 million in its Seed round with participation from Impact46, Khawarizmi ventures, Venture Souq, WealthWell, and several angel investors.
Founded in 2020 by Ali Alorainy and Faisal Alqarni, Malaa facilitates access to expense management and promotes a culture of savings in communities.
The fintech recently obtained a permit from the Saudi Central Bank regulator (SAMA) to operate open banking activities.
Press release:

Saudi financial technology startup Malaa Technologies has raised SAR6.4 million ($1.7 million) in its Seed round with participation from Impact46, Khawarizmi ventures, Venture Souq, WealthWell, and a number of angel investors.

Established back in November 2020, the startup was founded by Ali Alorainy and Faisal Alqarni who both come with diverse experiences in finance and technology. Malaa recently announced obtaining SAMA’s permit to operate open banking activities with the aim to help individuals make better financial decisions through cutting edge technologies in big data and artificial intelligence

Abdulaziz Alturki, MD of Khawarizmi Ventures, said “Malaa team is a great example of aspiring entrepreneurs who took a bold step as the first fintech company to launch its services on top of Open Banking. Malaa will contribute to facilitating access to expense management and promoting a culture of savings in communities. We are pleased to have joined their journey in achieving their mission of raising financial awareness and personal financial management”

Mohammed Alnasyan, from impact46 team, adds: “There is an increase in financial awareness driven by changing consumer behaviour globally and a number of government initiatives locally. Along with the Open Banking Policy, the need for personnel tools to manage and take effect of this major shift in the financial sector is evident. Malaa has a unique approach to addressing this shift with its solutions from financial management, investment, and especially lending. We have a long history with Malaa's founders and we have always been impressed by their ambition and resilience. We are believers in Malaa team and vision and are happy to support their journey"

VentureSouq General Partner stated that “Our FinTech thesis includes personal finance management where we think there is significant whitespace in the MENA region and we are excited about Malaa’s solutions-based approach starting with savings for millennials and Gen Z users as a tool to make better borrowing and investing decisions. We are thrilled to be joining Ali and Faisal on their journey.”

Malaa Technologies raises $1.7 million Seed round

Riyad-based social trading platform Dawul announced on Tuesday that it has raised $5 million in a seed round led by RAED Ventures with participation from Impact46, Seedra Ventures, Derayah Venture and Sukna Ventures.

Dawul platform is the leading platform specialized in social trading. Established in 2020, it acquired a permit from the Saudi Capital Market Authority to conduct financial technology experiments by the end of the same year, and  was officially launched in July 2021. Dawul is built to help beginner investors keep looking for automated ways to execute trades or, what’s even better, follow professional traders and their portfolios and investment strategies. This way, they can obtain details of the traders’ operations directly and in real time.

Dawul also introduced the “investment funds” product, which allows users to view the data of investment funds in the Saudi market, and to see all updates and analysis related to their own preferred funds. All this is through alerts and notifications that are sent periodically to help beginners in making decisions regarding the buying and selling of stocks, and the building of their investment portfolios in a transparent and safe manner.

Dawul plans to take advantage of this investment round by expanding its offers of social trading-related products, as well as expanding its network in the Middle East and North Africa. The platform aims to target the American and British market with its services,  while focusing its efforts on recruiting talent in the fintech industry.

“We are excited to move forward with this fund and we expect to be the first choice for traders in the region based on our value, upgrading the investor experience, and improving transparency in the financial sector,” said Mr. Mansour Al-Harbi, Founder and CEO of Dawul, in response to this funding round.

Co-founder of RAED Ventures Mr. Talal Alasmari commented on this funding round: “There are enormous opportunities behind the concept of social trading which have not yet been applied in the region. We are pleased to be investing in Dawul platform which is the first to introduce this concept to the Saudi market through a safe and transparent platform, and with the support of the Capital Market Authority to raise awareness among investors. We believe in the ability of the Dawul team to expand and serve  the whole MENA region.”

“The initiatives from public and private sectors on the importance of investment, along with the people’s awareness of the value of investments, there is a gap of knowledge in the investment field and its risk. Dawul’s fills the gap by empowering experts in the investment field to share their experience. We bet on the vast experience of Mansour Al-Harbi driving the social trading platform Dawul forward” Mohammed Alnasyan from Impact46 commented on the investment.

Saudi’s Social Trading Platform Dawul raises $5 Million in seed round with participation from Impact46

The leading online car marketplace Syarah, secured $20 million (SAR75 million) for its Series B investment round co-led by Impact46 and Elm company. The investment round aims to broaden the platform’s offering, improve the quality of the services and expand to new markets across the region. The investment round included participation from Budget (United International Transportation Co.), Vision Ventures, and Yousef Al-Rashidi, the founder of Haraj.

Founded back in 2015 by Salah Sharef and Fayez Al-Anazi, a team with deep experience in the automotive and e-commerce industries, their collective experience is a reflection of the growth the platform has achieved. Syarah is redefining how cars are being bought in the automotive industry in Saudi Arabia, providing consumers with a convenient and hassle-free experience for buying cars online and having the cars delivered to their doorstep. Seeing the adoption of technology and the high demand for buying cars online, in 2019, Syarah has expanded its offering by selling used cars online in addition to new cars. Each used car sold online comes with a free car inspection report, a five-day money-back guarantee, and a one-year warranty. Through the platform, Syarah provides its users with a wide selection of more than 2,300 new and used cars available for sale online.

"Syarah’s technology-focused model has been a huge fuel to the growth of the platform exceeding SAR300 million in sales and a rapid growth rate within a very short period. As the platform continues to improve its services in the local market, Syarah is planning to expand its operation in the Mena region,” said Fayez Al-Anazi, the co-founder of Syarah.

Syarah plans to use the recently acquired fund to further shape its offering towards users' needs, provide complementary and wide options of services and strengthen its activities by establishing its own distribution centres in Saudi Arabia. The warehouse represents a milestone in Syarah’s development efforts, where it aims to increase its stock to more than 1,000 used cars that have gone through an in-house inspection and reconditioning phase and are available to collect from the platform.

Salah Sharef, CEO and co-founder of Syarah commented: "We have successfully sold more than 6,000 cars online so far, and with this new investment, we intend to significantly grow our inventory and sales over the next few months."

Majid Alarifi, the Vice President of Marketing At Elm, said: “Elm investment is in line with the company strategy in building a strong base and supporting the ecosystem locally, creating a promising future for a startup in different sectors. Elm follow-on investment in Syarah reflects the platform's ability to continue achieving remarkable events and driving Syarah further."

"The platform is targeting a largely fragmented market in the Kingdom and it has created an opportunity within by providing digital solutions that cater to the consumer trends and facilitates the process of buying cars online. We’re proud to continue the journey with Syarah led by Salah and Fayez in expanding their footprint to new markets،" said Abdulaziz Al-Omran, Managing Partner of Impact46.

Syarah raises $20 million in Series B round

Riyadh-based online car marketplace Syarah has raised fresh funds from Impact46, it announced in a statement today to MENAbytes. The startup did not disclose the size of the investment but said that its a bridge to Series B and includes the participation of an angel investor too. It had previously raised $2 million in a Series A from BECO Capital, Raed Ventures and Vision Ventures in 2018 and an undisclosed amount of investment from Elm in 2019.

Founded in 2015 by Salah Sharef and Fayez Alanazi, Syarah that had started as a car listing website is now one of the largest online auto marketplaces in Saudi, helping both individuals and dealers buy and sell used and new cars, through its website and mobile apps. The platform also provides users with Mojaz car history reports for used cars and facilitates car financing.

Their latest offering, Syarah Online which is available as a dedicated platform, allows users to buy new and used cars completely online and have them delivered to their doorstep without having to contact anyone or visit the showroom. It also offers different complimentary services including selling warranties and extended warranties for cars, selling insurance, and roadside service (AAA).

The Saudi startup claims to have sold more than 1800 cars since last year and has around 300 dealers from all across the Kingdom active on its platform. According to the publicly available data, their website receives half a million visitors every month.

Salah Sharef, the co-founder and CEO of the startup, said, “Syarah Online is on a mission to disrupt and reshape the way cars are bought and sold in the region. Our new partnership with Impact46 will help us greatly towards achieving this goal. It will help us to improve our product offering and to better serve our users with a wider range of services.”

Kholoud Almohammadi from the Impact46, said, “Saudi Arabia is the largest automotive market in MENA accounting for ~40% of total car sales [of the region]. Syarah is well positioned to take the market not only by being one of the very first movers but also by uniquely utilizing their expertise to hone the opportunities in this underserved space.”

Fayez Alanazi, co-founder and CMO of Syarah, said, “The partnership will open up new opportunities for innovation for Syarah, and this will help in creating new services for facilitating car buy and selling in the kingdom. It will also help the Syarah team to continue enhancing it’s existing services, and to better execute future plans for improving the user experience and improving the quality of service and safety in the market.”

Syarah plans to use the investment to increase its sales, expand to new cities in the Kingdom, increase the inventory of used cars, and integrate with financial institutions to offer auto financing leases.

Saudi’s Syarah raises fresh funds to expand its online car marketplace

UAE-based Merit Incentives, a customer and employee engagement platform, has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Saudi’s Impact46 along with Tech Invest Com, Arzan VC, Hambro Perks Oryx and several regional angel investors. 
Founded in 2016 by Julie Barbier-Leblan, Merit Incentives began as a B2C gifting solution and has expanded to offer B2B engagement tools and technologies.
It now operates its own rewards network of 5,000 partner brands across 100+ countries, with 500+ retailers and merchants in the GCC. Its clients including Riyad Bank, Vodafone, Mubadala and Amazon and claims to have 20 million end-users globally.
Merit Incentives plans to use this funding to grow its team into new territories and invest in its technology.
The company has offices in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan and UK, along with a technology lab and development team located in Pakistan. Merit expects to triple its research and development resources across offices by the end of 2022.
Press release:

Merit Incentives, a leading developer of innovative customer and employee engagement solutions announced a $5 Million Series A investment round, led by Riyadh-based venture capital fund Impact46 along with Tech Invest Com, Arzan VC, Hambro Perks Oryx and several regional angel investors. 

What started as a B2C gifting solution has expanded to become one of the most engaging technology and consulting firms specialized in developing the latest B2B engagement tools and technologies. Currently, Merit offers its B2B2C services to a diverse portfolio of large enterprises, including Riyad Bank, Vodafone, Mubadala, Adidas and Amazon.

Merit Incentives’ products include Rewardsby, a Software as a service (SaaS) loyalty and rewards marketplace made up of nine distinctive engaging redemption modules, and GiftCardsby - the most advanced SaaS digital gift card platform on the market, enabling instant sales and redemptions from retailers.

Julie Barbier-Leblan, CEO and Founder of Merit Incentives said: “We are thrilled to have received strong support from such prominent investment firms. While we had the option of securing international investors our ambition has always been to raise funds from within the region, as this is where our business first launched. We believe in the Middle East’s fast-growing market which allows us to serve our international clients’ needs with agility and efficiency.” 

The engagement startup operates its own rewards network of 5,000 partner brands across 100+ countries, with 500+ retailers and merchants in the GCC alone, making it a firm that delivers on its promise of ‘thinking globally, acting locally’. In a sign of Merit Incentives’ bright future ahead, it recently surpassed a landmark milestone of 20 million end-users globally

“We are amid a new era where users require unique yet meaningful experiences with companies they like and trust. It has now become imperative for businesses to engage directly with their customers, and internally with their employees, to create a constant dialogue and emotional bond at every touch point. We believe that the key to success is for leaders and managers to be able to align customer and employee engagement to support their vision, using SaaS technologies, and strong digital content, and Merit Incentives is uniquely positioned to accomplish just that,” Barbier-Leblan continued. 

“With the team led by Julie and talented individuals from various backgrounds in tech, banking, & retail. Merit is set to tackle a great opportunity within the business engagement technology sector. The company has been able to expand within the GCC with a global mindset while maintaining a good grasp of the local enterprise and SME market.” said Basmah Al Sinaidi, partner at Impact46.

Merit Incentives plans to use this funding for the growth of their team into new territories, and further investment in technology, building on the existing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities of its solutions. 

In addition to its headquarters in Dubai, the company has offices in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan and UK, along with a technology lab and development team located in Pakistan. With a strong focus on in-house development, Merit expects to triple its research and development resources across offices by the end of 2022.

Merit Incentives announces $5 million Series A round led by Impact46

OhSaudi-based fashion ecommerce platform Nejree has raised $15 million in a Series A led by Impact46’s growth fund, it announced in a statement today. The round takes Nejree’s total financing to over $19 million. The Riyadh-headquartered startup had raised $4 million in a Pre-Series A round in December 2019.

Founded in 2018 by Ibrahim Al Mogren, Nejree started as an online retailer for sneakers but now also sells apparel. The web and mobile-based platform features products for men, women, and kids, from leading international brands, including Adidas, Nike, Lacoste, Puma, Under Armour, Rebook, Converse, and many more.

Its latest offering, Nejree Closet, enables customers to try the products at their homes before they buy them. The service that’s being termed as try-now-buy-later (TNBL) by the Saudi platform is available for free for customers and aims to make the purchase decision easier. The customers can add products on Nejree to their try-on cart and have them delivered to their homes so they can try and choose the products they would like to purchase.

It addresses most of the concerns of customers associated with online shopping of apparel and shoes; including fit-size issues, and feel-look-quality of the products. It has basically taken the best things from the offline shopping experience and has packaged them into its online offering.

Nejree claims that it is the first online platform to have introduced such an option at scale. Since the launch of the new offering three months ago, Nejree Closet has shipped 100,000 products for try-on, stated the startup in a statement, adding that it has seen a growth of over 50 percent in average order value and conversation rate during this period.

Ibrahim Al Mogren, the founder and CEO of Nejree, in a statement, explained, “We have released five different versions of app updates in less than 60 days to deliver Nejree Closet experience at scale. A whole ecosystem is very critical for the success of this service, we are investing tremendously in the whole in-house supply chain and infrastructure from logistics, operations, real-time updates & automation. He also argued that it would take a lot of money and awareness for the concept to get to mass adoption but eventually, the whole industry will move towards TNBL model.

The latest funds will be used to fuel the growth of Nejree Closet. The startup will also use the investment to introduce new categories and brands, and launch new markets, “We are extremely happy to have obtained the trust & support from Impact46, a leading VC in the region, which will bring more expertise & value,” noted the CEO in a statement.

Abdulrahman Almodaimigh, a Managing Partner at Impact46, said, “Nejree is tackling a great challenge in the ecommerce space, addressing customer pain points with the ordering online experience through Nejree Closet’s TNBL. With the right framework, innovative technology, and the team behind Nejree, the platform is set to play a driving role in growing the market.”

Saudi’s Nejree raises $15 million Series A for its try-before-you-buy fashion ecommerce platform

Shuttle, the digital logistics/ smart locker platform utilising IoT to optimise the logistic operation cycle by offering self-service lockers as the pick-up and drop-off points for packages, announced the closing of a SAR3.75 million ($1 million) Bridge to Seed round led by Impact46 with participation from strategic investors in the region. 

Shuttle was introduced in 2020 by Mohammed Alhassan, upgrading the traditional locker experience with a smart locker driven by leading-edge technology enhancing the logistics space as a whole. Smart locker is a tool for items to be safely stored, exchanged by different parties & backed by a software component that allows interaction to happen automatically. Through Shuttle’s software and its smart locker, end-users can authenticate, pay & receive packages with a fully automated process. 

Mohammed Alhassan, Founder of Shuttle Added: “LaaS (Locker as a Service) will be a game-changer in the e-commerce & digital logistics space as its the optimal solution for the business and the end-user. We are grateful to our clients and partners' trust for our unique IP & LaaS, this fund will further help us to improve & IoT infrastructure as well as cover more areas upon our partnerships requests.”

Shuttles’ smart locker is a unique approach to be adopted as it solves three major pain points: first delivery failures, re-scheduling deliveries, and the uncertainty to collect the package within a timeframe. With this solution, the courier can deliver multiple packages in one place, limiting the door-to-door delivery approach, and it’s a win to the customer as it cuts the delivery costs.

Shuttle currently has 90 lockers distributed across 9 main cities including Riyadh, Jeddah & Dammam, and soon to cover Saudi. The lockers are placed in +80 facilities utilizing LaaS “Locker as a service” model across hotels, commercial buildings & petrol stations serving more than 300 customers in multiple industries such as the laundry sector, auto safe storage services in malls, and car rental for key handling.

The locker placements can bring value to the facilities by directing individuals to visit the place in order to pick up the order. LaaS “Locker as a service” is a smart way to be adopted, as it brings benefits to all parties involved in its use and it is set to achieve more within the logistics cycle.

“With the rapid growth of the eCommerce industry, last-mile delivery solutions are crucial to support this industry's potential. The LaaS solution that Shuttle provides solves many pain points for last-mile including: failed deliveries, returns, and delivery prices. Shuttle's team led by Mohammed Alhassan demonstrates a comprehensive knowledge and know-how in this space that we believe will make smart lockers part of our everyday life as consumers.” Mohammed Alnasyan from Impact46 commented on the investment.

Riyadh-based Shuttle raises $1 million led by Impact46

This investment is the first and largest of its kind in the region’s InsurTech sector
Significant investment by Impact46, a CMA authorised asset manager, evidences the potential for growth and differentiation in the InsurTech sector
This investment fuels Rasan's evolution and the growth of Tameeni, simplifying digital innovations and advancing sector’s sustainable growth
Since 2017, Tameeni has attracted eight million users and serves close to 25,000 leads every day
Tameeni operates in line with Vision 2030 in that it drives service development and insurance sector advancement
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Rasan, the technology company powering Tameeni – the first InsurTech platform in Saudi Arabia – closes an investment of 90 million SAR led by venture capitalist firm Impact46, signalling rising confidence in the diversification of Saudi's economy. This financing round marks the first growth stage for Kingdom’s InsurTech sector.

Rasan, as a tech company, simplifies user experiences and drives operational digitalisation, value-chain transformation and collaboration across the Saudi and regional markets. The company provides technical solutions to insurance brokerage and financial services sector, under which comes the recent teaming up with major Saudi banks whereby Rasan’s Treza platform will  support bank’s lease-to-own team for vehicles.

Tameeni offers an instant policy by enabling retail customers to compare insurance prices and coverage, then select and pay for their policy of choice all in one place. The three-step online journey takes just two minutes to complete and is warranted by full backend integration with insurers and related service providers. The result is substantial time-saving for users as well as significant process simplification and operational cost reduction for insurers.

Tameeni provides comprehensive, third party and other types of vehicle coverage though its system integration layer with over 20 insurance partners. Through a similar setup with health insurers, Tameeni also offers health coverage to employees of small and medium-sized enterprises. Overall, Tameeni has approx. eight million users and serves close to 25,000 leads daily.

Impact46 is a leading Saudi-based firm focused on the Kingdom’s most exciting investment opportunities and cutting-edge start-up companies. This investment will advance the development and rollout of new technology products, increase the differentiation of Rasan’s InsurTech portfolio, including Tameeni and Treza, and unlock the value of whitespaces across the insurance sector as a whole.

Moayad Alfallaj, Chief Executive Officer of Rasan, said: "Saudi’s Vision 2030 heralds an unprecedented period of economic transformation and prosperity. Rasan is poised to support that by advancing the digitalisation of the insurance and financial sectors. This investment from Impact46 is a major milestone on our growth journey, signalling confidence in our research and innovation, and further strengthening our capabilities to build and scale multi-sided platforms as well as improving the customer experience and expanding into new geographical regions."

Abdulaziz Alomran, Managing Partner at Impact46, said: "Rasan is firmly strengthening its leading position in the digital technology field. It focuses on InsurTech to enable the sector acquire international stature in experience excellence across both segments, namely companies and end-users. We see a tidal wave of opportunities building up in that space, and Rasan is best-equipped to ride the new trend across our region."

Rasan for Information Technology closes its investment round

The logistics and supply chain startup Trukkin has secured an investment of 26 Million SAR for it’s Series A round. The round was led by Saudi based Emkan Capital with participation from Impact46 Seed Fund, Taya Group and other strategic investors.

Founded in 2017 by former Barclays banker Janardan Dalmia, Trukkin is a leading aggregator that digitizes the process of matching shippers with truckers to bring about transparency, reliability and efficiency to the logistics industry. Trukkin also works towards building fintech solutions for payments, insurance, and financial services. These solutions lay the groundwork for more financial inclusion for the unbanked and increase much needed transparency and efficiency for suppliers.

“I’m very proud of the team and the growth we’ve achieved over the course of the last year as we expanded into Pakistan and grew revenues despite the difficult environment presented by COVID. We are excited to close the round with strategic investors like Emkan Capital and Impact46, it confirms our vision of creating a world-class regional aggregation platform to enable logistics for the shippers and transporters.” Commented Janardan Dalmia, Founder and CEO of Trukkin.

Since their highly successful launch in Pakistan, Trukkin has continued to invest in technology and expand its services to newer markets while deepening their presence further in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Ghassan Aloshban, GP at Emkan Capital, said: “Trukkin has exhibited incredibly efficient use of capital and we’re very impressed with what they’ve been able to achieve in such a short time frame. It’s core team with over 200+ years of combined industry experience have showcased their expertise in not only navigating but driving growth during the pandemic. We look forward to supporting Trukkin, in serving hundreds of corporate clients and individual shippers as they aggressively look for expansion and growth in reach, capability and business volume”.

“Looking into Saudia Arabia’s geographic location, it demonstrates a large local and regional traffic of logistics movement reflecting the fragmented sector that still operates in a traditional way and lacking the innovative/ digital solution. Trukkin platform is in the right position to regulate the industry and simplify the supply chain with its digital services. Trukkin plays a vital role in enabling a group of independent truck drivers to increase their efficiency at a lower cost to clients.” Added Abdulrahman Al-Modaimeegh Managing partner from Impact46.

“We see enormous growth potential in the logistics industry in the MENAP (Middle East and Pakistan) region, the size of the market is considerable at over US$50 billion. Currently, local fragmented players dominate the market in the region, and we are working to be an enabler that brings this fragmented market together on an integrated, world-class platform to showcase collective growth”. Janardan Dalmia commented on the platform’s future plans.

Trukkin has grown 3x since the onset of the pandemic and scaled into Pakistan midyear in 2020 becoming the first mover and the leading logistics platform in Pakistan while growing its business in the UAE and KSA and serving 12 countries in the broader Middle Eastern region.

Trukkin raises $7 Million (26 Million SAR) in Series A funding round with participation from Impact46

Raseed, the investment platform for GCC residents enabling access to stock trading in the US market, has raised a $1.1 million (SAR 4.1 million) Pre-Seed round led by Impact46 with participation from Oqal Angel Investors and leading family offices in the region.

Founded in early 2020, Raseed, the go-to platform for Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain investors, facilitates the process of buying and selling stocks on the US stock markets with its commission-free application. Through Raseed's seamless registration process, users can join the platform in minutes with no minimum investment requirement. Raseed forged a series of partnerships with leading brokers and verification platforms, to provide secure access to US financial markets and serve as a launchpad towards new investment opportunities.

“Investing should be accessible to everyone, and we at Raseed are committed to making this possible and fun for all users in our region. Through best-in-class technologies and partnerships, we have simplified the customer onboarding process, reduced onboarding time to minutes, and eliminated the high barriers to buying and owning stocks” - added Abdel Sallam Qatshan, the founder of Raseed.

Upon receiving licenses from regulatory authorities in the GCC, the platform went live and has launched its application to users in the GCC. Raseed is licensed by the Dubai Financial Service Authority (DFSA), the financial regulator in the UAE, and has a sandbox license from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).

Raseed is set to break down the barriers to building wealth, with a focus on inclusivity and simplicity which extends to the trading experience. The platform is geared towards both beginners and expert traders, enabling users to manage & track their portfolio with features such as instant fractional shares trading, premium stock analysis tools, unique market insights and news, and educational resources to promote financial literacy within the user community.

“Raseed team, led by Abdel Sallam Qatshan, have a wealth of experience in both the financial and technology sectors that fits Raseed’s mission to enable and create wealth for its users. Throughout our interactions with the team, we also see a great entrepreneurial spirit that we believe is essential to navigate the GCC markets and beyond.” Added Mohamed Alnasyan, Senior Analyst from Impact46

Raseed has been fueled by leading regional accelerators and has successfully graduated from Startupbootcamp FinTech in Dubai, UAE, and Flat6Labs in Bahrain. 

The fund will be used to support product development, the rollout of new features, scaling to new markets, and increasing Raseed’s user base by offering innovative and advanced investment opportunities.

Raseed closes $1.1 million investment round led by Impact46

Riyadh-based fintech Lendo has raised $7.2 million in a Series A round led by Saudi’s Derayah Ventures, it announced in a statement today to MENAbytes. The equity-only round also includes participation of Seedra Ventures, Shorooq Partners, 500 Startups, and Impact46.

Founded in 2019 by Osama AlRaee and Mohammad Jawabri, Lendo offers instant invoice financing to SMEs through its Shariah-complaint lending marketplace. The offering helps SMEs with their immediate cash requirements. Invoice financing is a popular short-term borrowing tool for businesses in different markets around the world where they use their receivables to get loans from banks (or other financial institutions) but there are hardly any banks that offer it in the region.

Lendo offers loans starting from SAR 100,000 (about $27,000) and going up to SAR 3 million ($800,000) by connecting the SMEs with investors on its marketplace through crowdlending (aka peer-to-peer lending). The SMEs looking for financing can apply on Lendo’s platform if they have a valid Saudi business license (commercial registration), have been in operations for at least one year, and have an annual turnover of SAR 2 million ($530,000) at least.

The startup takes up to three days to review the profile after receiving all the required details and documentation. If approved, the business can apply for financing of up to 80 percent of the invoice value sold to the customer. These opportunities are then shared on Lendo’s platform with the investors who finance them collectively.  Lendo claims that on average it takes about half an hour for an opportunity on its platform to close (i.e. raise the money needed).

The investments start from SAR 1,000 (about $270) and can be made by any Saudi citizen or resident over the age of 18 who has a valid ID and a bank account. The expected annual profits range from 9 to 24 percent depending on the risk profile of the SME. All the opportunities listed on Lendo receive a risk rating based on its credit history, financial position, owners’ personal credit history and experience, and invoice strength.

“We provide solutions to two major pain points in the SME finance market. First, the limited options for SME businesses to borrow cash quickly and easily and second, the limited short-term options that offer higher returns for investors/lenders,” said the startup in a statement.

Lendo makes money by charging the SMEs with a management fee and taking a 20 percent cut from the profit investors make.

Launched just last year, Lendo claims to have financed over 100 invoices worth over SAR 60 million for SMEs and given more than SAR 3 million in profits to its investors. Its co-founder and CEO Osama AlRaee told MENAbytes that they currently have a default rate of zero.

In a statement, commenting on the occasion, he said, “We are proud to be backed by leading investors who have excellent knowledge and experience in the most rapidly maturing MENA entrepreneurial ecosystem. Aside from the financial support and expert advice from the pioneers in the market, their trust in our business model will help us achieve both our short term and long-term goals and scale our business to the next level.”

“The additional investment helped us create more opportunities for Lendo to finance businesses during the challenging economic climate brought about by Covid-19. Our strategy is to provide access to low-profit rate financing to SMEs and help funders receive better returns. Our alternative form of financing has proven to be faster in getting the needed cash flow and has become an essential part of the recovery strategies for many of our customers/clients. We are proud to be the preferred platform of choice for SMEs lending and borrowing in Saudi Arabia and look forward to being pioneers in the wider MENA region,” he added.

Mohammad Jawabri, the co-founder and COO of Lendo, said, “As a team of fintech experts, we combine financial expertise with advanced technology to bring our clients solutions that can turn waiting time into a valuable win-win situation for all parties involved. During the pandemic, there was a huge surge in the numbers of SMEs who turned to Lendo for financing to keep their businesses afloat. Our 25% month-on-month growth is a testimony of the hard work, dedication, and commitment of our team.”

The startup, for now, is looking to expand into Saudi to serve Jeddah and Eastern Region before it launches in other parts of the region. It is also looking to introduce new products to help SMEs raise working capital. The SME lending landscape in Saudi also includes players like Raqamyah (which raised $2.3 million just last month – and interestingly the round was led by Impact46, a firm that has also participated in Lendo’s funding round), Forus, and Dubai-headquartered Beehive. Lendo is one of the many lending startups that are part of Saudi Central Bank’s regulatory sandbox.

Faris Alrashed from Derayah Ventures, said, “The Lendo team has built a remarkable company which is evidenced by their performance especially during the initial months of Covid-19. Lendo is a powerful solution in the industry and its offering is well-timed with the rapidly increasing demand for financing solutions in the dynamic SME lending arena. We firmly believe in the founders and their unparalleled focus on execution, user experience, and scale.”

Shane Shin, the Founding Partner of Shorooq Partners, said, “As the only new investor to join Lendo’s journey, we are humbled and excited to work closely with Osama, Mohammed and the Lendo team to propel their growth within Saudi as they become the dominant regional player.”

Saudi’s Lendo raises $7.2 million Series A for its SME lending marketplace

Kuwait-based flower and gift delivery service Floward has raised a $2.75 million investment round led by Saudi Arabia’s Impact46 with participation from Faith Capital, BNK and other regional companies.

Founded in 2017 by Faith Capital’s Abdulaziz al-Loughani, Floward offers its users fresh flowers and gifts online, a sector that has traditionally been dominated by the offline. The startup has been able to grow its current annualised revenue to more than $30 million. This latest round now pushes the startups total funding to $7 million.

“Three founders from different backgrounds and different countries came together and dominated the gifting and flowers business over the course of three years,” said Abdulaziz Alomran, founding partner of Impact46. “This is the Khaliji dream-team.”

Floward currently operates in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE and plans to launch in six more cities in the region before the end of the year.

Floward raises $2.75 million

Kuwait-based flowers and gifts marketplace Floward, has raised $27.5 million in a Series B funding round led by STV with participation from Impact46.
Established in 2017 by Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, Floward offers fresh-cut flowers coupled with gifts and other products sourced from local and international brands with same-day delivery schedules.
The startup claims that it has seen over 10x growth in 2020, adding that its revenues during the first 100 days of 2021 surpassed full-year 2020 earnings.
Press release

Floward, the go-to online flowers and gifts delivery destination in the MENA region announced today it has raised USD 27.5 million in Series B funding round led by STV with participation from Impact46.

Established in 2017 by Founder and CEO Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, Floward is a full-fledged e-commerce solution that offers prime fresh-cut flowers coupled with gifts and products from local and international brands with same day delivery. This fragmented sector has traditionally been largely dominated by brick and mortar shops with almost no presence online, giving Floward the opportunity to become the market leader in the MENA region.

“Since our launch four years ago, we have been on a clear and rapid growth path that was further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic as e-commerce penetration saw a huge surge during the past year. These circumstances presented to us clear opportunities and accelerated our growth plans in the MENA region and beyond, specifically into London, UK – our first expansion outside the region,” CEO Abdulaziz Al Loughani said.

Floward has earned a leading market position in the flowers vertical, making in the largest flowers business in the whole MENA region in just under four years, as it now operates in 20 cities across seven countries with a team of over 450 members and counting.

Al Loughani added, “Floward has seen over 10x growth in 2020, in the first 100 days of 2021 our revenues have surpassed those of the entire year of 2020. We have a clear expansion strategy that follows our own set playbook allowing us to swiftly and seamlessly expand to new markets with the aim to become a major global player in the flowers and gifts industry, with a clear path to positive unit economics and profitability.”

“Today marks an important milestone of our journey at Floward. We want to partner with like-minded deep-rooted entrepreneurs, creative, determined and bold movers that are willing to change the status quo. We are proud to announce our partnership with STV joined with Impact46 and are confident that this partnership along with Floward’s team will help in marking ourselves as a global player in the flowers and gifts industry”, Al Loughani concluded.

Ahmad Al Naimi, Partner at STV said: “We’re excited to join Floward on their mission to master consumer gifting. They have shown impressive understanding of consumer trends, coupled with perfect execution of the customer experience and supply chain. We’re happy to partner with them as they expand their footprint to new markets and new products.”

Floward raises $27.5 million in Series B

Saudi Arabia-based healthtech app Sanar, has raised an undisclosed Seed round led by Impact46.

Launched in 2019, the online healthcare platform provides users with multiple telemedicine and at-home services ranging from video/chat specialised clinic consultation to online physiotherapy sessions with the help of more than 450 Saudi doctors and consultants.

“Sanar the platform aims to establish a virtual hospital that provides integrated medical services that cross the boundaries of distances, indicating that the idea of ​​the application came to achieve the vision of creating a health tech system for medical care that serves the individuals easily,” said the co-founder of Sanar, Faisal Alhomaidhi.

Sanar has helped to provide healthcare services on a large scale to cover major cities and small towns across the kingdom, with the aim to onboard major insurance companies to develop its services and provide public access to basic medical care at their convenience, according to Alhomaidhi.

“The team behind every solution plays a vital role in delivering it in a competitive environment. We are truly proud to back Sanar with the lead of an experienced team to deliver the vision of innovative healthcare solutions,” said Abdulaziz Alomran, from Impact46.

Sanar raises Seed funding from Impact46

Riyadh-based gourmet food and sweets delivery platform The Chefz has raised seed funding in a round led by Saudi’s Vision Ventures with the participation of Impact 46 which is a relatively new Saudi VC but has been very active lately, and Riyadh-based startup consultancy firm Ocean X. The size of the investment was not disclosed but we’ve confirmed that it is a six-figure (USD) deal.

Founded in 2016, The Chefz, according to its website allows users to order food and sweets from ‘top elite restaurants, bakeries, and chocolate stores’ in Riyadh, using its mobile app (available for both Android and iOS).

It is not targeting an average user who orders a meal from McDonald’s or KFC using delivery services like HungerStation, Jahez, Uber Eats, and Careem Now. The Chefz doesn’t even deliver fast food.

It is going after the customers who like to order from very specific high-end restaurants and bakeries and that is why its average basket size with an order value of $66 is five times that of other players operating in the food delivery space in Saudi, claimed The Chefz’s co-founder and CEO Abdulrahman Alshabanat in a conversation with MENAbytes, adding that they have the highest spending customers.

He also said that they plan to be the leader in gourmet food, barkery, and sweets category.

Speaking of the expansion plans, he added, “We are growing horizontally by covering to other cities and also vertically by integrating other services in the food entertainment business.”

The Chefz uses a hybrid fleet that comprises of its own drivers and “highly trained freelancers”.

The startup apparently makes money by taking a cut from its restaurant partners on every order it sends their way and delivers for them.

Abdulrahman Almarshad, the co-founder and Vice President of The Chefz said that they will use the investment to fuel their growth, expand, and further develop their product.

Kais Al Essa, the founding partner and CEO of Vision Ventures, speaking to MENAbytes, said, “Food delivery, as everyone knows, is a crowded space in Saudi with both international and local brands. But when it comes to gourmet food, it is a blue ocean with The Chefz being the only startup operating in it. And it is being run by highly professional and mature founders who understand this space very well and are trying to fill a big gap in the market.”

“They have developed a business that has been growing exceptionally well on a month over month basis and have very healthy unit economics. We are glad to have invested with Abdulrahman Al Shabanat and Abdulrahman Al Marshad and forsee a great company in the making,” he added.

Currently offering its services in Riyadh only, the startup is working to launch them soon in Jeddah and Dammam too.

Riyadh-based The Chefz raises six-figure seed for its gourmet food and sweets delivery platform

Jahez International announced the successful closing of its Series A round of funding, led by Impact46, marking the largest VC deal of its kind in Saudi Arabia so far this year. A 137 million SAR transaction entailing primary and secondary shares, all funded by private investors. The deal signals strong investors interest in investing in growth stage VC companies.

Jahez operates a food delivery platform offering a full logistics solution with its own proprietary delivery capabilities. Saudi Arabia witnessed an unprecedented leapfrog in its online food delivery market for the past few years, reaching ~ SAR4.4billion in 2019. Saudi customers’ expectations also increased, keeping the bar high on quality of service and making the challenge more interesting for platforms.

Jahez, founded in 2016, is a Saudi startup utilizing technology to streamline its online food delivery management software, the system can integrate any merchant with its proprietary remote onboarding mobile application. The platform automates the inbound order flow through a single point, given by Jahez, and provides last mile delivery service as well. A pillar to the model’s success is the partnership approach towards stakeholders.

Jahez has demonstrated their ability to rise above the competition and create long-term relationships with its stakeholders (restaurants, couriers, and end users’ “customers”) through an innovative business model. The startup has a team of 180 people, who are spread across major urban cities like Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and other 19 cities. The company will use the fresh funds to support further development of information technology, new products & services, and solidify its position in Saudi Arabia. The success story of Jahez carries with it a national pride, a Saudi company launched by Saudi management and staff with more than 90% of Saudization.

To address the impact of COVID-19, over the past few months Jahez has been on a mission to help restaurants and merchants rapidly pivot into online ordering, following the closure of restaurants dine-in services. Jahez itself started offering new services to cope with the situation and offered its delivery capabilities to grocery stores and other non-food retailers. So far, Jahez has processed more than 20 million orders for leading household brands such as McDonald’s, Burger king, Pizza Hut, SACO, Whites Pharmacies, always keeping customers happy by delivering directly to their doorstep.

The company is well on its way to exceed a billion riyal of orders value in 2020 sourced from over 12,000 points of sales across the kingdom. Jahez proudly serves 3 million users through its partners fleet of 15,000 freelance couriers. Jahez has plans to expand into cloud-kitchens, groceries and non-food ecommerce services.

According to Jahez CEO and co-founder Eng. Ghassab Al-Mandil, “Our starting point when creating Jahez was to give restaurants the tools they need to remain competitive in a digital world. In the current climate in particular, we help restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies, and other retailers gain access to a new digital channel and generate revenue by selling through jahez.” Yet, “We want to continue to bring convenience, choice and reliability to our users as we fulfil our mission”. “With this funding round, we will further invest in building differentiated offerings, plugging the white spaces in the ecosystem, expanding in new verticals and developing our in-house technology, while keeping excellent customer experience at the core.”

Abdulaziz Al Omran, from Impact46, also commented: “Jahez’s management team has an entrepreneurial spirit that makes miracles happen, they grew from a small departmental team to where they are today in less than 3 years. Seeing how the team has stepped up during the lockdown to help many restaurants and grocery stores offer delivery services in a matter of hours has only reinforced our conviction that this start-up is something special.”

The round was led by Impact46’s Growth VC Fund, supporting later stage technology startups and aiming to play a role in boosting their growth, unlocking new milestones, and expanding reach for startups looking to scale.

Jahez Successfully Closed Its “Series A” Funding Round Led By IMPACT46 VC In Saudi Arabia

Hala (previously Halalah) one of the first fintech startups to obtain the full SAMA license, secures $6.5 Million (24.3 Million SAR) Series A round. The round included the participation of Impact46 Growth fund, Wamda & strategic investors. With the recent introduction of the platform’s new brand name, Hala is redefining its strategy aiming to cover new means of financial service as well as to expand its offering regionally.

Since 2018, Hala has built a strong infrastructure in the fintech industry offering a complete payment and wallet solution for both individuals and merchants. Catering to the new financial opportunity in Saudi, Hala has recently been focusing on services enabling merchants to consolidate their in-bound and out-bound payment needs in one comprehensive platform.

During early 2019, “Hala” began providing its services to individuals through the digital wallet and electronic payment services and to merchants via the QR Code technology, which proved to be appealing to customers, where the platform managed to attract hundreds of thousands of individual users who were attracted to the customer experience that the platform provided.

In February of 2020, Hala began to focus on providing its services to merchants, mainly small and medium sized, as this segment has a major pain point in terms of the access to meaningful financial services with digital payments not exceeding 10% of its total transactions. Hala managed to achieve great traction in this segment and was able to cross the 10,000-merchant threshold in less than 6 months of operation. Hala offers merchants an attractive package of a POS device, a Visa/Mada card, an IBAN and a simple App that gives them instant visibility on their transactions, and allows them conduct multiple financial transactions including settling vendor and supplier payments as well as conducting in-bound and outbound transfers from and to bank accounts. This offering, topped with a combination of small but tailor-made features and a unique user journey provides a consolidated experience for those merchants and a main selling edge for Hala. Hala is continuously working on initiatives to expand its spectrum of services to include other financial and non-financial services that can support its customers in growing their business; as such, Hala succeeded in 2020 to acquire on of the most prominent local companies that provide value-added services for merchants including cashier systems, inventory management tools, accounting and tax reporting and as well as supplier management platform, among others.

Within only three years of its inception, Hala was able to build a solid infrastructure and achieve impressive figures which was recognized through multiple global, regional and local awards that it won for its innovations, the most prominent of which was its selection among the top 100 Arab startups shaping the 4th industrial revolution in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2019, the Fintech Leader of the Year “by MEFTECH in 2019 as well as being chosen as one of the top 100 companies in the field of FinTech (“Fintech 100”) in Fintech Abu Dhabi 2020.”

Simply, Hala aspires to be the future bank of SME’s, and its team is building the blocks in order to achieve this vision.

“The Fintech sector is continuously evolving. Hala, one of the first fintech solutions licensed by the Saudi Central Bank, has played a vital role in promoting the growth of this industry in the region. With the digitization of financial solutions, Hala is taking part in facilitating B2C financial transactions, the platform also continues to take advantage of the promising opportunities in this sector, to achieve rapid growth on a larger scale.” Added Abdulaziz Al-Omran, Founder of Impact46.

“The round was led by Impact46 Growth Fund and is considered the second investment of the fund and first fintech platform to join its portfolio. As the fund focuses on supporting later-stage startups, it’s managed by an experienced investment team who has witnessed the entrepreneurial revolution in Saudi from its beginnings, and today they are contributing to build the ecosystem in the Kingdom. Impact46 Growth Fund is set to capitalize on investing in emerging technology startups across sectors with a higher focus on companies targeting the Saudi market. ”

“Hala stands out as one of the first regulated fintech companies in Saudi Arabia, building modern banking services for consumers and merchants, and helping thousands of small businesses stay on top of their finances. We strongly believe in the team and their ability to make everyday business easier in respect to banking, accounting, and financial management.” Daniel Dos Reis, Investment Director, Wamda.

Hala (previously Halalh) announced the closing of a $6.5 million Series A stage led by Impact46 growth fund with participation from Wamda & strategic investors.

Saudi Arabia-based customer engagement platform, Bonat, has raised its Seed investment round, led by Impact46 with participation from Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) and angel investors. 

Bonat offers online and offline retailers a software as a service (SaaS) solution to manage customer relations. It provides a loyalty programme to businesses to acquire, retain, and understand their customer purchasing behaviour. The startup plans to use the investment primarily to fund its product development.

“We have recognised an existing problem that faces businesses in identifying and maintaining their customer data and engagement, which created an opportunity cost that can be turned into profits,” said Saud Binsaeed, co-founder and CEO of Bonat. “Usually 20 per cent of customers bring in 80 per cent of the business revenue. Our goal is to help businesses to identify their 20 per cent super fans to optimise the value of each customer as much as possible.”

Bonat currently serves more than 100 clients across Saudi Arabia, including restaurants like Elixir Bunn, Less Cafe, Greens, Opo, and Froz.

“Bonat is addressing a great opportunity in the customer engagement space, where the solution allows businesses to drive their brand names and convert customers from being one time visitors to loyalists. We’re excited to back a Saudi customer engagement solution, and we’re proud of the team behind it,” said the Impact46 team in a statement.

Bonat raises Seed investment led by Impact46

Saudi Arabia-based dark store Nana has raised $50 million in a round led by FIM Partners and STV, bringing the total funding to $80 million to date.
The round witnessed participation from Quencia Capital, Faith Capital, Jahez, Sunbulah Group, and other strategic investors alongside participation from previous investors including STV, MEVP and Impact46.
Founded in 2015 by Ahmad Alsamani, Sami Alhelwah, Nana is an e-grocery store with a feature of quick delivery that ensures all daily grocery needs are delivered straight to customers’ doorsteps within 15 mins.
Nana will mobilise the investment to solidify its presence regionally with a target of 150+ dark stores by 2022, most are in Saudi to cover all the main cities within the Kingdom.
Nana is a Wamda portfolio company.
Press release:

Riyadh-based Nana, which fulfils online grocery orders from its dark stores and delivers within 15 minutes, has raised a total of $50 million in a round led by FIM Partners and STV – which brings the total funding to $80 million to date.

The announcement was made as part of the Leap event in Riyadh. This round has been dedicated towards the expansion of Nana's dark store coverage throughout the Kingdom and the region with an aim to elevate the e-grocery industry and empower households to conveniently fulfil their grocery needs online thus accelerating the transformational goal from an offline to a purely online grocery shopping experience.

The company successfully attracted several new investors including FIM Partners - a leading emerging and frontier market focused institutional investment manager and sponsor of the region’s first technology-focused SPAC (Nasdaq: FICV), Quencia Capital, Faith Capital, Jahez – the food delivery company which recently went public on Nomu Saudi Stock Exchange, Sunbulah Group, and other strategic investors alongside participation from previous investors including STV, MEVP and Impact46.

Nana had launched on a mission to provide households with a convenient solution to fulfil their grocery needs online. Through a network of micro fulfilment centres or dark stores fully stocked with up to 2,000 SKUs, NanaExpress ensures that all daily grocery needs are delivered straight to customers’ doorsteps within 15 mins.

This groundbreaking business model has successfully redefined the meaning of the traditional grocery store and supported the founders’ vision of elevating the e-grocery industry both locally and regionally thus contributing to its rapid growth within Online Groceries to claim a market leader position with an 18% market share.

While NanaHyper’s wide selection of 40,000 SKUs provides households with the perfect solution to shop for their weekly and monthly groceries with the utmost convenience and superior quality of products and prices. Today, 90% of Riyadh’s daily grocery needs are covered through NanaExpress with plans to cover 100% of Riyadh in addition to Saudi Arabia’s main cities throughout the year.   

Sami Alhelwah, Nana’s Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer said: “We exist to empower every household with a convenient solution that seeks to fulfil their daily, weekly, or monthly grocery needs and have been on this mission ever since we launched Nana back in 2016. Since then, we have sought every opportunity to expand our coverage, optimise our operations and enhance our user experience in the pursuit of this goal and that is why we’re excited to work closely with our investors who share this vision and have an unwavering commitment to elevating the online grocery shopping experience both locally and regionally.” Sami also added, “Our expansion has resulted in rapid double-digit growth week over week, and the current fundraise will sustain this growth for a considerable time.”

With a drive and sights on elevating the e-grocery industry in the Kingdom and the region, Nana will mobilise the investment round proceeds to solidify and establish its operations and presence regionally with a target of 150+ dark stores by 2022, most are in Saudi to cover all the main cities within the Kingdom.

Saudi dark store Nana raises $50 million

Riyadh-based online grocery delivery marketplace Nana Direct has raised $6 million investment from Middle East Venture Partners, Impact 46, and Saudi Venture Capital Investment Company, MEVP announced today at their investment conference. It is one of the biggest funding rounds ever raised by a Saudi startup.

Founded by Sami Al-Helwah and Ahmed Al Samaani in early 2016, Nana Direct follows a three-sided Uber Eats-like marketplace model for grocery deliveries. Its marketplace consists of customers who want to buy groceries online, stores who want to sell through its mobile-only platform and freelance delivery partners who pick groceries up from the stores and deliver them to customers.


via Wamda

In an interview with Wamda in 2017, Nana Direct’s founder and CEO, Sami Al-Helwah, had explained, “Nana Direct depends on freelancers that are looking for an extra income. The customer orders groceries from one of Nana’s online stores. The order goes to the shop owners app where the products prepared. Once done, a notification is sent to the delivery team that will deliver the groceries to the customer’s house and get paid in cash or through mobile payment.”

According to its website, Nana Direct is currently available across 12 cities in the Kingdom, selling over 13,000 products through its Arabic-only apps for iOS and Android. The products include almost everything a hypermarket would have and even medicines.

Late last year, Wadi.com after pivoting to groceries had raised $30 million investment from Majid Al Futtaim.

Saudi-based Nana Direct raises $6 million for its online grocery delivery marketplace

Market Overview:
Globally, online grocery has grown rapidly. Credit Suisse estimates the market will grow to $285B by 2020. USA and Europe have seen several successful e-grocery start-ups, who have benefited immensely from the fulfilment infrastructure and delivery strategies that emerged from the success of Ecommerce. With examples like Ocado in UK valued at $5B and InstaCart in US valued at $7,6B, Online grocery today is where e-Commerce was 5-10 years ago. Grocery market in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt alone is estimated to be an $83B market. As for Saudi Arabia in specific, it’s a large consumer market with retail as one of the largest sectors of the economy and Grocery is the second-largest expenditure of a Saudi household. While estimates are scarcely available, local financial group SAMBA estimates private consumption by itself accounts for 41.5% of GDP in KSA.

Nana, the product:
Nana started as a dedicated online grocery store targeting the youth demographics and quickly evolved into the largest online grocery marketplace in the Region. Nana, currently serving 14 cities across the Kingdom, follows a marketplace business model by empowering hypermarkets to list and sell their products to millions of Nana users. The online service connects consumers to a network of in-store shoppers who prepare the basket and hand it to the scheduled delivery driver through Nana’s fleet network. Meanwhile, end consumers can follow the progress of their orders journey from placing it up until it is delivered.
Nana has tripled its turnover during the past year and partnered with Carrefour, Panda, SPAR, Farm Superstores, Manuel and many others allowing the platform to offer the widest possible range of consumer-packaged goods (CPG) all over Saudi.

Notably, Nana wasn’t always the platform that it is now. The working business model today is a result of the team’s experiments and trials in the market, starting with a simple question they asked back in 2015, “How can we easily share our shopping list with family members?”, Taking into consideration the huge FMCG sector and variety of products, solving that riddle would require the team to venture into listings in order to serve their clients. Which in turn led Nana to address the steps of purchasing and delivery and finally lock the end-user experience and complete the circle of their customer’s journey under one platform.

Perhaps the most important change of all was the latest shift that Nana went through in 2019 from an e-commerce model (Online Supermarket) to a marketplace model. In both 2017 and 2018.
while Nana was still under the e-commerce model (online supermarket), the team achieved a lot, demonstrated the need of the local market for an online competitor in the food sector, developed an unparalleled technical infrastructure, and built a name and reputation with consumers. Whoever, expansion under the e-commerce model is costly and in most cases reduces the speed and agility of a startup’s growth. Achieving notable growth under this model means high operational expenses and heavy injections on dark Stores, permits, and staff. On the long run, it is difficult for a Nana-sized technology startup to compete huge players in the value chain while maintaining similar prices to those offered by traditional supermarkets.

Hence, mid 2019, the management team at Nana decided to fully transform into an online marketplace offering traditional supermarkets and food centers an online channel and act as a lead generation engine. This shift in model changed the game for Nana, Instead of positioning itself as a direct competitor, Nana became a success partner and a leader in generating sales for offline players, which in turn contributed to accelerating the growth of Nana during the past year, and positioned the startup to become the first platform in Saudi Arabia to include major food market chains on one platform.

COVID-19 effects:
With the current economic circumstances taken into consideration and the spread of Coronavirus, Nana plays a major role in helping individuals to adhere to precautionary measures of self quarantine. Nana’s capacity was tripled compared to the previous month in order to meet the increasing demand which was also doubled. Using incentive programs such as Ajeer program sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, temporary secondment of employees contributed to facilitating the process of Nana’s accelerated growth in light of this crisis.

The Team Behind the Success:
Nana was founded by three founding members Sami Alhelwah, Ahmad Alsamani and Bakr Elsherif. The team was later joined by Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Nana’s co-founder and CFO. Sami is a serial tech entrepreneur with a long list of startup adventures over the course of 16 years in the ecosystem. Bakr, co-founder and CTO, is a software engineer and helped Sami in developing several products in the past. Ahmd, co-founder, specializes in hardware design and stands behind many hardware tools that enable Nana’s workflow. Finally, they all decided to focus on growing Nana in 2016 and that is when they attracted a few angel investors to fund their idea. In late 2017, the team came across Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, an energetic entrepreneur who started a last mile logistics startup, Hably, the four entrepreneurs have immediately decided to join the forces. That was when Nana acquired Hably and Abdulmajeed joined Nana as a co-founder. Abdulmajeed’s contribution to the team was instrumental in managing the logistics operations more efficiently and more importantly, in fundraising.

Investment Rounds:
Starting with their first round back in May 2016, Nana team raised a $2.1m Seed round by Angel investors, followed by a $2.2m Convertible Note round in 2017. Both rounds were to further help Nana better solidify its position in the market and to expand to multiple cities across the Kingdom. With a better understanding of where Nana stands and where its headed, Nana raised its $6.6m Series A round in 2019. The round was co-led by Impact46 and MEVP, with participation from Watar Partners, Wamda Capital, and Saudi Venture Company (SVC) with the objective to double-down on growth, expansion and improving its customer service.

“Impact46 started engaging with Nana in late 2018, around the time we were setting up shop ourselves and had underwrote $5m of Series A round in March 2019, before we even had our own license ready. We are happy to have done so, because it opened the doors for us to set up our own Growth Fund and differentiated us from our competitors. The decision to move to a marketplace model in 2019 was a gutsy call by the management and proved to be very successful when it was implemented. We had doubts, but we had faith in the founders” said Abdulaziz Al Omran, Partner at Impact46.

This past month, Nana announced its $18m Series B round to further drive its growth, along with the plans to expand its geographical footprints into different countries in the region. The round was led by STV, the largest VC in the Middle East with a $500m fund, and with participation from Impact46, Wamda Capital, MEVP, Watar Partners, and Saudi Venture Company (SVC). Except for STV, all participants of this round have been previous investors in Nana Series A round, which only signifies the energy and momentum built by the Nana team. Homegrown from the ground up, marks the start of a new breed of startups in Saudi Arabia.

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