Saudi startup Salla secures $130M pre-IPO investment led by Investcorp

Saudi Arabia-based SaaS provider Salla has secured a $130 million pre-IPO investment led by Investcorp, with participation from Sanabil Investment, a wholly-owned company by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund; and STV, a regional venture capital investor and existing shareholder of Salla.

The investment was made through Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, a platform targeting equity growth capital investments in companies with potential to access capital markets, according to a statement shared on Wamda.

Additionally, Robin Mansour, Principal at Investcorp, will be joining Salla's Board of Directors.

“We are deeply grateful for the trust and investment from Investcorp and Sanabil in Salla, which reflects their confidence in our vision and our platform’s potential. This investment propels us forward in our ongoing mission to open opportunities and empower individuals, SMEs, and enterprises to start and expand their businesses both within and beyond Saudi Arabia," said, Nawaf Hariri, CEO and Co-founder of Salla.

"We are committed to delivering innovative, customer-centric solutions that simplify and enhance the ecommerce experience for our merchants,” he added.

Founded by Nawaf Hariri and Salman Butt in 2016, Salla is a technology and product development company with over 160 developers. It offers merchants a fully-digitalised solution for ecommerce, allowing them to build websites, sell products, accept payments, and ship products.

The platform integrates with online payment solutions and logistics companies and has over 400 applications on its platform, supporting merchants throughout their online business lifecycle.

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It serves more than 80,000 active merchants in a $20 billion market with a 25% growth rate, enabling $7 billion in ecommerce sales by 2020.

Investcorp, through its Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, has invested in TruKKer, a MENA digital freight network, and NourNet, a ICT company in Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi Arabia today has over a million SMEs, having grown three times over the past five years. We believe that the Kingdom’s transformation agenda will continue to drive innovation and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, with Salla acting as a key enabler to support the development of new companies in the e-commerce ecosystem," said Walid Majdalani, Head of Emerging Markets Private Equity, Investcorp.