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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

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

Floward, the go-to online flowers and gifts destination in MENA and UK, announced today, during its participation in the technology conference “LEAP” in Riyadh, KSA; that it has raised USD156 million in its Series C Pre-IPO investment round led by Aljazira Capital, Rainwater Partners, and STV.

The company intends to utilise the funds to further invest in expanding its gifting verticals and relying more on artificial intelligence and machine learning to elevate its customer experience and meet the demands of its ever-growing customer base in the region.

Floward will also use the funds to roll out its mergers and acquisitions strategy, as it plans to consolidate and invest in local brands that champion different categories of its target gifting verticals. Notably, Floward has recently acquired Mubkhar, the leading brand defining authentic standards of perfumery in the GCC, in November 2022.

Chairman and CEO of Floward, Mr. Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, said: “We are proud to announce the successful closing of our investment round led by Aljazira Capital, Rainwater Partners, and STV. We would like to extend our gratitude for their trust in our team who has achieved remarkable results and driven the company's valuation to grow by 3.8x since our last funding round a year and a half ago amid the challenging global investment climate. Our commitment to the region has delivered 50 million flower stems in 2022, created more than 1,000 direct jobs, and partnered with +400 brands and local talents who have produced some of the best brands on a global scale.

Floward raises $156 million in pre-IPO Series C round

20 April 2022, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. FOODICS , the leading cloud-based technology and payments platform for restaurants in the MENA region, has successfully raised $170 million in a Series C funding round led by Prosus, one of the largest global technology investors in the world, and Sanabil Investments, a PIF-owned investment company focused on private growth   investments in various stages of the business cycle. Other investors included Sequoia Capital India and existing investors including STV, Endeavor Catalyst and Vision Ventures.

FOODICS Raises $170 million in Largest SaaS Series C Round in MENA

Saudi Arabia-based food and beverage (F&B) retail and restaurant management platform FOODICS, has raised $20 million in a Series B round, Led by Sanabil Investments and co-led by STV, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, Elm and Derayah. This latest investment brings the total funds raised by FOODICS to date to $28 million.

FOODICS raises $20 million in Series B

Tabby, the MENA’s leading shopping and financial services app, has raised $200 million in equity financing led by Wellington Management, one of the world’s leading independent investment management firms. The equity financing drew additional participation from growth equity investor Bluepool Capital, in addition to existing investors STV, Mubadala Investment Capital, PayPal Ventures and Arbor Ventures. Tabby’s Series D round values the company at over $1.5 billion making it the region’s first fintech unicorn ahead of its planned IPO in Saudi Arabia.

Tabby closes $200 million Series D at $1.5 billion valuation

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 18 January 2023: Tabby, one of MENA’s leading shopping and financial services apps, has raised $58 million from Sequoia Capital India, STV, PayPal Ventures, Mubadala Investment Capital, Arbor Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst in a Series C round which values the company at $660 million. The fundraise will be used to expand Tabby’s product line into next-gen consumer financial services and support the company’s growing operations. This round makes Tabby one of the most valuable startups in MENA and the first in the GCC to receive funding from PayPal Ventures.

Tabby raises $58M Series C from Sequoia Capital India, STV and PayPal Ventures

Sequoia Capital India and Saudi venture capital firm STV led a $54 million funding round for Tabby, the Middle East’s largest buy-now, pay-later provider, as demand fintech solutions booms.

Existing investors Mubadala Investment Capital, Arbor Ventures, and Global Founders Capital also participated in the Series B capital raise, according to a statement. The firm has so far raised $180 million in debt and equity.

Sequoia, STV Lead $54 Million Funding for Gulf Fintech Tabby

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

Vezeeta, a healthcare platform operating in the Middle East and Africa, has raised a $40 Million Series D funding round led by UAE-based Gulf Capital, alongside further investment from existing Riyadh-based investor Saudi Technology Ventures (STV), which previously led Vezeeta’s Series C round in September 2018. Vezeeta’s other investors include BECO Capital, Silicon Badia, Vostok New Ventures, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures and Endeavour Catalyst. Prior to this raise, the company had raised $23M, so this latest news takes its total to $63M. Alvaro Abella, a director at Gulf Capital, joins the board.

It now plans to roll out new products, such as an online pharmacy, as well as ‘tele-health’ services across its existing footprint and new markets.

This is one of the largest funding rounds of any tech startup in the Middle East and Africa to date. The startup has become something of a MENA success story by allowing patients to effectively see Uber-style ratings for healthcare providers, thus encouraging the providers to improve their services. It puts the power in the hands of patients (vs providers) by giving them the ability to search, book, rate, and review healthcare providers.

Middle East healthcare platform Vezeeta raises $40M Series D led by Gulf Capital

One of the major structural issues in the Middle East is the lack of consistent healthcare across the region. So this market was clearly waiting to be disrupted by technology.

In 2011 Vezeeta came along to change that. Launched initially in Cairo as a sort of “Uber for Ambulances”, it has since expanded to cover a wide area of the MENA population across several cities, and now provides a much wider range of health services to both patients and healthcare professionals (and is also appearing at next month’s Startup Battlefield MENA in Beirut).

By solving the ambulance problem, it reversed backwards inside the healthcare systems to provide a free of charge medical search platform for end users by integrating information about medical practices and doctors’ individual schedules. This scheduling system is provided on a paid subscription basis for medical personnel, allowing users to find a free slot in a doctor’s schedule and make appointments. And it’s gradually going well beyond that.

Vezeeta, has today announced a Series C investment of $12M led by Saudi Technology Ventures, the largest VC fund in the region. Joining the round are existing investors: BECO Capital (UAE), Vostok New Ventures (Sweden) and Silicon Badia (Jordan), along with new investor Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures (UAE). Vezeeta says the financing will be used to fund its continued expansion primarily in (the increasingly more open) Saudi Arabia and for further investments in key new products.

Competition-wise Vezeeta is in a good place with only smaller players like Dabadoc in Morocco which are usually very region-locked. Vezeeta has alone succeeded in expanding across the whole region.

Vezeeta, the leading MENA healthcare startup, secures $12M Series C led by STV

Vezeeta, a healthcare platform in the Middle East and Africa, has raised $40 million in a Series D funding round led by UAE-based Gulf Capital, with participation from existing investor Saudi Technology Ventures (STV) and others. This brings Vezeeta's total funding to $63 million. The company plans to launch new products, including an online pharmacy and tele-health services, and expand into new markets. Alvaro Abella from Gulf Capital joins the board.

Vezeeta raises $40 million in Series D

Egyptian healthtech company Vezeeta has raised $40 million in a Series D funding round led by Gulf Capital, with participation from existing investor Saudi Technology Ventures (STV). The company plans to use the funds to expand its product portfolio globally and enhance its digital capabilities, including epharmacy and tele-health services. Vezeeta operates in 50 cities across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon, and has raised over $63 million since its inception in 2012.

Egypt’s Vezeeta raises $40m in Series-D round

E-commerce roll-up play Opontia launched in June, raising $20 million in debt and equity to acquire older, small e-commerce brands in the Middle East and Africa. Today, the company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has closed a subsequent round, a $42 million Series A nine months after it was founded.

Roll-up plays are generally known to secure more debt than equity when they raise mega-round deals. Opontia’s seed round was the case, but the share between equity and venture debt stands at about 50% each for its Series A financing.

STV led the round, with Raed Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Upper90 and VentureSouq participating. Angel investors Salman Butt of Salla and Wiktor Namysl of McKinsey Poland joined, as well. San Francisco-based venture debt fund Partners for Growth funded Opontia’s debt financing.

TechCrunch gathered that Opontia has somewhat switched focus on its target market. Though it launched with eyes on the Middle East and Africa, the company has only made efforts in some parts of the former (the UAE and Saudi Arabia) while making significant headway into Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Turkey and Poland.

Opontia gets $42M to buy more e-commerce brands in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa

Saudi Arabian software start-up Salla has raised $130 million in an investment round ahead of its initial public offering (IPO).

The fundraising was led by Investcorp, with participation from Sanabil Investment, a wholly owned company of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and STV, a technology venture capital fund and existing shareholder, according to a statement on Monday.

Investcorp said its investmnet was made through its $500 million Saudi-Pre-IPO Growth Fund, which was launched in 2022 to invest in a diversified portfolio of businesses, primarily in Saudi Arabia.

Established in 2016, the company provides an SaaS solution to businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Its fully digitised and automated solution allows merchants to build e-commerce websites, start selling their products online within a few hours, accept online payments and ship their products to the end user.

Saudi start-up Salla raises $130mln from Investcorp, PIF unit

Saudi Arabia-based e-commerce Salla, has closed a SAR32 million ($8.5 million) Series A round led by STV, with participation from existing investors Raed Ventures and Vision Ventures.

Founded in 2016 by Nawaf Hariri and Salman Butt, Salla enables SMEs and e-commerce startups to establish their digital stores in Arabic. To date, the startup has processed eight million orders valued at over SAR2 billion ($533 million) in gross merchandise value (GMV) through the 10,000 online stores on its platform. 

The company offers a freemium subscription model with three tiers, offering small businesses the ability to set up their operations free of charge, and upgrade their subscription based on their needs and requirements.

Salla raises $8.5 million in Series A

Mideast ride-hailing app Careem raises $200 million to expand, expects more funds

Middle East ride-hailing company Careem said on Thursday it had secured $200 million in fresh funding from existing investors and that it expects to raise more to finance expansion plans.
The $200 million came from existing investors which includes Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding, Al Tayyar Group, STV and Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten. Kingdom Holding, which took a 7 percent stake in Careem in 2017, said in a statement its investment in the company was part of its own "strategy to invest in new promising technologies".

Careem, a Middle East ride-hailing company, raised $200 million in a Series F funding round from existing investors including Kingdom Holding, Al Tayyar Group, STV, and Rakuten. The company plans to raise more than $500 million to expand into mass transportation, deliveries, and payments. Careem's valuation is estimated to be over $2 billion.

Careem, a Middle East ride-hailing company, secured $200 million in new funding from existing investors, including Kingdom Holding, Al Tayyar Group, STV, and Rakuten. This is the first close of a Series F funding round in which Careem expects to raise over $500 million. The company has expanded into new markets like Sudan and is trialing food delivery services.

Mideast ride-hailing app Careem secures $200 million new funding

Careem, a leading ride-hailing company based in Dubai, has raised $200 million in the first close of its $500 million Series F funding round, valuing the company at over $2 billion. The investment came from existing investors including Kingdom Holding, Al Tayyar Group, Rakuten, and STV. The funds will be used to expand into mass transportation, deliveries, and payments.

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