Riyadh tech start-up Foodics launches $100m fund to aid SMEs
Foodics, a Riyadh-based technology start-up servicing the retail and food and beverage industries, rolled out a $100 million micro loan fund on Tuesday to aid small and medium-sized enterprises.
A fresh lending arm, Foodics Capital, will support the kingdom’s F&B merchants in the post-Covid-19 era through Sharia-compliant micro loans, it said in a statement.
It will extend loans of between $5,000 and $133,000, depending on certain requirements of its customers.
“With cash flow being truly a critical pain point for small enterprises right now, we wished to manage to offer them a one-stop shop that also covers their finance needs and permits them to accelerate their growth rate,” Ahmad Al-Zaini, co-founder and leader of the company, said.
“A finance offering was always part of our vision … Foodics is very proud to now allow merchants to finance their working capital giving them usage of loans,” he added.
Foodics Capital has joined forces with Saudi Arabia-based Maalem Finance, a provider of Sharia-compliant consumer and SME financing.
The first phase of the fund, which has been approved by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, will be wanted to existing Foodics customers, who are pre-qualified for loans, the statement said. It'll be rolled out over the kingdom by the finish of this year.
The fund permits "faster and more flexible lending than almost all of the facilities in your community”, according to Abdullah Tahboub, chief financial officer of Foodics.
Interested SMEs can apply online. The original approval will come within 24 hours, while final consent will be granted within a week, Mr Tahboub said.
Founded in 2014, Foodics offers a restaurant management platform that helps owners to run their business better. It has serviced more than 5,000 customers and processed over one billion orders through its platform, through which about $200m of transactions measured by gross merchandise value are produced each month.
The company has offices in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, and is currently in the process of closing a series B funding round.
It raised $4m in pre-Series B funding from Riyad Taqnia Fund, Tech Invest Com, Naseel Holding and Kuwait-based Faith Capital this past year. It also raised $4m within an earlier Series A funding round in 2017.
Foodics is currently available in English, Arabic and French and the business is planning to release a Spanish version of its software in the coming months.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
