The two sides signed a good will declaration document citing the enhancement of cooperation in a number of areas related to the financial sector, including banking services, financial technology, sustainable finance and insurance

The finance ministers of Saudi Arabia and Switzerland held a meeting – part of the annual Saudi-Swiss Financial Dialogue in Riyadh on Sunday to review bilateral cooperation and explore new initiatives to boost economic activities between the two countries.

The two ministers also signed a goodwill declaration document citing the enhancement of cooperation in a number of areas related to the financial sector, including banking services, financial technology, sustainable finance and insurance.

The two also emphasized the need for enhancing the role of Switzerland in its capacity as a strategic partner of the kingdom in its drive to achieve its Vision 2030.

Saudi minister of finance Mohamed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, while inaugurating the bilateral dialogue, drew attention to the challenges facing the global economy.

He also highlighted the importance of providing appropriate green finance, citing the role the Swiss Federation can play in its capacity as host of leading world finance institutions. For his part, the Swiss minister of finance lauded the strong Saudi economy.

Source: Arabian Business

Bahrain-based foodtech Calo, has raised a $13 million pre-Series A round led by Nuwa Capital and STV. Other investors participating in the round include Khwarizmi Ventures, Al Faisaliah Group and AlRajhi Family Office. This brings Calo's total investment to date to $26.5 million after raising its Seed round last year.

Founded in 2019 by Ahmed AlRawi and Moayed Almoayed, Calo serves personalised meal subscriptions.

The new funds will be used to double down on the GCC market where it currently operates in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Kuwait. It will also look to serve new categories, and explore opportunities for regional and international expansion.

Press release:

Calo, a direct-to-consumer foodtech company offering personalised meal subscriptions, recently raised a $13 million pre-Series A round led by two of the region’s largest investors, Nuwa Capital and STV. This round brings the total investment in Calo to $26.5 million after raising its Seed round just last year.

Calo serves personalised meal subscriptions to busy people, catered towards fitness or lifestyle goals. Customers receive their meals daily and get to choose from a rotating menu with over 500 options. The service is loved by tens of thousands of customers that have enjoyed millions of Calo meals. The company prides itself on being customer-centric, and its Customer Experience team goes above and beyond in delivering happiness. Calo reports that most of its customers come through word of mouth.

The new funds will be used to double down on the GCC market, serve new categories, and explore opportunities for regional and international expansion. This comes after the company has expanded to 2 additional countries and 6 new cities this year including Dammam and Jeddah in Saudi, as well as the UAE and Kuwait. Calo’s most recent funding round also included the participation of Khwarizmi Ventures, Al Faisaliah Group, AlRajhi Family Office, and other investors.

Ahmed Alrawi, CEO at Calo, highlights, “We’re delivering millions of meals per year and have consistently been quadrupling in growth year over year. We foresee that this trend continues over the next few years as the wellness wave continues to grow.”

Nitin Reen, a partner at Nuwa Capital, said, “The team at Calo has mastered the ability to hone the fundamentals while continuing to innovate within the realm of foodtech. However, what truly makes Calo special is that they maintain an unrelenting focus on their customers in their journey to a healthy lifestyle. We have a strong belief in the founders and their traction and ability to recruit a very special team, in such a short time, which is a testament to their capabilities and vision. We are very excited to partner with Calo in their next chapter of growth and have every confidence that the team will continue to succeed.”

Mazin Alzaidi, a general partner at STV, agreed, “Calo is truly making healthy easy for thousands of customers across the region. The continuous growth and positive reviews are a sentiment to the teams' obsession with the customer and focus on operational excellence. Calo is solving a real problem, and we are excited to double down on our partnership with the team and company as they solve it for thousands more.”

Calo’s vertically integrated model allows the company to serve its customers a high-quality personalised experience while maintaining healthy margins, making the company’s business units very profitable.

“Today, there’s no global leader in the personalised nutrition space. We believe we can be that company. The biggest food companies in the world serve food that’s good for your tastebuds, but terrible for your body. We’re on a mission to change that,” said Alrawi.

Founded in 2019 in Bahrain, the company has quickly grown to nearly 700 employees located around the world. Calo currently operates in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Kuwait, with plans to expand to other markets in the future.

source: Wamda

Saudi Arabia-based Revival Lab will establish “Fin-tactics Ventures", a venture builder specialised in fintech, insuretech and regtech, supported by a $40 million venture capital fund managed by Arbah Capital to invest in startups based in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and the rest of the world.

Fintactics Ventures has come together through several partnerships including Aion Digital, which specialises in providing technical solutions to the financial sector in the region, Bitfy Holdings to provide blockchain services and Holol, a services platform to facilitate and enhance housing finance options in Saudi Arabia.

Press release:

Revival Lab announces the venture builder, "Fin-tactics Ventures", at the World Fintech Show conference as the first venture builder specialised in fintech, insurance and regulatory technologies in the region, and supported by 150 million riyals venture capital, approved by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and managed by Arbah Capital to invest in promising opportunities in the sector in the Kingdom, the Middle East and the rest of the world.

The announcement included the signing of a partnership agreement between Fin-tactics Ventures and Aion Digital, represented by its Chairman, Mr Abdullatif Al-Rajhi, a company that specialised in providing technical solutions to the financial sector in the region. In light of this partnership, the joint venture (Lizam) was announced to create an integrated digital experience that is compatible with customer requirements and achieve the necessary flexibility by providing the service (RegTech-as-a-Service) with all the capabilities required for digital onboarding, eKYC, and compliance. In addition to verification by regulators to combat risk and fraud. This partnership aims to shape the financial landscape of the future and to develop and promote the expansion of well-built digital products.

The event also included other important partnerships, including signing with Bitfy Holdings to provide blockchain services and accelerate the adoption of its specialised technologies in the financial and non-financial sectors in the Kingdom. It is worth noting that " Fin-tactics Ventures has been a shareholder in Bitfy Holdings, fintech experts through direct investment within the latest investment round. Fin-tactics has also signed with one of the major banks in Brazil, Banco de Brazil, to provide fintech solutions to provide blockchain technology as well.

During the conference, another agreement was also signed to launch Holol, a services platform to facilitate and enhance housing finance options in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Mahmoud Al-Kohji, CEO of Arbah Capital, mentioned: “We are now witnessing a notable flow of opportunities with unique quality, and through this cooperation, we are committed to creating a suitable business environment to enhance excellence and growth in the financial sector.”

According to Mohammed Al-Maghlouth, CEO of Revival Lab: “We have worked to provide innovative initiatives for the financial sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and we aim to enable the fund to support other regions globally.”

Haitham Al-Sahafi, CEO of Fintactics Ventures, said: “As a venture builder specialised in fintech, we seek to make Fintactics Ventures the initiator and supporter of rapid growth in the sector on solid foundations creating an attractive environment for competition and entrepreneurship by providing resources and capabilities through cooperation to accelerate the development process in startups, and be among the recent organisations to strengthen the national ecosystem in the field.”

source: Wamda

Algeria-based super app Yassir, has raised $150 million in Series B funding, led by BOND, with participation from DN Capital, Dorsal Capital, Quiet Capital, Stanford Alumni Ventures (aka Spike Ventures) and Y Combinator, among other investors.

Founded in 2017 by Noureddine Tayebi and El Mahdi Yettou, Yassir is a super app that provides its users with a suite of services, including rideshare, food and grocery delivery and financial services. It now operates in six countries and 45 cities throughout the world.

With this latest round of funding, Yassir plans to expand its reach into the region.

Press release:

Yassir, a multi-sided marketplace offering on-demand services such as ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, banking and more, announced today that it has raised $150 million in Series B funding from prominent global investors. The investment was led by BOND, with participation from DN Capital, Dorsal Capital, Quiet Capital, Stanford Alumni Ventures (aka Spike Ventures) and Y Combinator, among other strategic investors.

Having raised $193.25 million in the five years since the company’s launch, it is now the most valuable startup in North Africa, and one of the highest-valued companies in Africa and the Middle East. With this latest round of funding, Yassir plans to expand its reach into the region.

“Yassir means ‘easy’ in Arabic, and our mission as a company is to make people’s lives easy,” says Noureddine Tayebi, Founder and CEO of Yassir. “In the markets where we operate, we are already having a considerable impact on how people manage their day-to-day lives. We look forward to expanding our presence into other geographies to become the first super app to achieve mass adoption.”

Founded in 2017, today, the company operates in six countries and 45 cities, where it is used by more than 8 million users. Popular in the Maghreb region (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and parts of French-speaking Africa, the super app provides three core services – ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, and financial services. An all-in-one ecosystem, the app provides its customers with a single-point solution for managing all of their day-to-day activities, from travelling to work to ordering groceries and meals. These services generate revenues for more than 100,000 partners, which include drivers, couriers, merchants, and wholesalers, among other gig workers and vendors.

Beyond providing a core suite of services, Yassir offers financial services aimed at serving the full ecosystem, touching every component of the multi-sided marketplace. A 2018 report by McKinsey & Company on growth and innovation in African retail banking, found that more than half (57%) of Africa’s population lack any form of a bank account. Among African banking customers, 40% prefer digital channels for transactions. By providing consumers in Africa with a mobile banking solution, as part of a more comprehensive suite of services, Yassir is meeting an important need in the market, one where 50% of the population already have mobile internet access.

“We believe technology will foundationally rearchitect consumers’ relationship with daily needs – transportation, food, financial services – not just in developed countries, but in every corner of the world,” says Daegwon Chae, general partner at BOND. “This investment is an extension of that belief in an underserved but dynamic, rapidly growing region. Emerging out of North Africa, the app has already become indispensable to users for critical aspects of their lives.”

Noureddine, a Stanford PhD and a native of Algeria spent more than 15 years in Silicon Valley before returning to his homeland to build Yassir. He adds, “Yassir was founded with a threefold mission. First,

we want to create a local tech startup success model which will be emulated by others and more so Yassir team members. Second, we want to empower the local talent and more importantly the technical talent which often leaves the region, mainly to Europe, to pursue further studies or find jobs. We, in fact, hire engineering talent in each country we operate in to expand that mission. And finally, we want to make the lives of our people easy while infusing social values via our products such as trust and mutual help.”

Source: Wamda

UAE-based fintech Pyypl, has raised a $20 million Series B round from a group of international investors and ten of its existing investors.

Founded in 2017 by Antti Arponen, Pyypl is a payment technology company and financial services provider using blockchain in its core systems.

The latest round will enable the company to further expand its reach across the Middle East and Africa, as well as invest in product development.

This latest round brings Pyypl’s total investment raised to $40 million.

Press release:

Pyypl – pronounced “People” – the Middle East and Africa (MEA) focused financial services platform and Hub71 company has closed its target Series B raise of $20 million from a diverse group of international investors and ten existing investors. Pyypl is considering opening a second tranche for further investment due to interest from investors.

Since its inception in 2017, Pyypl has raised almost $40 million and the Series B raise will enable the Company to further expand its reach across the MEA region. Product development will also be a key focus, with Pyypl 2.0 building out new features of the company’s proprietary technology platform to enhance user experience and facilitate scaling in current and new markets.

Led by an experienced management team with a proven track record in the region, Pyypl is one of the fastest-growing fintech in MEA. It has already seen great traction since its Series A just a year ago, growing over four times in terms of user numbers, transaction volumes and revenues. Pyypl operates at a healthy gross margin showing that fintech can grow sustainably.

Pyypl has established key partnerships that have taken years to develop in order to be part of a financial ecosystem required to meet demand across. These include Visa, a number of payment gateway partners, Ripple and Binance to name a few. Based in Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, Pyypl is gaining access to its network of partners, and benefiting from its business-friendly environment and strong talent base.

With its proprietary technology, experienced management team and unique multi-product, pan-regional approach Pyypl is in the right sector, in the right geography at the right time.

Antti Arponen, co-founder and CEO of Pyypl, commented: “We welcome our new investors and appreciate the further investment from our existing shareholders in support of our financial inclusion journey. We have grown significantly since our Series A round and are excited to enter the next phase of growth and capability. This is just the beginning.”

Pyypl’s purpose-driven approach offers key financial services in one app for the 800 million financially underserved smartphone users across Africa and the Middle East, via internationally accepted virtual and physical prepaid cards, instant domestic and international user-to-user transfers as well as remittances to 38 currency destinations. Pyypl has a strong pipeline of additional products.

Source: Wamda

Egypt-based fintech Blnk, has raised $23.7 million in equity and debt funding, and $8.3 million in securitised bond issuance.

The pre-Seed and Seed funding rounds were led by Abu Dhabi’s Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC) and Egypt-based VC firm Sawari Ventures, with participation from several local and international angel investors. The $11.2 million debt funding was secured from a number of local banks. The $8.3 million securitised bond issuance was underwritten by the National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire.

Founded in 2021 by Amr Sultan and Tarek Elsheikh, Blnk has developed a digital lending platform that allows merchants of all sizes to instantly underwrite and finance their customers' purchases at the point of sale, paying over instalments ranging from six to 36 months.

The funds will support Blnk’s development of AI-powered lending infrastructure and the financing of the company’s portfolio of customers.

Press release:

Blnk, a fintech startup that enables instant consumer credit in Egypt, has raised $23.7 million in equity and debt funding, and $8.3 million in securitized bond issuance to accelerate financial inclusion within underserved communities across the country. The funds will support the further development of Blnk’s Artificial Intelligence-powered lending infrastructure and the financing of the company’s fast-growing portfolio of customers.

The combined pre-seed and seed funding rounds of $12.5 million were led by Abu Dhabi’s Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC) and Egypt-based, leading venture capital firm Sawari Ventures, with participation from several prominent local and international angel investors. The $11.2 million debt funding was secured from a number of leading local banks. The $8.3 million securitised bond issuance was underwritten by the National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire, making Blnk the youngest Egyptian startup to securitize its loan book.

Launched in October 2021, Blnk has developed a digital lending platform that empowers merchants of all sizes to instantly underwrite and finance their customers' purchases at the point of sale. With only a National ID and in as little as 3 minutes, consumers can access financing to purchase a wide range of products or services, including electronics, furniture and automotive services, paying over instalments ranging from 6 to 36 months. Leveraging its vast base of merchant branches across Egypt, Blnk has disbursed more than $20 million in loans to date. Merchants are also boosting their profitability via the transaction commission that Blnk provides.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Egypt is expected to become the second-largest Arab and African economy by the end of 2022. However, limited consumer credit penetration - only 4 per cent of Egyptians have credit cards - means consumers and businesses across the country are unable to take full advantage of opportunities to trade and maximise the country’s full economic potential. By providing inclusive access to financing for consumers across the country, Blnk is supporting further growth and development in the Egyptian economy.

Speaking about the new funding, Amr Sultan, Co-founder and CEO of Blnk said, “Our mission is to make it easier for more Egyptians to purchase the products and services they desire by offering inclusive and convenient consumer credit at the point of sale. We are delighted to have the backing of a great cohort of investors at an early stage in our journey. With their support, we believe we can drive financial inclusion in Egypt, as well as the wider Middle East and North Africa region”.

Joseph Iskander, Head of Investment at EIIC, said “we are convinced that the Egyptian market and its startup ecosystem present a compelling opportunity for regional and international investors and we are committed to identifying and investing in value accretive businesses. We are pleased to partner with Blnk to drive financial inclusion and economic development in Egypt and we look forward to working with the team to achieve their goals''.

Hany Al Sonbaty, the Managing Partner at Sawari Ventures, stated: “we are thrilled to have Blnk in our portfolio and backing them to deliver innovative solutions to tackle the urgent challenge of financial inclusion in Egypt. The company has the right combination of a seasoned team and a scalable business model, with a clear path to profitability”

Source: Wamda

VUZ, a social app that allows users to stream and experience immersive realism in extended reality (XR) and metaverse digital experiences, has raised $20 million in Series B investment.

Investors in the round include Caruso Ventures, Vision VC Fund, e& capital (investment pillar of e&, formerly known as Etisalat Group), DFDF (Dubai Future District Fund), WIN (Webit Investment Network), SRMG, Elbert Capital, Yasta Partners, Faith Capital and Panthera Capital. Seven existing investors participated as well.

The Dubai-based VUZ says that this round, which has seen it onboard a mix of U.S.- and EMEA-based investors, will be pivotal to its international expansion.

Founder and chief executive officer Khaled Zaatarah launched VUZ, formerly 360VUZ, as a platform to bridge the gap between physical and virtual worlds by offering premium immersive content to a global audience. According to Zaatarah, VUZ’s vision is to connect people by providing “authentic, immersive experiences while removing the constraints of travel, time, and access.”

The platform offers more than 20,000 hours of content covering entertainment, creators, sports and XR, VR and AR experiences virtually anywhere in the world.

Users can access and engage different content — in addition to those mentioned above, live events, concerts, celebrity interviews and masterclasses, through its 360-degree live streams — by downloading VUZ’s iOS and Android apps. About 70% of its content is free and VUZ monetizes by showing ads to users in this category; on the other hand, users must pay between $4-8 for its exclusive content.

The company is planning to allow users access content via different media: Meta/Oculus headsets, Qualcomm, immersive avatars and a web platform, Zaatarah said to TechCrunch.

The web3 platform claims to have reached over 1 billion screen views from more than 10 million users since its launch. Over 44% of these views come from the Middle East, 32% from the U.S. and 24% from Egypt. VUZ said it aims to reach 3 billion views in 2023 and double its user base 2x yearly.

Creators’ immersive content collaborations have also been a core driver for VUZ content, where its top creators get over 100 million views globally.

The funds will be used to fuel these plans, including improving its 10% month-on-month recurring revenue growth, investing in content, hiring additional senior hires, new social features, launching web3 products and NFT projects and scaling with asset-light operations into eight new international markets.

The investment will also see VUZ scale its Los Angeles office and scale with creators and content in the U.S., Asia and Europe.

source: Tech Crunch

Dubai-based startup Stake is offering retail investors from across the globe the opportunity to buy fractions of rental property in UAE’s marquee city and earn regular income. The startup, founded in 2020, claims that because of Dubai’s real estate rules it has managed to attract investing users on the platform from more than 80 countries in the world.

The company, founded by Manar Mahmassani, Rami Tabbara and Ricardo Brizido in 2020, has raised $8 million in a pre-Series A round from investors like BY Ventures, MEVP and Vivium Holdings to expand its portfolio and launch in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The company first raised a $4 million seed round last year.

“This round is a testament to what we are building at Stake and our mission to bring access and liquidity to the oldest, largest, and most sought-after asset class in the world. The proceeds will allow us to expand into Saudi Arabia and Egypt, continue attracting the best talent to the team, and cement Stake’s position as the category leader in the MENA region,” Mahmassani said in a written statement.

Tabbara told TechCrunch over a call that after being in the real estate business for more than 15 years, he realized a lot of people want to invest in the MENA region but can’t afford to put in large chunks of money without paying huge commissions to brokers and developers. So he wanted to accelerate the process of investing in real estate with Stake.

The firm says it lists premium properties on its platform that are already on rent. To acquire a property, Stake looks at factors like location, build quality, view and if it has tenants. Tabbara said if the property is not rented, the company uses its data to list properties that could be rented out quickly. Stake has paid over AED 1 million ($272,249) in rental income to investors, which is credited every month.

Stake currently manages more than 44 properties with a combined value of AED 56 million ($17.9 million). The company claims that it has achieved an average 17% monthly growth rate in both investors and assets under management (AUM).

“Our platform currently boasts 42,000 registered users and more than 2,100 active investors on the platform. While we have users from many countries on the site, folks from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the U.K. and India are our top five investor bases,” Tabbara said.

Users can quickly register with the platform and invest from as low as AED 500 ($136). Because of Dubai’s investment rules individual investors can only invest up to AED 183,500 ($50,000) per year. The proptech company also limits maximum ownership by a single investor in a property to 33% to evenly spread out gains.

The firm doesn’t rely on financing to acquire homes. All the money to purchase a property comes from the investors. While Dubai’s property rule allows for partial deeds, there’s a cap of four investors, so Stake creates a special purpose vehicle for each property to facilitate deed registration. All properties usually have an investment term of five periods, but a house’s value goes up 30% in the market, and the investors can vote to sell it.

Stake’s business model relies on various fees. When investors purchase a property, the company charges them 1.5% with an additional 0.5% charged annually for maintenance. Plus, there are 0.2% Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money laundering fees up front and 0.1% annually from the second year of the term. The company also charges investors 2.5% as an exit fee when they sell their stake. What’s more, if the property is sold at a higher rate than its acquisition, Stake takes a 15% cut from the profit. The company is not profitable yet but has achieved 470% year-on-year growth in terms of revenue.

In the next 12 months, apart from launching its platform in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the company also wants to build a second-day trading platform, where investors can sell their stake in a property to other investors. Stake is focusing on launching a way to let people invest in vacation properties that go on platforms like Airbnb — something that platforms like Komoco and Here are trying in the U.S.

In the local market, Stake’s closest competitor is SmartCrowd, which raised a $3 million bridge round in June. Tabbara claims that his company has already surpassed SmartCrowd when it comes to AUM.

“We are banking on our team, technology and experience in dealing with different properties to become the most prominent real estate investment platform in the Middlel East and North Africa (MENA) region,” he said.

Source: Techcrunch

Jordan-based fintech liwwa has closed an $18.5 million pre-Series B round of equity and debt. The $4.5 million in equity investment was led by existing investors, DASH Ventures, Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO, Edgo, and Bank al Etihad, in addition to German Development Finance Institution DEG approving an investment of $790,000.

The round also included debt contributions from a network of local banks and international development finance institutions; Bank al Etihad increased its debt financing agreement by $5 million, while an additional $8.5 million debt facility was raised from the Capital Bank of Jordan under the NASIRA agreement, Jordan Kuwait Bank and Triodos Bank extended a $1.1 million and a $2.2 million finance facility respectively, PROPARCO approved a €1 facility and Triple Jump approved a $500,000 loan.

Founded in 2015, liwwa employs technology across its operations to provide tailored financial solutions. It also owns and operates the liwwa Investment Platform, a peer-to-peer platform that enables retail investors to finance liwwa loans and earn returns.

liwwa will utilise the funds for its growth and expansion plans.

Press release:

Jordan-based Fintech liwwa closed an $18.5 million pre-Series B round of equity and debt. Founded in 2015, liwwa employs technology across its operations to provide tailored financial solutions. It also owns and operates the liwwa Investment Platform, a peer-to-peer platform that enables retail investors to finance liwwa loans and earn returns.

The round included $4.5 million in equity investment led by existing investors, DASH Ventures, Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO, Edgo, and Bank al Etihad, in addition to German Development Finance Institution DEG approving an investment of $0.79 million.

The round also included debt contributions from a network of local banks and international development finance institutions; Bank al Etihad increased its debt financing agreement by $5 million, whereas an additional $8.5 million debt facility was raised from the Capital Bank of Jordan under the NASIRA agreement, Jordan Kuwait Bank and Triodos Bank extended a $1.1 million and a $2.2 million finance facility respectively, PROPARCO approved a €1 facility and Triple Jump approved a $500,000 loan.

liwwa will be utilizing the funds for its growth and expansion plans. liwwa’s CEO, Dennis Ardis, shared his thought on the funding round, “With this funding round, we have yet taken another major step towards accomplishing our goals.

We will continue to grow as the market grows by bringing in innovative Fintech solutions and cash flow-based lending."

Source: Wamda

Saudi Arabia-based digital freight network TruKKer, has raised $100 million in a pre-IPO round, led by Bahraini investment firm Investcorp who alone invested $51 million.

This investment is part of the recently launched Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, targeting equity growth capital investments across a range of companies primarily based in Saudi Arabia with the potential to access the capital markets within three years.

Founded in 2016 by Pradeep Mallavarapu and Gaurav Biswas, TruKKer currently serves over 700 enterprises and boasts a fleet of more than 40,000 trucks.

Last February, TruKKer raised $96 million in a mix of equity and debt for its Series B financing, led by ADQ and STV, with participation from Mubadala and other investors.

Press release:

Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, today announced that Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP led the Pre-IPO round in privately-held TruKKer Holding Limited, MENA’s largest digital freight network with a leading position across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and neighbouring countries. Investcorp led the initial close of this round with a $51 million investment alongside new and existing investors.

Hazem Ben-Gacem, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Investcorp commented: “Saudi Arabia is increasingly rich in highly investable companies, from fast-growth technology businesses like TruKKer to long-established family businesses that have grown consistently and are now looking for capital to implement more ambitious expansion plans. We are seeing a lot of interest in pre-IPO rounds as scale-ups secure greater market share and more Saudi businesses prove themselves successful on a national and regional basis.

TruKKer is just one example of the kind of company that we believe will prove attractive to institutional investors as the Saudi ecosystem matures, and our Pre-IPO fund will focus on exactly these kinds of high-growth businesses.”

“We are excited to add TruKKer to our portfolio and are keen to work with the founders of this regional champion to explore a possible market listing, as a continuation of our strategy and in line with our track record,” said Walid Majdalani, Head of Private Equity MENA and Southeast Asia at Investcorp.

“Thanks to its proprietary technology, TruKKer is ideally positioned to continue its strong growth while reducing carbon emissions across its markets. We look forward to our partnership with TruKKer and contributing our strategic and capital markets resources as well as our local and global insights to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth.”

This investment is part of the recently launched Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, targeting equity growth capital investments across a range of companies primarily based in Saudi Arabia with the potential to access the capital markets within 3 years. The fund provides investors with an opportunity to gain exposure to growing and market-leading businesses in strategic, high growth and underserved sub-sectors such as business services, transport and logistics, healthcare and consumer.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are key markets for TruKKer and represent a significant portion of the company’s revenues. The United Arab Emirates market has witnessed strong growth over the years in large part due to the development of UAE – KSA cross-border lanes with over 30,000 annual shipments transported by TruKKer, a key value proposition as the company continues to focus on scaling its network and looking to gain market share.

“TruKKer is at a key inflection point towards scaling its network and market share. Today, the company continues to grow exponentially serving over 700 B2B enterprise clients and is on track to cross $200 million in revenues in 2022. The TruKKer team is proud to be delivering on its vision of making a positive contribution to the community by having close to 10,000 drivers generating more than 70% of their monthly income on the TruKKer platform.

Our technology also enables us to optimize truckloads to reduce empty miles and idle time thereby helping us achieve our sustainability objectives.” commented Gaurav Biswas, Founder & CEO of TruKKer.

“We welcome Investcorp and are excited to partner with them through the next growth chapter of the company. Together with our partners, we look forward to continuing to bolster the company and create significant shareholder returns with a focus on healthy unit economics” adds Gaurav.

In 2008, Investcorp established a dedicated presence in Saudi Arabia, and TruKKer marks Investcorp’s eighth investment in the country, with multiple successful public listings on the Saudi Stock Exchange, including BinDawood Holdings, Theeb Rent A Car, Leejam Sports Company and L’Azurde.

source: Wamda