• UAE-based Zbooni, a social and conversational commerce platform, has closed a second tranche of $4.5 million to bring its total Series A round to $9.5 million.
• New investment has come from March Holding, a regional family office with interests in ICT, eCommerce, and payments infrastructure; Enterprise Fund, a California-based VC founded by former senior Atlassian executives; and European private investors that have operated global payments and eCommerce businesses. Chalhoub Group, an existing investor, also participated in this round through their CCVA investment arm.
• Founded in 2016 by Ramy Assaf and Ashraf Attia, Zbooni’s platform enables its 4000 SME clients to interact with their customers: “What started as an innovative way of capturing business payments via messaging apps is evolving into a wider solution, built with a focus on being mobile and simple to use. We see a massive opportunity in front of us and are excited about helping define the next generation of commerce,” said Assaf.
• Zbooni will use the funding to grow its team, develop its proprietary technology and expand its customer base.

Press release:

Leading business solutions platform Zbooni has announced the close of its ‘Series A’ round, with investment from regional and international strategic investors. The round began with an initial $5M closing and has now incorporated a second tranche of $4.5M, priced to reflect the continued growth and business momentum. The recently closed round includes a combination of new and existing investors.

Zbooni offers best in-class tools and technology for businesses to address the increasing prevalence of social and conversational commerce. The company is seeing strong customer traction on its mobile seller app and web-based tools and is further developing its proprietary commerce technology. The footprint of the company has expanded in 2021, with new hires and the opening of additional regional offices. The funding will be used to bring in talent, expand into new markets and serve the needs of different customer segments.

Ramy Assaf, Zbooni CEO and co-founder, explained: “This funding round welcomes new and existing investors to complement the business as it expands. We look forward to leveraging their depth of relevant first-hand expertise in building large-scale technology.

Our solutions help businesses seamlessly transition into a new era of commerce, offering more relevant ways to sell and interact with customers. What started as an innovative way of capturing business payments via messaging apps is evolving into a wider solution, built with a focus on being mobile and simple to use. We see a massive opportunity in front of us and are excited about helping define the next generation of commerce.”

New investment has come from March Holding, a regional family office with interests in ICT, eCommerce, and payments infrastructure; Enterprise Fund, a California-based VC founded by former senior Atlassian executives; and European private investors that have operated global payments and eCommerce businesses. Chalhoub Group, an existing investor, also participated in this round through their CCVA investment arm and are adopting Zbooni across multiple brands and retail stores to create richer omni-channel experiences for customers.