This funding round saw participation from key investors such as 500 Global, DASH Ventures, Jahez Group, and others, pointing to the industry’s confidence in Omniful’s potential to reshape the retail sector in the UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Omniful’s core innovation lies in its sophisticated systems designed for ordering, warehouse management, and transport management. These systems empower merchants to leverage hyperlocal and omnichannel commerce effectively, allowing for efficient order management and real-time inventory control. Additionally, the technology extends its benefits to third-party logistics providers, streamlining their workflows for enhanced efficiency.

Mostafa Abolnasr, Omniful’s Co-founder and CEO, shared insights into the startup’s inception, citing the pain points experienced by merchants. These challenges include aligning various sales channels, managing inventory flows, ensuring stock accuracy, and optimizing picking and fulfillment times. Abolnasr, along with co-founder Alankrit Nishad, drew inspiration from market research indicating that existing legacy software failed to meet customer needs—being both hard to scale and expensive, with prolonged deployment times.

Omniful’s vision centers around the fundamental pillars of speed, accuracy, scale, and efficiency, as they strive to rebuild and enhance technologies essential for the future of supply chain, hyperlocal omni-channel retail, and e-commerce operations. The startup is committed to providing impactful solutions, particularly for small merchants, aligning with their mission to alleviate pain points in the industry.

The benefits of Omniful’s technology extend to both large enterprises and small merchants, offering capabilities to leverage different sales channels and significantly reduce workforce costs per store. Notably, the technology has demonstrated the potential to cut fulfillment time by up to 70%, positioning Omniful as a transformative force in the industry.

Omniful’s early clients include major retailers and third-party logistics providers in key markets such as KSA and the UAE. With a globalized product capable of handling a minimum of 3 million orders per day per client, Omniful has set its sights on expansion. Plans include reaching new customer bases in regions such as Africa and India, where the startup has already established a research and development center.

Tammer Qaddumi, General Partner at VentureSouq, described the company’s potential impact as a borderless solution with applications across diverse markets. He emphasized the role Omniful could play in enhancing retail franchises and unifying processes for cross-border operations, positioning the startup as a key player in the evolving dynamics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

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The startup will now offer a complete spectrum of e-commerce support services, including payment gateways, API integration for shipping, warehousing, fulfillment, and advisory. It has also expanded to Saudi Arabia, where it will be headquartered from now.

Investors in the round were Launch Africa VC, 500 Global, Riyadh Angels, Alex Angels, Al Tuwaijri Fund and Saudi angel investor Faisal AlAbdulsalam.

Founded by Waleed Rashed to link small merchants to e-commerce support, SideUp’s partner service providers enable merchants to sell in 45 countries, which has opened up new markets that had previously been inaccessible by small enterprises.

The startup currently serves 2,000 e-commerce businesses, with the opportunity to access cash collection service and credit to expand their businesses. Its portfolio has grown 30% month-on-month, achieving over $500,000 Gross Merchandise Volume per month.

Added to its plans, SideUp plans to grow its clientele base by scaling in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and expanding to at least two other countries before the end of 2023, to tap the burgeoning e-commerce sector in different regions.

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The program received over 590 applicants from the MENA region, making it one of the most competitive batches to date with an acceptance rate of less than 2.5%. For the first time, the highest number of applications came from Saudi Arabia, at 159.

The Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program provides pre-seed and seed-stage startups across the Middle East and North Africa region with the foundation they need to validate and scale their business at both a regional and global level.

Companies selected in the 4th batch are focused on developing solutions that address issues across a diverse range of sectors, including Fintech, Food & Beverage, Agtech, Healthtech and Insurtech. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE are the top 3 countries of origin for this batch.

“We have been working closely with Batch 4 founders since September 2022 to help pave their way to success. They join the 39 companies that have already graduated from the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program since our launch more than a year ago. Despite global economic headwinds, we continue to strongly believe in the potential of the Saudi and MENA startup ecosystem,” said Amal Dokhan, General Partner at 500 Global MENA.

“The growing interest in the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program is testament to the unwavering commitment among startups to innovate and develop effective solutions to everyday issues. The increased participation from the top 3 geographies is a positive indication to the deepening entrepreneurial drive in Saudi and the MENA region. We look forward to this year’s Demo Day and to continue enabling great minds, ideas and companies,” said Sanabil Spokesperson.

The 12-week program offers founders one-on-one mentorship with a focus on business strategy development, fundraising, and growth. Demo Day, scheduled for the 4th of December, 2022 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh, is the final stop for the program where the 15 applicants present to a live audience of key stakeholders, including accredited investors, corporates and industry professionals. The event is also livestreamed to a wider audience on YouTube.

Here are Batch 4 companies:

1. AMWAL (Egypt): A sharia-compliant crowd-lending platform that connects individual investors to short-term, funding opportunities with SMBs helping them fulfill their transactions.
2. Deben (Egypt): Empowers CFOs to analyze, report, forecast, transact – manage your cash efficiently – no matter who your business banks with.
3. Egab (Egypt): A platform that connects reputable media outlets to exclusive high-quality stories by engaging journalists in hard-to-reach areas.
4. Eighty6 (UAE): A B2B marketplace for restaurants’ and suppliers’ daily procurement needs.
5. FarmUnboxed (UAE): Digitizes the international food supply chain by enabling supermarkets to source better quality produce with farm traceability.
6. Joy (Saudi Arabia): A one-stop app that delivers car services with affordable prices while ensuring quality and accessibility.
7. Karaz (Saudi Arabia): A holistic solution that enables people with diabetes to live better lives using gamification, IOT & real time data.
8. Medicarri (Saudi Arabia): A B2B medical marketplace connecting clinics with medical suppliers in one place.
9. Mod5r (Saudi Arabia): A fintech app that helps anyone to make automated, recurring investments to grow their wealth in an easy and secure way.
10. Monak (Oman): Fintech that provides financial inclusion and life services to migrants via partnered networks in the middle east.
11. Neqabty (Egypt): A community-based fintech platform that digitizes the financial and medical services of syndicates and labor unions, making them more accessible and affordable to their members.
12. NutriCal (UAE): A GCC-based food intelligence SaaS platform that powers F&B businesses and government authorities with nutritional analysis as well as dynamic and compliant food labels.
13. Stuck (Saudi Arabia): Live, on-demand language support for individuals and businesses to provide quality and hassle-free writing.
14. Walzay (Saudi Arabia): Helps MENA companies hire global experienced, pre-verified tech talent for full-time roles while reducing the total hiring time from 3 months to 1.
15. Wellxai (UAE): Provides individuals and companies with insurance that enables and rewards habits like physical activity, mental wellness and healthy eating.

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Howard, most recently Director of External Relations at SoftBank Investment Advisers, joins 500 Global as the firm continues to scale globally and identify new opportunities across markets and product solutions.

As 500 Global expands its investments to include later stages, Howard will collaborate with global asset allocators to drive key strategic initiatives.

“Saskia has an impressive track record of building and scaling global funds and strategic initiatives; her unique experience and perspective will help us accelerate our global growth strategy,” said Courtney Powell, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner at 500 Global. “We are thrilled to welcome Saskia to the team and look forward to partnering with her on many key initiatives.”

“I was drawn to 500 Global because of the firm’s outstanding credentials, which include investing in 51 unicorns, and the opportunity to reinvest as its companies mature and scale,” said Howard. “As a firm investing at different stages of a company’s growth, 500 Global has unique offerings that allow it to unlock long-term value. I’m excited to be joining the team and can’t wait to further our mission of uplifting people and economies around the world through entrepreneurship.”

Howard joined SoftBank in the early stages of the SoftBank Vision Fund, where she partnered with the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and leadership team on strategy and execution to help build one of the world’s largest regulated asset managers for technology investments.

Before SoftBank, Howard was Director of Institutional Client Coverage at UBS Asset Management, responsible for some of the firm’s highest profile sovereign and institutional relationships across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

On the other hand, 500 Global has a track record of boosting the growth of startup companies. The VC has backed over 5,000 founders representing more than 2,600 companies operating in 81 countries and has invested in 51 companies valued at over $1 billion, as well as 140+ companies valued at over $100 million — including private, public and exited companies.

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The fund will enable BetaStore’s expansion into Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon by the end of this year, decentralizing its products and services to serve more informal retailers.

The fund was received from 500 Global, VestedWorld, and Loyal VC, bringing the investment raised by BetaStore to $3 million to date.

BetaStore makes it possible for small businesses to seamlessly source their inventory and access capital to scale their business growth.

The startup is on a goal to reach the over 10 million informal retail outlets representing more than 90% of the total trade of essential goods; where in Nigeria alone, more than 1,500,000 outlets are selling way beyond $12 billion worth of FMCG goods.

Through the platform co-founded by Steve Dakayi-Kamga and Leo-Armel Tchoudjang, informal retailers can order products via AI-powered channels using SMS, WhatsApp chat and other Apps, after which they would have their goods delivered to their stores. The company provides smart financing to these informal retailers and using the BetaStore wallet, they can repay loans, deposit money for operations, send, receive and save money.

Also, BetaStore helps manufacturers make data-driven informed decisions to scale up their businesses efficiently. It is set to fully launch its financing in July, following a pilot program carried out last year, involving 200 retailers.

BetaStore affirms that its customer base has grown 10 times compared to what it was at the beginning, with revenue also increasing at a commendable rate; its new growth plan will ensure the increase of these, including the rollout of its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) product. 

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ThankUCash was launched by Connected Analytics in 2018 with a mission to create solutions that help SMEs succeed while increasing consumer buying power and opportunities.

Led by Venture Capitalist firms 500 Global and Unicorn Growth Capital, ThankUCash’s seed round included participation from U.S.-based accelerator Expert Dojo, Predictive VC, SaaS Growth Ventures, Betatron Venture Group and Accelerex Holdings. Angel investors such as Andrew Dell, former CEO of HSBC and Craig Fenton of Google UK also participated in the round.

The funds will enable ThankUCash expand across Nigeria and other countries such as Ghana and Kenya, as well as increase its team strength and improve its product offerings.

Simeon Ononobi, Suraj Supekar, Madonna Ononobi and Harshal Gandole founded ThankUCash to empower emerging businesses and build an infrastructure for rewards, loyalty, deals, buy now, pay later and cashback. Having recorded over 600,000 users and onboarded over 1,000 stores on its platform, the company affirms to have processed over $80,000,000 in transaction volume.

The company makes profits through payments made by merchants on every purchase made in their stores. For instance, ThankUCash gets a 1.5% commission for every customer it brings into the store to redeem a 5% cashback item. The company also takes commissions for deals and plans to charge a heavy onboarding fee for businesses that want to use its APIs for its services, including buy now, pay later.

ThankUCash’s cashback product enables merchants to get more walk-in customers. The company is improving the deals category, allowing merchants to sell products fast by hiring ex-managers of DealDey, a Nigerian defunct deals company. 

Currently building its buy now pay later infrastructure — which gives businesses a chance to sell products regardless of customers having money or not — ThankUCash plans to add a fourth offering soon — a remittance product where merchants can sell directly to the diaspora.

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