• UAE-based blockchain provider Verofax Limited has raised $1.5 million in its pre-Series A round, led by Benson Oak Ventures, with 500 Global, Wami Capital, and Vernalis Capital.
• Founded in 2018 by Wassim Merheby and Jamil Zablah, Verofax provides blockchain services to businesses, allowing them to manage their supply chain to trace goods, fend off counterfeit activities, and improve manufacturer productivity.
• The funds will be used to expand Verofax’s sales and marketing activities in several countries, ahead of a planned Series A round later in 2022.

Press release:

UAE-headquartered Asset Digitisation and Traceability solutions provider Verofax Limited has successfully raised $1.5 million in its latest funding round. The pre-Series A round was led by Benson Oak Ventures, with 500 Global, Wami Capital, and Vernalis Capital completing the group.

Launched in 2018, Verofax utilises patented technology incorporating blockchain, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence to provide 'traceability as a service', enabling brands to turn their offline products interactive, and manage their entire supply chain to trace goods, fend off counterfeit activities, and improve manufacturers' productivity. Brands can extend their reach directly to end-consumers, thereby increasing consumer intimacy with direct engagement, and leveraging the boom in NFTs and metaverse experiences.

Regional and International investors have shown keen interest in the Mena startup scene over the past year, recording unprecedented investor participation in Mena and across other Emerging Venture Markets. While local investors like Saudi-based OQAL Angel Investors, Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Fund, UAE-based Global Ventures, and Saudi-based Impact 46 led the range in MENA-based investments, where local investors accounted for almost 60% of total active investors in 2021, international participation has picked up exponentially as well. By the end of the year, the number of international investors like Global Founders Capital, Y Combinator, 500 Global, and even Sequoia Capital had more than doubled since the full year 2020.

Verofax is a Microsoft Gold Partner and has secured a global network of distributors and resellers, and co-selling on enterprise solution platforms including Microsoft Appsource, Amazon AWS, and Ant Group Antchain. In light of this platform-boosting investment, Wassim Merheby, CEO of Verofax told TradeArabia, "Our solution helps brands turn their products into a direct-to-consumer communication channel and deliver amazing experiences to drive growth and boost loyalty while also promoting greener product choices and ESG auditability. Verofax also helps turn give-aways into collectable and tradeable NFTs, interoperable across several metaverse environments. We are thrilled to be joined by investors that will help accelerate our growth trajectory through their collective expertise, network, and leadership.

The funds will be used to expand the company's sales and marketing activities on a global level, ahead of a planned Series A round later in 2022. Verofax solutions are applicable to a wide range of industries (Retail and CPG) and are already used by leading brands such as Anheuser Busch Inc.Robert Cohen, Managing Director of lead investor Benson Oak Ventures, concluded "We have a very specific investment thesis that brands will leverage Web 3 & NFTs to reinvent their engagement & business models with consumers, creating entirely new service categories. Verofax has demonstrated early product-market fit, leveraging its proprietary technology to sell its Traceability solution to many different types of brands and help them navigate this new world. We have been incredibly impressed by Wassim and the whole Verofax team, and thrilled to be making this our first investment in the UAE."