Hungry to grow: MENA's top 3 F&B funding rounds from Q1 2021
If you're fasting for Ramadan, now might be a good time to look away, as we are about to shed some light on MENA's Food & Beverage industry!
Based on data from MAGNiTT's Q1 2021 MENA Food & Beverage Venture Investment Report, the regional industry accounted for the largest share of funding across all industries in MENA during Q1 2021, with deployed capital in this quarter alone equalling 49% of all capital deployed in the sector during all of 2020.
Albeit, Fintech has received its fair share of the limelight in years gone, F&B has continued to make strides and establish itself as a core startup industry within MENA.
This is only further highlighted by trends such as the average MENA F&B ticket size standing at $5.5M in the first quarter of 2021.
With such data to whet our appetites, here are the top 3 regional F&B deals, that also collectively accounted for three quarters of the region’s total funding deployed in the sector.
1. Foodics
$20M
Founded in 2014, Foodics is a Saudi Arabian cloud-based restaurant management system that manages sales, transactions, inventory, employee schedules, and customer relationships.
The startup also optimizes restaurant operations using the Foodics iPad point of sale (POS) solution, menu, notifier, kitchen display system, customer display, mobile application, call centre, inventory application and the power of it's operational system.
Back in February, Foodics announced a $20M Series B round, led by Sanabil Investments and co-led by STV, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, Elm, and Derayah. The startup intends to utilise the new funds to grow its share in existing markets, accelerate its international expansion, as well as expand its Fintech offering.
2. iKcon
$20M
iKcon (Innovative Kitchen Concepts) is a UAE-based tech-enabled cloud kitchen operator that procures, cooks, and delivers food on behalf of restaurants and brand owners, utilizing their networks of satellite kitchens in prime locations to quickly bring to market F&B brands from existing chains to new concepts. It provides a kitchen-as-a-service platform, driven by operational excellence and technology, to empower partners to rapidly expand their geographical and customer reach.
Founded in 2019, the startup announced its $20M Series A fundraise in March, with the round led by regional investment groups including Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Group, AlTouq Group, and Derayah Ventures among others, to accelerate Saudi Arabia abd regional expansion plans, and the development of iKcon’s proprietary technology stack.
3. Kitch
$15M
Kitch is a UAE-based delivery focused cloud kitchen and store-front operator in MENA with a mission to modernize the F&B industry and take the cloud-kitchen concept to the next level.
Being the youngest of the three startups, Kitch was founded in 2020, and through privately raised capital, the startup secured a $15M Series A fundraise earlier in January. Launching first in key markets such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the food-tech startup is set to open four delivery kitchens in Riyadh within the first quarter of 2021 and an additional 15 kitchens across the GCC in the rest of the year.
Hungry for more data? Access more insights on the MENA F&B industry in our new report!
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