Wamda invests in online grocery platform Nana's $18 million Series B round
Wamda has participated in Saudi Arabia-based Nana's $18 million Series B investment round. Investors in the round included Saudi Technology Ventures (STV), Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Impact46 and Watar Partners.
Nana is an online grocery marketplace platform that powers hypermarkets and helps them showcase their inventory to millions of users. Nana’s technology allows buyers to enjoy a seamless remote experience from the comfort of their homes, where a shopper prepares the order and has it delivered to the user’s registered address. The technology allows users to get a constant overview of the progress as well as track the delivery.
Founded by Ahmad Alsamani, Sami Alhelwah and Abdulmajeed Alsukhan in 2015, Nana has managed to triple its turnover during the past year, and partnerships with Carrefour, Panda, Spar, Farm Superstores, Manuel, among others have helped Nana offer the widest possible range of consumer packaged goods (CPG) to users all over Saudi Arabia. The platform currently serves 14 cities across Saudi Arabia.
According to ‘Online Grocery Retail in Mena’ report by Wamda Research Lab, e-groceries remains the most under-penetrated sector of the e-commerce sector in the region and is expected to experience a growth rate of more than 100 per cent year-on-year, if not more, for at least the next couple of years.
“In today’s post Coronavirus world, those companies that have positioned themselves to provide essential services to society in normal and challenging times are going to be the winners in the future, Nana is one of those companies. We are very happy to have invested in them,” said Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman, Wamda.
This round of investment will enable Nana to continue to add hypermarket partners as well as boutique food stores to its offerings. The company aims to deliver a hundred thousand orders every month to Saudi-based buyers by the end of 2020.
“We have spent the past year and a half removing the bottlenecks in everyday grocery buying for our users. There is a long way to go, but we are confident of being Saudi’s leading consumer app,” said Sami Alhelwah, founder & chief executive officer (CEO) of Nana. “This round will enable us to expand in KSA and outside. It will allow us to focus on further improving our stellar customer experience and develop technology solutions to support our partner's growth and development.” Sami added.
Nana previously raised a $6.6 million Series A round in 2019.