Saudi tech start-up Salasa raises $8.6m amid expansion push

Founded in 2016, the company has so far shipped more than 10 million products

Salasa's co-founders Hasan Alhazmi (left) and Abdulmajeed Alyemni. The pair plan to use proceeds of their latest funding round to expand across Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region. Courtesy of 500 Show more

Salasa, a technology fulfilment company in Saudi Arabia that handles orders for e-commerce companies, raised $8.6 million in a Series A funding round featuring Saudi Venture Capital Company and 500 Startups.

The fundraising into Salasa was led by Jeddah-based AlSulaiman Group, which already has investments in a number of sectors including retail, logistics, hospitality, financial services and e-commerce.

The investment will help the company to grow its network of partners and expand its services across Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region.

“We are excited to have partnered with leading investors in the region and look forward to their valuable advice and support in backing our growth,” Abdulmajeed Alyemni, Salasa’s co-founder and chief executive, said.

Founded in 2016, Salasa offers a range of services for e-commerce businesses that includes order fulfilment services and storage of products in its own warehouse. It also offers resources to help smaller e-commerce companies to develop new products and enter new markets.

Salasa has shipped more than 10 million products to date on behalf of more than 300 local and international clients across 15 industries.

"We feel proud to lead this investment round in a start-up that provides services with a business model that promises rapid growth and development … especially in these difficult times where the world is going through Covid-19,” Saud AlSulaiman, chief executive of AlSulaiman Group, said.

“We have full trust in [the] Salasa team and its ability to move forward with the expansion and growth plan in the kingdom and the whole region," he added.

The e-commerce market in the Middle East and North Africa region is booming due to the popularity of smartphones and high rates of internet penetration.

E-commerce sales are set to triple to $28.5 billion in 2022, from $8.3bn in 2017, according to research from Bain & Company and Google.

"The market outlook indicates significant growth in this sector, and we are confident, as experts in this field, we can meet client demands faster, with better delivery experience, at affordable prices,” Hasan Alhazmi, co-founder and chief operating officer of Salasa, said.

“We are poised for growth and we are aggressively investing in our proprietary technology … to achieve superior operational excellence and utilise predictive analytics and insights to help our customers in making strategic decisions,” he added.