ⓘ Featured image: retailo co-founders (L-R): Talha Ansari, Wahaj Ahmed, Muhammad Nowkhaiz
Long gone are the days when online payments were not acceptable in the Middle East. As E-commerce started gaining momentum, the demand for its application in the B2B sector skyrocketed in the region.
According to Redseer, the retail market in MENAP is worth $700 billion with unorganised retail channels contributing over 65 percent – reflecting the need for more organised channels.
Fortunately, platforms like retailo are emerging as catalysts for growth in the E-commerce B2B sector – also surpassing the inefficiencies in the unorganised retail value chain.
While COVID-19 was at its peak in 2020 to 21, it marked 3-4x growth in terms of eB2B adoption in the MENAP region – opening a potential $10 billion opportunity in the next 4-5 years.
About retailo
Founded in early 2020, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based retailo combined technology and operations to deliver strong value proposition to retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. The SME-focused B2B platform for retailers offers competitive pricing, varied product range, and delivery.
After its inception in Saudi Arabia, the startup quickly established its lead in Pakistan, its immediate target market of informal grocery retailers after KSA.
About the Founders
retailo was founded by three co-founders Talha Ansari, Mohammad Nowkhaiz, and Wahaj Ahmed.
Talha was the youngest CEO at one of the Rocket Internet’s venture – foodpanda, at the age of 25, then as Senior Director Operations in Careem, he scaled up the company’s last-mile delivery business in KSA.
Nowkhaiz was Careem’s Head of Strategy for the MENAP region and spearheaded the Super App strategy post Uber acquisition.
And last but not the least, Wahaj is an ex-McKinsey consultant, and also the youngest Careem GM at 25 – vanguarding Careem’s Karachi business by 10x in just 8 months.
The considerable market penetration and potential growth in the eB2B sector in the MENAP region triggered the three co-founders to bring retailo to its genesis.
Features
With a vision to technologically supercharge the retail supply chains across the MENAP region, retailo brought its mobile app for both Android and iOS devices engrossing a multitude of valuable features:
- One-Stop Solution:
Being one of the largest B2B business apps in MENAP, retailo empowers friendly neighbourhood retailers by freeing them of the worries of inventory and cash flow. retailo offers its customers 3500+ SKUs to choose from. - Next Day Delivery:
retailo ensures free 24-hour delivery, making retailing simple and stress-free for the retailers. - Ease of Usability:
The retailo app was designed to cater to its retailers with absolute flexibility – offering seamless user experience and interface coupled with interactive graphics. - Free Return Policy:
As a B2B marketplace, retailo offers a free return policy for all its delivered goods that were broken, expired, or spoiled during transit. - Multilingual:
As a multiregional B2B marketplace, retailo understands the diverse set of retailers it interacts with. At present, retailo is available in four languages: Arabic, English, Urdu, and Roman Urdu.
Cornerstone benefits
On the operational front, retailo again makes it super-easy for its retailers by providing:
- Active Customer Support:
As a digital B2B marketplace, retailo offers 24-hour customer support. Thus, retailers never have to worry about any on-field issues they might be facing. retailo’s proactive and easy-to-approach call agents are always available with a resolution regardless of the complexity of the question or problem.
- Easy Return Policy:
As a B2B marketplace leader across the MENAP region, retailo knows that its services and assurance need to excel all others. With retailo’s flexible return policy, retailers can easily return the goods that have expired, spoiled, broken during transit or delivery. They can get these goods replaced without bearing any costs.
retailo – Funding Details
- Pre Seed: $2.3 million
- Seed: $6.7 million
- Series A: $36 million
Notable investors:
Shorooq Partners, 500 Startups, Arzan Venture Capital, Graphene Ventures, and 92 Ventures among others.
Growth plans
retailo’s mission is to enable the 10 million SMEs concentrated in MENAP region by empowering them with its technology and real-time data to make complex supply chains “beautifully uncomplicated”. This represents around $500 billion of annual spending and thus a huge growth opportunity for retailo.
Download the retailo App from Google Play Store and App Store.
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