• UAE-based B2B e-commerce platform Kaso (formerly Elkaso), has raised investment from Y Combinator.
• The startup has also appointed Frank Biedka, former CTO of European e-commerce platform, Zalando, to lead Kaso’s technology development.
• Founded in 2021 by Manar Alkassar and Ahmed Soliman, Kaso digitises the ordering process between restaurants and food suppliers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
• It claims to have grown 10x to 3500 partners in six months and plans to reach $300 million in GMV by the end of this year.

Press release

Kaso (formerly Elkaso), the leading B2B platform digitizing the ordering process between restaurants and food suppliers in the UAE and KSA, has announced the appointment of Frank Biedka, former CTO of leading European e-commerce platform, Zalando, to lead Kaso’s tech.

“Biedka’s extensive experience in driving innovation through technology aligns perfectly with Kaso’s mission to revolutionize, digitize and simplify the food supply procurement process. I am excited to welcome a tech leader in the industry to continue taking Kaso to our path to reach $300m in GMV by end of this year”, said Manar Alkassar, Co-founder of Kaso.

Kaso’s leadership team expansion comes soon after getting funded by the prestigious Silicon Valley-based accelerator, Y Combinator. With an acceptance rate of less than 1.5%, the globally renowned startup accelerator is responsible for the launch of companies, including Airbnb, Dropbox, Coinbase, Stripe, and Reddit.

Co-founder of Kaso and former VP of Delivery Hero logistics, Ahmed Soliman, said,  “We are incredibly proud to now be part of the prestigious portfolio of YC companies. Kaso’s acceptance and hypergrowth are testaments to the region’s need for a digitized solution to streamline the food supply procurement. We are bridging an evident gap in the thriving $50B food supply Gulf market, with our users already reducing supply costs by 15% and reducing order errors by 80%.”

Fueled by an initial pre-seed funding round in 2021, the Dubai-based startup has grown 10x in the last six months, servicing over 3500 restaurant & supplier partners in the UAE and Saudi Arabia alone, after only eight months of operation since Kaso’s launch in June 2021.

Kaso has also revealed an extensive rebrand of the company representing the startup’s rapid evolution over the past few months. Formerly known as Elkaso, Kaso’s rebrand includes the launch of a new website, kaso.ai, introducing the company’s new visual identity, and a fresh new name and logo.

Kaso is available for download on Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store.