Saudi Arabia’s Qawafel, a B2B marketplace, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by AlSayed Group and Khwarizmi Ventures to enhance growth, create new products and services, and enter new markets by the end of 2022.
The investment was co-led by AlSayed Group and Khwarizmi Ventures, a Saudi-based Venture Capital fund investing in early-stage startups in the MENA region, in addition to a number of angel investors.
“The HoReCa space is exhibiting constant growth and high activity. Turki and the Qawafel team are dedicating great efforts in defragmenting the confectionery wholesale market, easing supply chain management for both buyers and suppliers, and creating great positive local impact.”
~ Abdulaziz Al-Turki, Managing Partner at Khwarizmi Ventures
Qawafel is a B2B marketplace that simplifies the trade between shops and producers of perishable food products across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It provides integrated technical solutions aimed at enhancing the fragmented wholesale market through a full-stack B2B platform and digital services, offering a seamless user experience for both customers and vendors when managing operations.
“Qawafel started in the confectionery & chocolate market, where sales are estimated at 5 billion Saudi Riyals annually, and acquired approximately 1% of said market in a short period as 500 tons of chocolate were processed and passed around the cities of the Kingdom. We aim to expand vertically in the confectionery sector in general, where annual sales exceed 20 billion Saudi Riyals.”
~ Turki AlAyyad, CEO of Qawafel
The Riyadh-headquartered confectionery business was founded by Turki AlAyyad (CEO), Walid Al-Ghobain (Chief Partnership Officer), and Qays Bahurmuz (Chief Product & Technology Officer) around the end of 2020.
Qawafel aims to help and support small factories in the process of creating and innovating new products. The company has successfully enabled more than 300 local factories, serves more than 5000 points of sale in more than 188 cities and towns in Saudi Arabia and has maintained a sales growth rate of 30% per month.
“Qawafel’s vision is to provide the needed technical and logistical solutions to move the chilled food wholesale market to e-commerce and to enable small family businesses and shop owners to expand and have a presence in new areas. By achieving this, Qawafel aims to support locally made products and contribute to enhancing aspects around national food security.”
~ Turki AlAyyad, CEO of Qawafel
Qawafel plans to utilize the fresh funds to enhance its growth, improve and create new products and services, along with entering new sectors and markets by the end of 2022, such as the frozen food industry.
