SaaS e-commerce enablement platform Salla raised $130 M Pre-IPO investment from Investcorp
A pre-IPO investment round of $130 million has been led by Investcorp, a prominent global alternative investment firm, in Salla, a leading SaaS e-commerce enablement platform in Saudi Arabia. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia made the investment alongside Sanabil Investment, which is a fully-owned company. STV, a local venture capitalist and current Salla shareholder, took part in the deal as well.
In order to support Saudi Arabia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Salla was founded in Makkah in 2016. It offers SMEs and budding entrepreneurs a proprietary SaaS solution that helps them achieve their e-commerce goals. Currently, Salla gives retailers access to a $20 billion e-commerce market that is predicted to expand at a rate of more than 25% annually over the next several years.
Salla currently serves over 80,000 active merchants on the platform and has enabled $7 billion in e-commerce sales since 2020.
With over 160 developers devoted to technology and product development, the company was founded by Nawaf Hariri and Salman Butt. It provides businesses with a fully automated and digitalized solution, enabling them to create their e-commerce website, begin taking online payments in a matter of hours, and ship their goods to customers. Salla offers over 400 applications on its platform, supporting its merchants during every stage of operating an online business, in addition to being fully integrated with online payment solutions and logistics firms.
Through the Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, a platform that targets equity growth capital investments across a variety of companies primarily based in Saudi Arabia with the potential to access the capital markets, Investcorp made its investment. Moreover, Salla’s board of directors will welcome Robin Mansour, a principal at Investcorp.
Through the Fund, investors can get exposure to rapidly expanding and industry-leading companies in key, fast-growing industries like business services, consumer goods, transportation and logistics, and healthcare.
Investcorp Head of Emerging Markets Private Equity, Walid Majdalani, said, “Saudi Arabia today has over a million SMEs, having grown three times over the past five years. We believe that the Kingdom’s transformation agenda will continue to drive innovation and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, with Salla acting as a key enabler to support the development of new companies in the e-commerce ecosystem”.
He added, “We see great interest in the potential of Saudi companies to IPO, especially as scale-ups and unicorns demonstrate local and regional success. Salla has managed to grow exponentially and deliver best-in-class margins. We are excited to be part of their next growth phase and are keen to work with the founder and management team to explore a potential future listing in line with our track record”.
Nawaf Hariri, CEO and co-founder of Salla, added, “We are deeply grateful for the trust and investment from Investcorp and Sanabil in Salla, which reflects their confidence in our vision and our platform’s potential. This investment propels us forward in our ongoing mission to open opportunities and empower individuals, SMEs, and enterprises to start and expand their businesses both within and beyond Saudi Arabia. We are committed to delivering innovative, customer-centric solutions that simplify and enhance the e-commerce experience for our merchants.”
