ⓘ Featured image details: Nana co-founders – from left: Ahmad Alsamani, Sami Alhelwah, Abdulmajeed Alsukhan
One of the fastest-growing tech startups in the Kingdom, Nana today raised a whopping sum of $18 million in a Series B round led by Saudi Technology Ventures (STV) and Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) with participation from its existing investors including Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Wamda Capital, Watar Partners, and Impact46.
Sharing plans of the deployment of fresh funds, Sami Alhelwah, Founder & CEO of Nana in a statement said that the funds will be enable the company to expand deeper in KSA and outside, improving customer experience, develop technology solutions to support partners’ growth and development,
“We have spent the past year and a half to remove the bottlenecks in everyday grocery buying for our users. There is a long way to go, and with investors such as MEVP and STV, we are confident of being Saudi’s leading consumer app.”
“This round will enable us to expand in KSA and outside. It will allow us to focus on further improving our stellar customer experience and develop technology solutions to support our partner’s growth and development.”
– Sami Alhelwah, Founder & CEO, Nana
The year 2019 marks some growth corner points for Nana in terms of turnover which tripled and a number of partnerships with hypermarkets like Carrefour, panda, Spar, Farm Superstores, and Manuel among others.
Ankit Sarwahi, Associate Director at MEVP commenting over the growth potential of Nana said,
“Nana keeps ticking all the boxes of a rapidly growing tech start-up. We are delighted with the dynamism of the Founders and the frantic pace at which the Company is capturing market share. We stay committed to and aligned with Nana’s mission of moving a substantial chunk of grocery from offline to an online environment and we are excited to see the Company walk into its next phase of expansion on the back of this fund raise.”
Ahmad Alshammari, Principal at STV said,
“Online grocery penetration in Saudi Arabia has the potential to grow 18 times to reach global rates. The opportunity to transform the second-highest consumer spending bucket is large and significant. We’re very excited to back the vision of Sami and the team at Nana; they have managed to build an intuitive product, a reliable operation, and developed valuable partnerships. In a very short time span, Nana has emerged as the market leader in Saudi Arabia and is best-positioned to capture the greater MENA market.”
Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman, Wamda affirming their investment in Nana said,
“In today’s post Coronavirus world, those companies that have positioned themselves to provide essential services to society in normal and challenging times are going to be the winners in the future, Nana is one of those companies. We are very happy to have invested in them,”
About Nana
Founded in 2015 by Ahmad Alsamani, Sami Alhelwah and Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Nana showcases the inventory of hypermarkets on its platform – enabling them to cater to the online shoppers. Nana last raised a $6.6 million Series A round in 2019.
