Saudi Arabia’s Top 10 Unicorns
Unicorn: To transform the Kingdom into a Fin Tech Innovation Hub, the Saudi Central Bank and the Saudi Arabian Capital Markets Authority launched Fin Tech Saudi in 2018.
Digitization is supporting the growth of FinTech start-ups and regulators in the UK.
Saudi Arabia supports entrepreneurship and promotes FinTech as part of the Vision 2030 investment plan.
Nejud Almlike, director of FinTech in Saudi Arabia, said the organization does not consider themselves a technology incubator.
Instead, it focuses on nurturing new businesses and stimulating the growth of the industry.
According to a survey conducted by FinTech in Saudi Arabia, 93% of respondents prefer online banking. According to Almoulaik, Saudi FinTech is responsible for supporting this scenario.
1. Sara
The Saudi Arabian market in Saudi Arabia is receiving financial support for expansion as the outbreak of the coronavirus increases sales of essentials.
Government will increase TIME contribution to GDP from 20% to 35% by 2030 as part of an ambitious reform initiative led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the economy from oil I am planning to do that.
As people became more and more dependent on online applications in curfew and blockades in many cities, young Saudis started small businesses that depended on new technologies and digital infrastructure. Many of these businesses are currently thriving.
Sara CEO Mohammed Yossarian said the startup will have three hubs in Dammed and Edda, a third in Riyadh, and will expand to 25 cities in the kingdom to use Series A funding. .. Reed Ventures are at risk early on.
In a telephone interview with Reuters, Aldosari explained that while primarily targeting small businesses, many small businesses and supermarket chains are adopting his technology.
As a company, sales in March increased by 50% from 2019. With retail sales growth, we expect sales of 1 billion riyals this year.
Saudi Arabia has closed shopping malls, restaurants, cafes and other public places as part of its fight against the virus. This has led major retailers to do business online.
In Saudi Arabia, B2B logistics can be significantly improved. This is especially true for traditional FM CG retailers, which account for half of US $ 41 billion in annual food sales. However, offline surveys are fragmented, have tight deadlines, and often have unsustainable costs.
For a regular merchant, transactions are done in cash and inventory management and bookkeeping are done with minimal skill. As a result, inefficiencies in one of the most important types of business can be costly. In addition, retailers do not have the order volume, inventory forecasting skills, and space needed to store groceries such as large supermarkets to open quantity discounts.
The result is significant inefficiencies with many phone calls, manual registrations, and one-time purchases. In addition, the COVID-19 epidemic has had a major impact on consumers due to the lack of digitization in these important and notorious opaque markets, including limited SKU availability, delayed procurement and increased processing costs. I made it clear that I was doing it.
Sara is a B2B marketplace that uses web and mobile platforms to connect retailers with an extensive network of wholesalers, suppliers and FM CG manufacturers. Sari’s innovative approach is helping to digitize the entire supply chain. Merchants can also get the best deals, forecast inventory, and use a host of other digital services to give suppliers and manufacturers retail access and visibility.
Sarah is improving efficiency, one of the largest sectors of the economy, by digitizing supply and demand across the entire supermarket value chain, benefiting business participants and end users alike.
As a result of Sari’s performance, productivity and more importantly, we are confident in Sari’s unique position and his ability to transform relationships between retailers and suppliers. In addition to the infrastructure and networks developed by Sary, the company is looking to implement and integrate more financial and digital solutions to completely reinvent and take over the wholesale supply chain across multiple retail industries.
Sara co-founders Khalid Alaric and Mohammed Al Dos sari are very nice people. I was very impressed with how the team helped them survive the COVID-19 pandemic, create reliable products, and transport 4 million tons of goods around the country during the interaction. So not only are we thrilled to be partnering with this vehicle, we’re also thrilled that this talented team is bringing the company closer to a solid platform on both sides of the retail market.
2. Tamara
Tamara is a platform that customers can buy now and pay later, raising $110 million in funding and growing their business on GCC.
The news comes just six months after Riyadh’s Tamara kicked off last September and won the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)’s biggest Series A round.
As part of the Fin Tech Sandbox development program of the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia, Tamara became the first PLEB company founded by Abdul Maj-id Arkansan, Turkey Rabin and Abdul Moses Abatement.
With Tamara, customers can purchase goods and services and pay for them in three installments over 30 or more days or two months.
Steamship, Flowers, SAC, Nice One, Whites and Newsreel are just a few of the 1,000 traders who have registered on the platform. As a result, the user base and transaction volume increased by 180% and 170% per month, respectively, showing good growth rates.
“Tamara is destined to change the world for the better. Transparent, customer-focused payment solutions are needed in the region and around the world,” Tamara co-founder and CEO Abdul Majid McLuhan said at a press conference. Tamara offers shoppers an alternative to credit cards and cash on delivery (COD) to enhance their shopping experience.” Tamara has offices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Germany.
3. Red Sea Farm
Saudi Aramco Investment Sector, Waed and other investors have donated $10 million to Saudi-based agrotech startup RedSea Farms.
A handout from WA’ dysfunction, a five-year-old startup, explicit connection forces with the King Abdul University of Science, Future Investment Initiative Institute and Technology (FAUST), and world Ventures. The investment is one among the biggest Magritte within the geographic area region. Red Sea Farms can use this cash to create and retrofit business farming operations in Saudi Arabia’s central and western regions, that runs a greenhouse facility at the FAUST analysis Technology Park. Red Sea Farms, one among the few corporations to use salt water to cultivate native turn out to scale back carbon emissions and food scarceness, was based in 2018 by Mark Tester and Ryan Refers. The startup claims its growing system consumes eighty five to ninetieth less fresh. “Saltwater takes the place of fresh that’s usually accustomed cool greenhouses and irrigate crops employing a proprietary system of star and growth observance technologies,” the corporate aforementioned. As a part of Aramco’s loan program, Waned, the corporate provides loans to entrepreneurs. additionally inside Waned may be a capital arm that manages investments totaling over $200 million in additional than thirty kingdom-based corporations. Five years when at the start backing Falcon Viz, WA’ dysfunction proclaimed last week that it had invested with $500,000 within the company. Waned has in agreement to extend capital investment for Saudi startups within the early- and growth stages as a part of the agreement. In addition to the agreement with Flak, similar deals were signed with Opal, Taiga depression corporations, and Nampa Unaware in Dec last year. Saudi Arabia-based Waned Ventures, through that it invests in startups, is that the largest and most active personal equity firm in Asian nation. additionally, it’s the sole investor to startups in Kuwait while not collateral, because of its loan funding arm. The investment portfolio of Waned cluster includes Golden Scent, a Saudi beauty e-commerce website, and Ynmo, the center East’s initial Arabic-language instructional code for kids with disabilities. Wa’ed Ventures created a second investment in might in Hazelnut, a traffic analytics and observance startup engineered on computing.
4. Gather
Today, Saudi Arabia’s leading capital firm STV has semiconductor diode a $6 million Series A spherical semiconductor diode by Riyadh-based peer-to-peer vacation rental marketplace Gather. additionally to Vision Ventures, five hundred Startups, Nae grand Turk Lathe, and ARG restricted, existing investors are taking part during this spherical. per our records, this can be the biggest funding spherical for a Saudi woman-led startup. The seed spherical raised associate degree covert quantity of cash in 2018 for Gather. Gather began as a house booking web site, permitting customers to rent chalets across Asian nation, based in 2016 by Latina Altamira and king Alana. It developed into numerous forms of homes, eventually turning into a peer-to-peer vacation rental marketplace with locations in over one hundred Saudi cities, together with metropolis, Al-La, Riyadh, Dam mam, Al-Aha, Ahab, Naif, and Umlaut. they’ll use it to book rooms, apartments, villas, resorts, camps, farms, and boats for brief stays additionally to chalets. The Saudi startup aforementioned that it’s capable of hosting one.2 million guests per month which its high hosts earn over $20,000 per month (CHAR sixty,000). additionally, there ar various native and international on-line platforms giving vacation rentals in Asian nation. Still, Gather is that the only 1 that has permission from the Saudi Ministry of business enterprise to supply personal vacation rentals. The Saudi Ministry granted this license to Gathering last Gregorian calendar month. per Kingdom law, property house owners United Nations agency hire out their properties for short-run rentals AR usually needed to get individual permits. However, mistreatment Gather, property house owners will list their property and host guests while not the requirement for individual licenses. As a part of its efforts to diversify its revenue sources and minimize its reliance on oil exports, the center Jap government invests billions of bucks in numerous business enterprise ventures. Gather says it desires to welcome one hundred million international and domestic guests by 2030, which, if accomplished, may build it one among the highest 5 router attractions within the world. The country presently welcomes many tourists annually for haj and Um rah. per the statement, the recent introduction of a router visa is probably going to expand the amount of international travelers significantly. Since COVID-19 has place associate degree finish to international travel during this country, for now, Gather can have the chance to reap the advantages of the government’s target this business once the recovery starts.
“We are pleased to have existing investors, Vision Ventures and 500 Startups, join us in the process of expanding our services nationwide,” said Antifa Altamira, co-founder and CEO of Gather. Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector is experiencing significant national and international growth.
“At Gather, we want to provide real-world resident visitors with a unique experience rather than a regular tourism experience.” It allows everyone to learn about Saudi Arabia’s culture and royal cities. List your apartment, villa, farm, dormitory, campground, RV, chalet or yacht as a host of our platform, and you can earn a fair amount of additional income. “
STV partner Ahmad Calamari said: “We are pleased to partner with Gather. This is our first investment in the tourism market and our largest investment in a women-led company in Saudi Arabia. The Latina and Gather team are taking a new approach in this fast-growing market. We believe that we have the right means to take. Despite the global challenges, COVID-19 participants have proven to be highly resilient and resilient. What I’m looking forward to seeing you. “
5. Single color
Since GITEX is the largest technical event in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s cloud carrier Unifonic has decided to showcase the upgraded platform at the largest technical event in the Middle East.
Ahmed Haman, Founder and CEO of Unification, praised the importance of the platform in the age of customer convenience and rapid communication. With this launch in the region, they have reached a new level of customer engagement. Enterprises and customers will be able to communicate through their favorite channels or instant messaging apps, enabling engagement throughout the year.
6. Lullaby
Nana allows you to shop online and deliver groceries to your home. In Riyadh and Jeddah, the brands are known as Nana Express and Nana Hyper, and in Kovar and Dammam they are known as Nana Hyper. Expanding in Saudi Arabia with the help of various supermarkets and partners.
Nana recently unveiled a new vision aimed at strengthening the company’s market position and accelerating the expansion of the country. In addition to her new identity, Nana has also adopted a new camel logo. It symbolizes the strength, endurance, patience and trustworthy attitude of the animal.
When launching the new brand, the company’s founder and CEO, Sami Alhelva, said his goal was to be a daily companion in every home in the kingdom and to become an industry leader in online shopping and distribution. ..
With a current market share of 13%, the company aims to capture 40% of the Saudi Arabian market, or $ 900 million (SAR 3,375,900,000), by 2025.
Nana founder and CEO Sami Alhelwa also said that the launch of the new corporate identity is the start of developing, modernizing and rejuvenating an established local brand in Saudi Arabia that is local and up-and-coming. indicates that it will become a global entity. ..
According to a study by the Information Technology Commission (CITC), in 2021, 57% of the population used online shopping services, with an average monthly retail spending of 256 Saudi Riyals. Most deliveries were for food, medicine and medical supplies, followed by food and beverages.
According to industry reports, the growth of online food delivery applications in Saudi Arabia is projected to reach 11.9 billion Saudi Riyals by 2026. By then, 15.9 million users are expected to use online food delivery apps.
Syed Al Ali, VP of Marketing, said the upcoming release is in transition and aims to simplify and soften people’s lives. Nana’s commercial director Haytham Arkady said the company’s Saudi team stands out. Hisham Al Ali, Vice President of Human Resources, praises young Saudi Arabia as a key player in enriching Nana’s culture and identity.
7. Sarah
Raed Ventures is leading the first funding round for Saudi-based startup Salla, with participation from Vision Ventures, Inspire Ventures and Direct Impact. Unlike most previous investments by these VCs, these VCs do not disclose the size of these investments.
Nawaf Hariri and Salman Butt founded Salla in 2016, enabling them to create an Arabic-language online e-commerce store using the Salla platform and tools. Since the initial payments (gateways) and logistics partners process payments and deliveries, merchants are ready to start selling once connected.
Users can set up a brand store for their domain name by choosing one of the available Salla layouts.
Salla’s web and mobile apps for Android and iOS allow merchants to add and manage products.
In addition to providing various reports and tools to help merchants, it also integrates Instagram, provides automated invoices, customer databases, customer blocking support, and websites for merchants with their favorite products. homepage about.
Unlike other startups in the same field, Salla does not charge the seller for each order received. Instead, it follows the freemium model. This means that the free version does not include all the features of the paid subscription for 99 SAR ($26) and 299 SAR ($80).
Startups use their investments to grow locally and locally through their investments.
“E-commerce is growing significantly, especially in Saudi Arabia,” said Nawaf Hariri, founder of the basketball platform. Salla’s goal is to make this process easier for merchants across the country by providing them with the latest technology. We offer more than 30 services for our sellers. In addition, some families use Salla to sell food online through Salla’s services, including individuals and businesses of all types. “
Since the company was founded, 8,000 merchants now use Salla to receive over 10 million Saudi Riyals ($2.6 million) in transactions.
Another Saudi Arabian startup, Zid, excels in the same category but charges retailers per order.
In contrast, Salla’s subscription model is shareware, so it should work here. Not only has this enabled many people to open an online store, but it has become the most important part of the process of achieving Salla’s sales goals.
8. Yahtzee
At the Rise Up Summit on Saturday, CEO of Riyadh-based food delivery startup Jahez unveiled plans for an IPO next year. CEO Jahez said when asked if Jahez would partner with Delivery Hero in the future or if he wanted to stay independent. According to him, some players cannot co-exist in the Saudi market alone.
Delivery Hero was the largest buyer among food delivery companies in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. Many food delivery brands are owned by German companies, most of which were acquired directly or indirectly through acquisitions. The 63% stake is owned by Hunger Station, a leading food delivery company in Saudi Arabia.
9.Payment token
According to LATTICE80, Paytabs CEO and founder Abdulaziz Al Joef is the best financial expert to know and follow FinTech in the Middle East.
London is home to LATICE 80, a global fintech network. LATICE80 has compiled a list of top fintech influencers in the Middle East to ensure access to the latest information on the global fintech community. These are new industry topics that are worth checking out and learning more.
Anonymous investors have poured $ 20 million into Saudi Arabian startup PayTabs. The startup was founded in 2014 by Abdulaziz F. Al Joef. India is the second largest market for startups.
Today, more than 12,000 customers use the company’s various products in India, the Philippines, and other countries.
The Middle East, Southeast Asia, India, Africa and Europe are one of the company’s plans to expand through funding over the next two years. Financing also includes acquisitions and product development. Over the next two years, we expect to create 4,000 direct and indirect jobs.
10. Seed
Riyadh-based startup Zid offers an e-commerce management service like Shopify that allows you to create online stores, and yesterday announced that it had raised $ 2 million in pre-Series A funding. MSA Capital, Arzan VC, Kuwait, various angel businesses. The round was led by the venture division of Elm, a leading technology company in Saudi Arabia.
Zid allows you to create and manage online stores using the Zid web and mobile apps without any technical knowledge. It was founded in 2017 by Mazen Al-Darrab, a serial entrepreneur who founded and managed multiple companies. The solution not only provides pre-integrated e-commerce checkout with deliveries and payments (with discounts) from over 20 partners, but also services that can be easily integrated into any store (with discounts). To do.
According to Zeed’s website, merchants can also get discounts on photography, packaging, logistics, design, marketing and even regular labor.
Startups use the freemium subscription model, allowing users to create up to 100 products and set up an online store for free. People can subscribe to unlimited effects at the store by paying a monthly subscription of 100 SAR ($ 27) or 400 SAR ($ 107).
Through the Academy Initiative, Zid also educates users on a variety of e-commerce related topics that help them operate and manage their websites. Zid Academy offers online courses, offline meetings, and tutoring sessions.
Zid claims that his website has over 1,200 active retailers. Startups claim that online orders have quintupled, with sales of over 140 million Saudi riyals ($ 37.3 million).
According to Zid founder Mazen Al-Darrab, the amount of e-commerce continues to grow day by day not only in Saudi Arabia but throughout the region. Zid was founded with the simple goal of providing retailers with a unique shopping experience to harness the power of e-commerce.
According to Zid CEO and co-founder Sultan AlAsmi, the company aims to transform its retail business with digital solutions. In our opinion, retailers in the region should be affected. With the company growing five times each year and the rapid growth in e-commerce adoption, there is a unique opportunity to lead this revolution. “
Employing 15 people, the startup plans to expand into new geographic markets and soon attract new retail segments.
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