A lookback at the top funded foodtech startups in the GCC region

Foodtech was valued at $233.6 billion in 2021 globally, according to Growth Market Reports. It is expected to cross $385.7 billion by 2030, increasing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 5.8% during the forecast period, 2022–2030.

A range of factors including higher food demand, rise of disposable income, government policies, accessible and affordable e-commerce distribution channels, and higher internet penetration have created a perfect storm for players in this sector. 

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) alone, the foodtech market is expected to reach $15 billion by 2025, according to a Redseer report.  

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s food sector (GCC) will record an annual growth of over 7%, noted a report by CEO Middle East. In addition to this, following the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the second-largest market for online food ordering and delivery, the report added. 

YourStory Gulf Edition research reveals that Kitopi, Pure Harvest Smart Farms, Foodics, Nana, Calo, Sahaby, and Supy, were among the top-funded Middle-Eastern food tech startups in 2022. These companies have their roots in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. 

Kitopi 

Dubai-based Kitchen as a Service (KaaS) platform Kitopi, raised $300 million in a Series C financing round led by B. Riley Financial, Chimera Investment, DisruptAD, Dogus Group, Next Play Capital, Nordstar, and SoftBank Vision Fund. 

The Series C funding brings the total capital raised by the company until now to $804 million. 

Founded in 2018, Kitopi partners and invests in food and beverage brands and restaurants enabling them to expand worldwide. It was co-founded by Mohamad Ballout, Saman Darkan, Bader Ataya, and Andy Arenas. 

The startup offers an in-house suite of applications, called Smart Kitchen Operating System, or "SKOS”. This optimises aspects of kitchen operations in real time. 

Kitopi currently operates a network of over 60 cloud kitchens in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain. It is also present in Poland. In 2019, it had expanded to the United States of America, however, it exited from the USA market post the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

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These two healthtech startups in the UAE received most funding in 2022

Pure Harvest Smart Farms

UAE-based Pure Harvest Smart Farms raised $180.5 million in an undisclosed round led by IMM Investment, Metric Capital Partners, and the Olayan Group. 

With the closure of this fund, the total amount closed by the company since inception comes around $334.4 million. 

Co-founded by Mahmoud Adi and Sky Kurtz in 2016, Pure Harvest Smart Farms is a tech-enabled sustainable agribusiness.

It is focused on year-round, pesticide-free production of premium fruits and vegetables in the challenging climatic conditions of the Arab Gulf region. It does so via controlled-environment agriculture tech-solutions such as greenhouses.

Foodics

Saudi-based Foodics raised $170 million as part of its Series C investment round led by Endeavor Catalyst, Prosus, Sanabil, Sequoia Capital India, STV, and Vision Ventures. The round brought the total funds raised by the company to a total of $197.9 million. 

Co-founded by Ahmad Al-Zaini and Musab Alothmani in 2014, Foodics offers a cloud-based all-in-one restaurant management system on an iPad in English and Arabic. It helps food and beverage (F&B) owners and merchants with end-to-end digital transformation. 

Foodics caters to traditional dine-in restaurants, cafés, quick service restaurants, bakeries, food trucks along with cloud kitchens.

It is present in six locations across the MENA including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and the Netherlands. 

Nana

Further, online grocery delivery platform, Nana raised $50 million in an undisclosed round led by Faith Capital, FIM Partners, Impact46, Jahez International Company, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Quencia Capital, STV, and Sunbulah Group. 

Including the latest capital, Nana has so far raised $78.9 million. 

Co-founded by Abdulmajeed Alsukhan and Sami Alhelwah, Nana provides doorstep deliveries of groceries and other home essentials. Established in 2016, the company is headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Calo 

Bahrain-based foodtech startup, Caloraised $13 million in a Pre-Series A round led by Al Faisaliah Group, AlRajhi Partners, Khwarizmi Ventures, Nuwa Capital, and STV. With this, the total capital raised by the company crossed $28.6 million so far. 

Co-founded by Ahmed AlRawi and Moayed Almoayed in 2019, Calo is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) foodtech company that offers personalised meal subscriptions to consumers based on their personal fitness goals. 

It functions via automatically calculating the calories and macronutrients that users need and delivering them with ready-to-eat meals. Apart from Saudi Arabia, Calo has expanded to Kuwait and the UAE.

Sahaby 

Saudi-based Sahaby closed a Pre-Series A funding, raising $8.6 million. Founded in 2021 by Abdullah AlGhamdi, Sahaby specialises in establishing cloud brands in the food and beverage (F&B) sector.

Supy 

UAE-based business-to-business (B2B) marketplace Supy raised $8.6 million in a Pre-Series A round led by AMK Investment Office, BECO Capital, COTU Ventures, Global Ventures, and Valia Ventures. The company has raised $9 million in funding so far. 

It was co-founded in 2021, by Dani El Zein, Ibrahim Bou Ncoula, and Yazeed Bin Busayyis. Supy facilitates streamlining end-to-end order processing between restaurants and suppliers. It allows users to communicate and place orders with all their suppliers, track orders and invoices, etc.