Floward & Nana raised their Pre-IPO Series C

Two of Faith Capital’s outstanding portfolio companies announced at “LEAP” their Pre-IPO Series C Round.

Floward: 

During its participation in the technology conference “LEAP” in Saudi Arabia, Floward, the go-to e-commerce platform that delivers flowers and gifts across the UK and MENA region, announced its Pre-IPO Series C round. The company secured $156M led by Aljazira Capital, Rainwater Partners, and STV.

Since its establishment in 2017, Floward Chairman & CEO, Mr. Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani has been expanding the company’s footprint and currently operates in 36 cities in nine countries across the MENA and the UK.

Floward will utilize the funds to maintain and strengthen its M&A strategy and target local gifting platforms while relying more on artificial intelligence and machine learning to meet the demand of users and enhance customers experience.

In the announcement made by Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani at “LEAP”, it was mentioned that with the trust and help of the team, Floward’s valuation grew by 3.8x since their last funding round a year and a half ago in spite of the challenging global investment climate. In the year 2022, Floward created more than 1,000 direct jobs, and partnered with +400 brands and local talents who dedicated their time to making Floward a leading player in the gifting and flower industry.

Mr Naif Almesned, CEO and managing Director of AlJazira Capital said: “We are happy to lead the Series C investment round and support Floward in their business ambitions. We are confident in the team’s ability to lead the company to a successful and prosperous future. The transaction marks Aljazira Capital’s commitment to enabling local and regional business ventures that make an impact on our society.”

Nana: 

Nana, the leading e-grocery delivery platform in the Middle East, raised one of the largest investment rounds at the level of Saudi start-ups in the sector. The company secured $133M aiming to expand its services across the region. This investment round was led by Kingdom Holding Company and Uni Ventures. Other investors in this round were Sultan Holding, Al-Jasser Holding, Red Diamond Company, Dallah Al-Baraka Group, AlJammaz Holding and several others. It was also announced that Nana has entered the “Unicorn” billion start-ups program which will definitely help Nana in achieving their goals and targets.

Nana was launched in 2016 by Sami Alhelwah, Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Ahmad Alsamani and Bakr Elsherif as the first platform in Saudi Arabia to offer sale and delivery of groceries in Saudi Arabia. Nana’s technology is user friendly and allows buyers to have a remote experience from the comfort of their homes. The company has created a closed-shop model in Saudi Arabia, where customers can get their deliveries within 15 minutes.

Nana plans to use the funding to elevate its footprint in the Middle East and North Africa region and seek to increase its market share with an estimated market size of $165bn. Nana’s chief executive Sami El-Helweh comments: “This step motivates us to strengthen the position of the Nana platform to be the leading company in the region, as the success of this round is in the interest of our plans to expand and continue to provide more diversified services to serve all stakeholders,”

“We are happy to close this investment round for Nana, and we continue to secure exceptional investment opportunities that support the entrepreneurship ecosystem and bold investments within the Saudi and GCC markets,” said Nayef Aljebreen, founder and CEO of Uni-Ventures.