JadoPado.com has announced the abrupt closure of its online marketplace, following the company’s acquisition by an unnamed Middle Eastern company, the latest high-profile deal in the region’s burgeoning e-commerce sector.
“We’re incredibly happy to announce that JadoPado has been acquired by a large regional business,” said Omar Kassim, the founder, in a blog post on the company’s website yesterday.
“The JadoPado team will be moving into executing great new work, and this unfortunately means that we’ll be closing down the JadoPado marketplace.”
Mr Kassim did not disclose the identity of the buyer or the size of the transaction when contacted by The National.
The purchase of JadoPado.com comes a month after Amazon acquired regional e-commerce site Souq.com, the largest technology buyout in the Middle East to date.
Mohamed Alabbar, the chairman of Emaar Properties, announced in November that he planned to launch noon.com, a US$1 billion e-commerce platform focused initially on the UAE and Saudi Arabia, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
In the same month, Mr Alabbar announced a €130 million (Dh521m) joint venture with Milan-based Yoox Net-a-Porter, an online luxury fashion retailer.
Founded in 2010 as an e-commerce site, JadoPado.com transformed itself into an online marketplace in early 2015, enabling other retailers and individuals to sell their wares on the site, with the company taking a small commission on each sale.
The number of registered sellers on its website jumped by 85 per cent in 2016.
JadoPado.com said yesterday that sellers on its marketplace will have access to its “hotcake” seller tools until May 25.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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