Qatari eCommerce Startup Snoonu Buys Omani Food Delivery Platform Akeed

Snoonu, the tech startup from Qatar, has acquired Akeed, an Omani food delivery platform, a press release says.

This will help the company towards its goal of being a local tech unicorn, meaning a company worth $1 billion or more.

This will also assist Snoonu in its business objectives, including diversification and expansion of the company’s operations in the region.

Snoonu is a one-stop-shop app, which works with online shopping, lifestyle, food, grocery delivery and third-party logistics.

The release says the company also does work to help develop the local tech economy, encouraging innovation and working with local online services.

“Our acquisition of Akeed was a decision made based on the company’s stellar reputation as one of the leading food delivery platforms in our sisterly Sultanate of Oman,” said Hamad Mubarak Al-Hajri, CEO and cofounder of Snoonu. “Akeed’s wide network of restaurants and grocery stores will enable us to establish a solid foothold in the Omani market as our initial step towards an expanded regional presence and involvement.”

And Akeed co-founder and CEO Gaurav Anil Nahar said the company wants to “look forward to a future vision that will bring the latest in the eCommerce and logistics services industry to Oman.”

Another Qatar company, KARTY, has recently teamed with digital pay firm i2c in order to roll out a digital-first mobile wallet for Qatar, PYMNTS wrote.

Read more: i2C, Qatar’s KARTY Form Digital Wallet Partnership

The companies said this “will provide Visa-branded digital cards, enabling instant, cashless P2P transactions on the Visa network.”

They said the wallet will also come with data-backed financial management tools to empower users to master budgeting and get more transparency into spending.

KARTY will be regulated by the Qatar Central Bank Sandbox once it’s fully operational. The company also won the Qatar Science & Technology Park Accelerator (QSTP) program last year, among other things, the report says.