Wamda, the Middle East region’s leading startup ecosystem enabler, has boosted its investment in UAE-based startup Seez, which raised $6 million in its Series A funding round. The round was oversubscribed 5x and attracted a remarkable investment pool, which in addition to Wamda included several strategic automotive partners, in addition to German VC Crealize, B&Y Venture Partners, Phoenician Funds and several angel investors. 

Founded by Tarek Kabrit and Andrew Kabrit in 2016, Seez facilitates the car shopping journey through its app, which offers a smart search engine for car listings and proprietary, AI-powered pricing and negotiation tools. The Seez app has grown to more than a million users with almost 500,000 cars listed on its platform available across five countries.

The round of financing will enable Seez to grow and access the $10 billion second-hand online automotive industry in the UAE, as well as other markets in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena).  

“Seez is working to support the automotive industry in the UAE by leveraging synergies across various regional countries, in an effort to further cross-border economic integration in Mena.‘’ said Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman of Wamda, ‘’By targeting an unaddressed market with great potential, Seez is well positioned to become a game changer in streamlining the regional used car market, and we are happy to contribute to that process.‘’ 

Approximately 275,000 used cars were sold in the UAE in 2019, of which almost half were for export. This round of financing will enable Seez to introduce a service that offers a fully-digital, cross-border car shopping experience, making it easier for people in other countries to buy cars from the UAE using the app, in addition to another service with in-app car purchasing capabilities.

“From the very beginning, we have been using technology to change how people shop for cars. During the first three years, we focused on building our product and growing our user base. Now we are leveraging this platform and using it as a launchpad for all these exciting new services we want to launch,” said CEO Tarek Kabrit. 

The startup had previously raised $3.2 million over two rounds, bringing its total funding to date to $9.2 million.