Rebuilding and simplifying trade: MAGNiTT interviews Penny Software Co-Founder, Iyad Aldalooj
Penny Software, a KSA-based software company for procurement management and B2B marketplace, recently successfully raised their $1.35M Seed funding round, from Wamda, Class 5 Global, Outliers VC, Plug and Play, and strategic angel investors. The startup was founded in 2020 to help businesses digitize their procurement from request-to-pay and consolidate all spending into one data-driven platform.
Following Penny Software's funding announcement, we took the opportunity to speak with CEO and Co-Founder Iyad Aldalooj to discuss the startup's plans further. Iyad shared with MAGNiTT what they were looking for from investors beyond capital, their short term expansion plans, if Penny has had any issues with user behaviour, their big picture vision for the future, and more.
Check out the interview below.
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How does Penny Software work?
Penny is a subscription-based B2B software. Penny to expenses is what CRM is to revenue. Penny consolidates and manages all spending and procurement, it provides a complete procure-to-pay solution.
How has the impact of the current climate on digital acceleration affected Penny?
COVID-19 reinforced our mission of digitizing procurement and spending. B2B purchasing is due for disruption, and COVID-19 simply accelerated that urgency.
Have you had any problems with user behaviour? Do companies tend to stick to what they know rather than trust in a new digital platform? And how have you overcome this?
We are new to the market, but based on our short experience, we have witnessed the complete opposite. The willingness to digitize and systemize has certainly exceeded our expectations.
What are some of your key learnings from your time at Careem that you have brought to Penny Software?
1. Culture eats strategy for lunch
2. Raise the bar high
3. Build something big and meaningful
What were you looking for from your investors, beyond capital?
The last thing we were looking for in an investor was capital. We were keen on having a mixture of investors with different backgrounds and experiences. We needed B2B experiences, Saudi market experiences, as well as digital scale experiences, which I believe we found.
Can you share some of Penny’s short-term plans for expansion with us?
We are currently building the largest B2B marketplace in Saudi, to be launched in December 2020. We believe digitizing sourcing is integral to our mission of digitizing procurement.
What do you foresee as the largest challenges to scaling Penny in MENA and beyond?
There is a crystal clear product-market-fit we are receiving from the market. In B2B, establishing your name and reputation is crucial, we expect this to take time. Once that is established, we see no obstacle to scale Penny globally.
Meanwhile, we are directing our full focus and energy into serving our customers and giving them the best value possible.
What is your big picture vision for the future of Penny?
Our big picture vision for Penny is to be the ultimate global business platform, rebuilding, and simplifying trade.
Finally, what advice would you give to yourself five years ago?
Be humble, and learn. You will fall, but you will get back up.
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