Series B

Series A

Pre-Seed

Seed

Others

California

Mohammed Almeshekah

Sarah Al Saleh

Aly Hesham

Kenzie Falcoz

If you're ready to take your business to the next level with Outliers Venture Capital, we want to hear your pitch.

Investment in Startup

Learn about Outliers Venture Capital's funding sectors and portfolio companies. Find exclusive profiles on Lucidity Insights.

Outliers Venture Capital

Outliers is a venture capital firm that backs outlier founders who are building compounding businesses.

Riyadh

Series E

Tabby

Fintech

BNPL

Lending

E-Commerce

Tabby creates financial freedom in the way people shop, earn and save by reshaping their relationship with money.

Lean Technologies

Financial Services

Predictive Analytics

Information Technology

Lean is a B2B fintech platform that builds developer-friendly APIs. Developers can build and launch cutting-edge financial products to connect to their users’ bank accounts to initiate real time payments and retrieve their account information.

Cairo

Debt Financing

Nawy

Property Management

Proptech

Real Estate

Residential

Property

Investments

Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Property Rental

Mortgage

Nawy is a fully integrated platform delivering a seamless real estate experience for buyers, sellers, and investors.

Noon Academy

Education

EdTech

E-Learning

Noon Academy is a leading Middle East edtech platform that delivers interactive, gamified peer learning and app-based tutoring to over 12 million students, making education fun and engaging both online and in physical classrooms.

Homzmart

Marketplace

Home Decor

Furniture

Retail

Interior Design

Shopping

Homzmart is an eCommerce platform that sells home furniture, home décor, lighting and home supplies through a visualized community.

Breadfast

Food and Beverage

Food Delivery

Delivery Services

Grocery

Breadfast delivers household essentials, bakeries, groceries, fruits, veggies, and more than 3,000 items in minutes.

Soum

Soum is a Saudi Arabian startup specializing in re-commerce, operating as a marketplace for buying and selling used electronics.

Matter

Apps

Amwal

Payments

Security

Identity Management

Amwal is an emerging leader in banking BNPL, frictionless payment solutions and identity orchestration.

Penny Software

SaaS

Software

Enterprise Software

Procurement

Penny Software offers a cloud-based Procure-To-Pay system designed to digitize and manage the entire procurement cycle, from request to approval, including RFQ management, quotation comparison, PO issuance, and payment processing.

Al Khobar

Strataphy

Deeptech

Renewables

Sustainability

Strataphy is revolutionizing geothermal cooling with its innovative "Cooling as a Service" (CAS) model, delivering sustainable and efficient cooling without requiring substantial upfront investments.

AccuKnox

Stream

Stream is a platform powering modern billing & payments for businesses. From schools and gyms to SaaS and freelancers, Stream helps businesses collect faster with branded, flexible payment flows with no apps or friction.

StrikeReady

Kenzz

Mobile Apps

Kenzz is an e-commerce platform bringing shopping to the mass market in Egypt and MENA.

Dubai

Kingpin

One connected engine that runs every motion of B2B retail revenue — Find. Reach. Convert. Kingpin is the rebuild.

Sleek

Abu Dhabi

Metric

Artificial Intelligence

The World's Most Founder-Friendly AI-Powered Financial Intelligence App tailored to Grow Your Business. Be it invoicing, tracking your expenses or knowing your cash flow; Metric saves you time, money and stress.

Nawy has raised $52 million in Series A funding, led by Africa-focused VC firm Partech Africa, validating its model of combining property listings with brokerage services.

Other notable investors participating in the round include Development Partners International’s Nclude Fund, e& Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, HOF Capital, March Capital Investments, Outliers, Plug and Play, Shorooq Partners, VentureSouq, and Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures.

Egypt’s Nawy, the largest proptech in Africa, raises $52M to take on MENA

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

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 pre-Series B round from STV, Impact46, Outliers Ventures, Rise Capital and NUWA Capital.

Homzmart raises $23 million pre-Series B round

Cairo-based furniture ecommerce marketplace Homzmart has raised $15 million in a Series A led by MSA Capital and Nuwa Capital, it announced in a statement today. The round also included the participation of Rise Capital, Impact46, EQ2 Ventures, and Outliers Venture Capital. It had previously raised $1.3 million in a seed round in February 2020.

Egypt’s Homzmart raises $15 million Series A to grow its furniture marketplace

Riyadh-based financial technology (fintech) startup Lean, has raised a $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by RAED Venture, with participation from Shorooq Partners, Outliers VC, Rocket Internet’s Global Founders Capital and Global Ventures along with other angel investors.

Lean raises $3.5 million in seed funding

Riyadh-based financial APIs platform Lean has raised $3.5 million in a seed round, it announced in a statement to MENAbytes today. The round was led by Raed Ventures with the participation of Abu Dhabi’s Shorooq Partners, US & Saudi-based Outliers VC, Berlin-based Global Founders Capital & Dubai-based Global Ventures. Some leading angel investors including Souq and Maktoob’s co-founder Samih Toukan and former partner and managing director of Lightspeed Ventures Jake Said also took part in the round.

Saudi fintech Lean raises $3.5 million seed for its financial APIs platform

Lean Technologies Raises $3.5 Million in a Seed Round

Lean, a Riyadh-based financial technology platform, announced that it closed a $3.5 Million seed round from leading venture capital funds and sophisticated angel investors. The round was led by RAED Ventures with participation from Shorooq Partners, Outliers VC, Rocket Internet’s Global Founders Capital and Global Ventures. The company also received investments from notable MENA and US-based angel investors including Samih Toukan (Co-Founder of Souq.com and Maktoob.com) and Jake Seid (Former Partner and Managing Director at Lightspeed Ventures), among others.

Riyadh-Based FinTech Startup Lean Technologies Raises a $3.5 Million Seed Round

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Startups
Dubai-based buy now, pay later platform tabby raises $50M at $300M valuation
Tage Kene-Okafor
2:59 AM PDT • August 4, 2021
Comment

Tabby
Image Credits: Tabby
These past few years have seen the emergence of buy now, pay later services worldwide, with leading players raising buttloads of cash to serve an insatiable young adult population who don’t fancy credit cards or paying interest.

In what seems to be a consolidation of some sorts, fintech juggernaut Square acquired Australian buy now, pay later giant Afterpay in a mouthwatering $29 billion deal this week.

The deal is a sign of things to come for established markets like Europe and the U.S. and promising markets witnessing a proliferation of these services. For instance, in the Middle East, not less than ten startups offering BNPL services have launched within the past three years.

Square to buy ‘buy now, pay later’ giant Afterpay in $29B deal

Tabby is one such service and clearly the most known in the region. Today, it is announcing that it has raised a $50 million Series B, valuing the company at $300 million.

Global Founders Capital and STV led the funding round, with participation from Delivery Hero and CCVA. Existing investors, including Arbor Ventures, Mubadala Investment Capital, Raed Ventures, Global Ventures, MSA Capital, VentureSouq, Outliers VC, JIMCO, and HOF, also participated.

Dubai-based buy now, pay later platform tabby raises $50M at $300M valuation

UAE-founded Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) provider tabby  has raised Series A financing round of $23 million in debt and equity led by Arbor Ventures and Mubadala Capital, with participation from STV, Raed Ventures, Global Founders Capital, JIMCO, Global Ventures, Venture Souq, Outliers VC, MSA Capital, HOF and AB Accelerator. This funding will fuel the company’s next stage of growth, helping tabby scale its product and engineering capabilities in addition to its lending capacity, further benefiting its merchant partners and consumers.

tabby raises $23 million in Series A

Kenzz has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round to enhance mass-market e-commerce in Egypt. The funding will be used to develop a more inclusive and engaging online retail experience tailored to the needs and preferences of its users.

Kenzz raises $3.5M seed to bring mass-market e-commerce to Egypt

Kenzz, an Egyptian e-commerce platform targeting the mass market, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Outliers Venture Capital, with participation from HOF Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Samurai Incubate. The company plans to use the funds to expand its product categories, hire talent, and invest in technology as it launches its app. Kenzz aims to provide a reliable and affordable e-commerce experience for the mass market in Egypt and the MENA region, focusing on direct sourcing from manufacturers and offering discounts for group purchases.

Kenzz, an Egyptian e-commerce platform for the mass market, grabs $3.5M seed funding

Kenzz, an Egypt-based mass e-commerce startup, has raised a $3.5 million Seed funding round led by Outliers Venture Capital, HOF Capital, Foundation Ventures, Samurai Incubate, and strategic angel investors. The funding will be used to hire talent, develop products, invest in technology, and launch an app. Kenzz aims to bridge the gap between traditional offline and online shopping by offering discounts and addressing consumer concerns about trust and personalization.

Egypt’s E-Commerce Startup Kenzz Raises $3.5 Million Seed Round

Outliers's Portfolio

Saudi Arabia-based re-commence marketplace Soum, has raised $4 million in Seed funding, led by Outliers Venture Capital and Mazen Aljubeir, with participation from Khwarizmi Ventures, Ammar AlKhudairy, and multiple angel investors.

Saudi C2C marketplace Soum raises $4 million Seed round

Soum, a Riyadh-based online recommerce marketplace, has raised $4 million in Seed financing to enhance its platform and expand its market presence. The startup, founded by Fahad Al Hassan, Fahad Albassam, and Bader Almubarak, focuses on creating a seamless secondhand buying experience for consumer electronics in Saudi Arabia. The investment will support Soum's growth and expansion efforts in the recommerce space.

Soum emerges from stealth with $4M in SEED funding

Soum, a Riyadh-based C2C marketplace, raised $4 million in seed funding led by Outliers Venture Capital and Mazen Aljubeir, with participation from Khwarizmi Ventures, Ammar AlKhudairy, and several angel investors. The startup aims to build a trustworthy and transparent recommence marketplace for consumer electronics in Saudi Arabia and beyond, addressing a significant market opportunity worth over $40 billion.

Soum raises $4m in a Seed funding round

Soum, a re-commerce marketplace based in Saudi Arabia, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Jahez Group, with participation from Isometry Capital and existing investors Khwarizmi Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, and Outliers Venture Capital. The funding will support Soum's expansion into the MENA region, starting with the United Arab Emirates, and the addition of new product categories such as automobiles and collectibles. Soum manages the entire sales process, including listing, delivery, and payment processing, and earns revenue through commissions on sales.

Re-commerce marketplace Soum gets $18M backing to scale in MENA

Soum, a Riyadh-based secondhand marketplace, raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Jahez, with participation from Isometry Capital, Khwarizmi Ventures, Alrajhi Partners, and Outliers Venture Capital. The funding will be used to accelerate regional expansion and scale beyond its core vertical of secondhand electronics. Soum plans to add high-value categories such as collectibles and automobiles, targeting a $40 billion market.

Soum, a Riyadh-Based Secondhand Marketplace, Raises $18 Million in Series A Funding Led by Jahez

Soum, a reCommerce platform founded in Saudi Arabia in 2021, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Saudi Arabia's Jahez Group. The company plans to expand its operations across the Middle East and North Africa, starting with the UAE, and diversify its product categories beyond electronics. The funding will support these expansion efforts and the company's vision of becoming a comprehensive marketplace for various products.

Soum Raises $18 Million to Expand ReCommerce in MENA

Riyadh-based Soum, a marketplace for secondhand products, raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Jahez, with participation from Isometry Capital and existing investors Khwarizmi Ventures, Alrajhi Partners, and Outliers Venture Capital. The funding will support Soum's regional expansion and diversification beyond secondhand electronics, aiming to tap into a $40 billion market. Soum has over 4 million app downloads in Saudi Arabia and is expanding in the UAE.

SOUM Raises USD18 Million Series A Round Led by Jahez

Penny Software, a KSA-based company specializing in procurement management and B2B marketplace solutions, raised $1.35M in a Seed funding round. The investment came from Wamda, Class 5 Global, Outliers VC, Plug and Play, and strategic angel investors. The funds will be used to enhance their procure-to-pay solution and build a B2B marketplace in Saudi Arabia, focusing on digitizing procurement for the construction sector.

B2B platform Penny Software raises $1.35M in Seed funding round

Penny Software, a Riyadh-based procurement SaaS startup, has raised $1.35 million in a seed round from investors including Wamda, Class 5 Global, Outliers VC, Plug and Play, and strategic angel investors. The startup aims to digitize procurement and spending activities for businesses and is developing a B2B marketplace. The funds will be used to enhance their product and expand the team.

Saudi's Penny raises $1.35 million seed for its procurement and spending management software

Penny Software, a Saudi B2B SaaS procurement startup, has completed its Pre-Series A funding round with investments from Iliad Partners, GSI, and Knollwood Investments, along with continued support from existing investors like Dallah Investment and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund. The funding will support Penny Software's regional and global expansion plans, aiming to manage over $1B USD in Gross Transaction Value this year. The company focuses on digitizing the Source-to-pay process and enhancing procurement efficiency for medium to large corporations, particularly in the Middle Eastern markets.

Penny Software welcomes investment by Iliad Partners, GSI,...

Penny Software, a Saudi Arabia-based B2B SaaS procurement startup, has secured a pre-Series A funding round in April 2024. The round was led by Iliad Partners, with additional investments from GSI, Knollwood Investments, Dallah Investment, Hambro Perks Oryx Fund, Class 5 Global, and Altuwajiri family fund. The amount raised was undisclosed.

Penny Software Secures Pre-Series A Funding | The SaaS News

Penny Software, founded in 2020, has secured Seed funding from Iliad Partners to fuel its regional and global expansion. The company, which digitizes the procurement process, aims to manage over $1 billion in transaction value this year. The investment marks Iliad Partners' first venture into the Saudi market, aligning with their strategy to invest significantly in the Kingdom over the next five years.

Penny Software raises undisclosed pre-Series A round

Wamda has participated in KSA-based Penny Software's $5 million Seed round, which was led by Outliers Venture Capital, and with participation from Shorooq Partners, Hambro Perks ORYX Fund, Class 5 Global, and strategic angel investors.

Wamda participates in Penny Software's $5 million Seed round

Saudi Arabia-based fintech Amwal has secured $2.5 million in a pre-Seed round co-led by Shorooq Partners and Outliers Venture Capital alongside angel investors.

Amwal raises $2.5 million pre-Seed round

Amwal Tech, a Saudi Arabia-based specialist in payment and installment solutions for e-commerce, has raised $4 million in a seed investment round. The funding round drew participation from prominent local and regional investors, including Waed Ventures, the Saudi Company for Financial Technology, TA Ventures, Shorooq Ventures, and Outliers Ventures.

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