eyewa, an online eyewear retailer in the Middle East, has closed a $21M Series B funding round co-led by Kingsway and Nuwa Capital, with participation from French Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Derayah, Palm Drive, and Hardy capital.
Founded in 2017 by Anass Boumediene and Mehdi Oudghiri, eyewa has cemented itself as a leader in the eyewear E-commerce space and has built a trusted and reliable reputation in the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain
Mehdi Oudghiri, co-founder of eyewa, mentioned “We have built eyewa with customers in mind in every part of our journey. After building a truly disruptive online offering with best-in-class customer experience, we are very excited to embark on an omnichannel journey that will allow our customers to explore eyewa’s differentiated experience in both the physical and digital world. Our stores are built on the basis of what made our success online, with a vibrant look and feel in line with our times, leveraging technology in every aspect of customers’ interaction and exclusive products at accessible prices.”
Anass Boumediene, co-founder of eyewa, added “This fundraise will boost our expansion plans and will enable us to offer a better customer experience in the eyewear vertical, both online and offline. The customer response since our launch four years ago has been formidable and we count on keeping our promise of offering the best products at the best price across the region. While we have focused our first few years in our home markets of UAE and KSA, we are now expanding beyond to the rest of MENA and will bring our successful formula of affordable eyewear and amazing customer experience to a wider audience.”
Khaled Talhouni, Managing Partner of Nuwa Capital, remarked, “We’ve been working with Anass and Mehdi since the beginning of their journey and it is such a privilege to have a front row seat to the development of a company as remarkable as eyewa. A big part of our thesis at Nuwa Capital is to focus on the next evolution of retail. The confluence of offline, online and private label-driven commerce is at the heart of this thesis, and we would be hard-pressed to find a team that has executed as well as eyewa has on this concept in the region. Joining this latest round of financing is a testament to our strong belief in the company and the team to deliver on building a unique regional champion for direct-to-consumer commerce.”
The funds will be utilised by eyewa to pursue its ambitious expansion plans, further invest in top-tier technology and product teams and the best in class retail and omnichannel technology.
