eCommerce Platform Wadi.com Raises $67M

A new round of funding is poised to strengthen an eCommerce platform’s presence in the Middle East.

Business Standard reports that Dubai-based Wadi.com has raised $67 million in a Series A round led by Al Tayyar Travel Group, which will go towards increasing the online marketplace’s staff in India, expanding its availability to consumers in the the Middle East and building out the platform’s technology.

Ankit Wadhwa, who founded Wadi.com last year with Pratik Gupta and Kanwal Sarfaraz, told Press Trust of India (PTI): “This is the largest series A funding in the tech history of Middle East and will further accelerate our growth. Wadi.com is currently active in UAE and Saudi Arabia and is expanding soon to other countries, like Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.”

Wadhwa additionally told the outlet — which notes that Wadi.com is a joint venture, facilitated by the Middle East Internet Group (MEIG), between Germany’s Rocket Internet and South African telecommunications provider MTN — that the platform has attained the number three spot in the general merchandise marketplace category by revenue in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) region in 10 months’ time. It currently offers more than 150,000 products from over 2,000 brands, including Apple, Samsung, Lacoste and Hugo Boss.

Referencing third-party data indicating that the eCommerce market in the Middle East is expected to grow from $15 billion in 2015 to $40 billion in 2020, Wadhwa said to PTI: “Middle East has a huge potential. The average cart sizes are larger, and discounting is limited. One can reach profitability sooner. We are very bullish on the market here.”

“We are confident to see Wadi.com growing further, especially with the cargo and logistics support our group will be offering,” Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Dawood, managing director and CEO of Al Tayyar Travel Group, commented to the outlet. “With this investment, the Al Tayyar Travel Group covers the three largest and most promising areas in the online space: travel, general merchandise marketplace and the shared economy.”