KSA-based startup Foodics expands into Egypt
Foodics, a Food & Beverage and Retail tech startup based in Saudi Arabia, has officially announced today its geographical expansion into the Egyptian market. Having already established a strong presence in KSA and the UAE since its inception in 2014, this latest expansion comes on the back of closing its Series A round, with the company now fundraising for series B.
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The tech startup, which offers an all in one Point Of Sale Solution and management platform which helps restaurants and cloud kitchens owners run their business, has so far successfully serviced over five thousand customers and processed over a billion orders through the Foodics SaaS (“Software As A Service”) platform, totaling over $2B GMV transactions in 2019 and catering to more than 5,000 clients and over 10,000 F&B outlets. 
Ahmad Al-Zaini, Co-Founder and CEO commented, “With an F&B Market estimated to be worth around $15B and growing at a 15-20% rate over the next 5 years, Foodics’ expansion into Egypt was always an integral part of our business plan.
"Since our inception, we have learned to constantly take care of our clients as our top priority across all our markets. Our talent strategy has also been key to this, hiring customer-centric team members in every country we operate in. In fact, our relationship with our clients is more of a partnership. Our ambition is to build and empower the F&B community and develop its eco-system at large."
Al-Zaini added, “Our objective is to continue to accelerate the F&B and retail end to end digitization across the region and beyond. As our proprietary technologies continue to add value and facilitate the growth of the industry, we are confident that our latest market entry into Egypt will be a tremendous success”.
Starting its Egyptian operations in Cairo city in the prestigious Masaken Sheraton, the Egyptian Foodics team will first focus on its SaaS platform and hardware for restaurants, later followed by the launch of its Foodics NOW products.
Ahmad Al-Zaini shared with MAGNiTT how the current climate impacted the startup prior to the expansion, "Similar to any other business, Foodics was impacted, especially during the quarantine period. However, things quickly began to pick up again once that was over, as during that period, we studied the behaviour of customers and decided to introduce our new products earlier than originally planned. For example, we activated the Gift Card feature for all our clients’ businesses free of charge for two months, in order for them to rebuild cash flow. We also introduced our contactless payment system, as users were worried about using the regular contact device, and also fast-tracked our Foodics Now product launch."
It's clear that the current situation has undoubtedly accelerated digitisation within the sector, Al-Zaini added what his long-term hopes are for this and whether this new digital climate is here to stay, "Digitisation is a fact that we have to deal with on a daily basis. It impacts all aspects of our lives. It provides us with greater efficiency at a lower cost; it also improves the day to day experiences. All businesses are going digital and we are perfectly situated to help F&B and retail businesses in taking this route. Digitisation will only increase and become better with time."
Mohammad Ayman, the newly appointed Egypt Country Manager said, “Given the market potential, we have ambitious targets for Egypt. During our pilot phase, our 360° SaaS Ecosystem was in fact extremely well received by Egyptian businesses, with our sales team in Egypt already successfully closing over 15 new businesses. Now that we are officially launching, we are forecasting closing well over 50 businesses before year-end.”
The company is set to make waves by replicating the tremendous growth and success achieved in its existing markets, combining the knowledge of local and regional market experts along with their international experience of the industry and SaaS products.
Foodics aspiration is to become the go-to company for every business in the region and the one-stop-shop for all their business requirements and needs. Their long-term vision on a global scale is to become a leading Fintech and Software trusted partner for retail and F&B owners.
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.