Iraq-based e-commerce platform Orisdi, has raised a six-figure bridge round led by Innovest Middle East VC, with participation from a group of angel investors, including Amar Shubar, a partner of Management Partners Consulting and Omar Al-Handal, managing director of Al Handal International Group.

Orisidi, named after a centuries-old popular retail brand in Iraq, offers a wide range of products, such as perfumes, cosmetics, stationery, electronics, groceries, toys, baby care products, appliances and home and kitchen supplies. The startup offers its clients a 48 hours return and exchange policy with no shipping fee, aiming to increase customer trust in the nascent online shopping market in Iraq.

Orisidi was founded in 2019 by Ahmed Al Kiremli, Hussain Ali and Azer Al Akaish. The three founders bootstrapped the e-commerce startup to seven figures in net sales, with over 30,000 product SKUs.

Ahmed Al Kiremli, co-founder and CEO of Orisdi said: “Orisdi’s vision is to be the Amazon of Iraq, and what will enable us to achieve this big vision is our customer obsession approach, the brand, product range, our cutting edge marketing techniques and the efficiency of our processes. Our top priority is putting customer needs and convenience at the center of everything we do across all departments by providing a great customer experience as a customer-centric company.”

Since its launch, Orisdi’s compound monthly growth rate has reached 23 per cent, and is expected to grow by 15 per cent month over month.

“Innovest has been one of the first regional VCs to enter the Iraqi market, and despite all challenges, our long-term outlook remains optimistic about the potentials and business opportunities in Iraq. Our recent investment in Orisdi is yet another testament to our continued belief in Iraq’s startup ecosystem and its young and promising talents,” said Bassam Falah, founder and managing partner of Innovest Middle East VC. 

Prior to today’s fundraise, Orisdi raised a six-figure seed round led by local and international angel investors.

“At Management Partners, we are seeing a strong double-digit growth over the next years in the e-commerce market in Iraq, which is still at an early stage compared to the rest of the region. Besides convenience and wider product range access, Iraqi consumers are looking for price-competitive offers - even more now due to the recent devaluation of the Iraqi dinar. Classical shop retail in Iraq suffers from high distribution inefficiency and sub-scale economics, which lead to 20-30 per cent higher retail prices compared to the UAE,” said Shubar.

Orisdi’s e-commerce model and innovative supply chain approach addresses the current inefficiencies in the Iraqi retail market as well the consumers’ needs for price-competitive offers, a wider product range, and increased convenience,” he added.

"For the past two years, Al-Handal International Group has been closely monitoring the exponential growth in the Iraqi online market, specifically e-commerce, which demonstrated promising results for the future. After conducting various business studies between different e-commerce businesses, we are confident that Orisdi would be the perfect fit for us, as they are held to be leaders in the Iraqi online market,” said Omar Al-Handal, managing director of Al Handal International Group.