Syarah, an online marketplace for cars based in Saudi Arabia has closed its bridge to Series B round of investment, for an undisclosed amount, with participation from Impact46 and an angel investor.

The startup was launched in 2015 as a car-listing website and has grown to become of the largest automobile marketplaces in Saudi Arabia. The investment will be used to increase sales, expand to new cities, increase its inventory of used cars, and integrate with financial institutions to offer car-financing leases.

"Syarah Online is on a mission to disrupt and reshape the way cars are bought and sold in the region. Our new partnership with Impact46 will help us greatly towards achieving this goal. It will help us to improve our product offering and to better serve our users with a wider range of services,” said Salah Sharef, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Syarah.

The company has about 300 active dealers from across the kingdom and has sold more than 1800 cars online since last year. The team is now planning to launch “Syarah Online”, a service that allows the end user to buy a car online and have the car shipped and delivered to their doorstep, offering the full process online without the need to contact or visit a dealer showroom.

“Saudi Arabia is the largest automotive market in the Middle East and North Africa accounting to ~40 per cent of total car sales. Syarah is well positioned to take the market not only by being one of the very first movers, but also by uniquely utilising their expertise to hone the opportunities in this underserved space,” said Kholoud Almohammadi from the Impact46 team.