Riyadh-based online Recommerce marketplace Soum emerges out of stealth with $4 million in Seed financing led by Outliers Venture Capital and Mazen Aljubeir to build a seamless and transparent secondhand buying experience starting with consumer electronics in KSA.
The round was led by Outliers Venture Capital and Mazen Aljubeir with participation from Khwarizmi Ventures, Ammar AlKhudairy, and multiple other key strategic angel investors.
“Today, only 12% of second-hand consumer electronic sales happen digitally, and more than 80% of digital sales are captured by the incumbent. Soum is unlocking the opportunity both on the supply side as well as the demand side and is led by three outlier founders who are exceptionally positioned to build Soum, bottoms-up, into a multi-country and multi-category successful business. We are thrilled to partner with Bader, Fahad & Fahad.”
~ Mohammed Almeshekah, Managing partner at Outliers Venture Capital
Soum was launched in 2021 by Fahad Al Hassan, Fahad Albassam, and Bader Almubarak with a mission to reimagine recommerce in the MENA region and beyond, building the most convenient, trustworthy, and transparent recommerce marketplace in the region.
Recommerce or reverse commerce is the selling of previously owned, new or used products, mainly electronic devices or media. The KSA-based startup aims to capitalize on the rapidly growing secondhand global market by refining the user journey and building trust on its platform.
“We are tackling a serious customer pain point and offering a solution that is an order-of-magnitude better than any other substitute. Although we have grown exceptionally fast, we are still in the very beginning of capturing a huge market opportunity. The key to unlocking this opportunity is building a highly independent and capable team of doers and problem-solvers pursuing a common goal of building a category-defining company that delights buyers and sellers. I am very proud of our team, and I am thrilled to go through this journey with every Soumer.”
~ Fahad Al Hassan, Co-Founder and CEO Soum
The rapid growth of the startup further validates the consumer demand for a recommence platform. Within eight months of operation, the KSA-based startup claims to have already processed millions of dollars of annualized sales.
The startup plans to utilize the newly acquired funds to further support its platform and market expansion efforts on the path to becoming the region’s next big player in recommerce.
