Baghdad-based food delivery app, Alsaree3 and sister company, Al Zajel raise six-figure Seed funding
Baghdad-based Alsaree3, a food delivery app, and it's sister company Al Zajel, which provide last-mile deliveries and e-logistics services in Baghdad, have successfully raised a six-figure Seed funding round, led by Iraq Tech Ventures (Mohammed and Laura Khudairi) and Mr. Shwan Ibrahim Taha, Chairman of Rabee Securities.
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• Alsaree3 provides high-quality customer service, fast deliveries, and an extensive selection of restaurants (450+). The startup developed their own POS technology and hardware for restaurants to use for orders which restaurants have willingly paid for themselves.
• Restrictions forced many Iraqis to become new adopters of delivery services like Alsaree3, a trend investors believe will continue as the digital literacy of Iraq’s population increases.
• Founder and CEO of Alsaree3, Bassam Al-Ateia noticed an opportunity to use his drivers for C2C, B2B and last-mile deliveries and founded Al Zajel to meet this need in the market. Together, Alsaree3 and Al Zajel share their own fleet of bikes and drivers and work with additional drivers on a contractual basis during peak hours.
Bassam Al-Ateia, said, “Alsaree3 was one of the first companies in the whole region who started developing and using Android POS systems since our start in 2018. This state-of-the-art technology enables our restaurants to accept, print, and check the history for each order. What’s more, the special M2M sim cards in these POS devices reduce the internet cost for the restaurants enormously.”
Read the full press release below.
Alsaree3, a Baghdad-based popular food delivery app, recently closed its 6-figure seed round in late August 2020. This round also included investment in its sister company, Al Zajel, which provides last-mile deliveries and e-logistics services in Baghdad.
The seed round was led by Iraq Tech Ventures (Mohammed and Laura Khudairi) and Mr. Shwan Ibrahim Taha, Chairman of Rabee Securities. Other investors in this round included Rawaz Rauf, New Venture Manager for the Hiwa Rauf Group, Bassam Falah, founder and Managing Partner of Innovest ME, and Subhi Khudairi, President of Khudairi Group.
Alsaree3 has been operational since 2018 and provides high-quality customer service, fast deliveries, and an extensive selection of restaurants (450+) in Baghdad. In addition to providing customers a seamless experience, Alsaree3 focuses on creating as much value as possible for its restaurant partners. It developed its own POS technology and hardware for restaurants to use for its orders which restaurants have willingly paid for themselves.
Founder and CEO, Bassam Al-Ateia, said, “Alsaree3 was one of the first companies in the whole region who started developing and using these Android POS systems since our start in 2018. This state-of-the-art technology enables our restaurants to accept, print, and check the history for each order. Also, it enables some of our exclusive restaurants to place offline orders. What’s more, the special M2M sim cards in these POS devices reduce the internet cost for the restaurants enormously.”
Within the past year, Mr. Al-Ateia noticed an opportunity to use his drivers for C2C, B2B, and last-mile deliveries and founded Al Zajel to meet this need in the market. Al Zajel offers an on-demand delivery service within one hour for packages weighing 2kg or less to any location in Baghdad. Together, Alsaree3 and Al Zajel share their own fleet of bikes and drivers and work with additional drivers on a contractual basis during peak hours.
Iraq Tech Ventures and its syndicate of investors were most inspired by Alsaree3’s strong set-up and the team’s ability to provide a consistent, high-quality service despite the countless challenges in Baghdad, and most recently from the restrictions due to COVID-19. Restrictions forced many Iraqis to become new adopters of delivery services like Alsaree3, a trend investors believe will continue as the digital literacy of Iraq’s population increases.
Mohammed Khudairi, of Iraq Tech Ventures, said, “Alsaree3 is incredibly strong operationally due to the founder’s investment in quality, proprietary technology and his extensive experience operating in Iraq. We have no doubts about Alsaree3 and Al Zajel’s promising performance in the future.”
This is the second venture in Iraq that was successfully brought to market by the collaboration between Iraq Tech Ventures and Shwan Ibrahim Taha. Mr. Taha said, "I am a firm believer in the future of Iraq that is led by its entrepreneurs. Through our consortium, we are proud to help Iraqi startups like Alsaree3, and we look forward to more investments in the sector."
August 2020 saw a 48% drop in the number of deals, while total funding on the other hand increased by 93% when compared to the same month last year. Discover more trends and insights in our August 2020 Dashboard Report.