Yawmi closes SEED funding round from Shorooq Investments
Press Release
As the new year begins, Shorooq Investments continues its strive to invest behind the entrepreneurial transformation in the region at maximum velocity. Through its investment in Yawmi – a young tech-enabled business services venture disrupting the F&B industry, Shorooq has once again honored its core mission of boosting innovation in the region, while leveraging the latest technology and business models.
At first glance, Yawmi seems like a typical F&B startup that focuses on cooking, sale and delivery of home style Levantine cuisine – but deeper within, operating as a tech-enabled business services company, Yawmi has overcome the most difficult problem F&B industry faces: the heavy initial fixed cost of a physical marketplace (restaurant), which makes the business expensive and unscalable. Despite the lack of a physical marketplace, Yawmi employs technology to focus on its customers and high-quality offerings, generating an astonishing 40% repeat customers dynamic.
“With the latest technologies and new business models, conventional industries that have been stagnant for decades are now dynamically evolving” said Shane Shin, Founding Partner at Shorooq Investments. “We are excited to join the journey of Yawmi at such an early stage and are committed to building it together – expanding across various cities, countries and regions, far surpassing a traditional reach of a typical F&B startup and all this with de-minimis capex. We are confident that Yawmi’s business model can withstand the upcoming recession, giving it a competitive edge over traditional F&B ventures” he added.
Owing to its delicious offerings such as their home styled Chicken Musakhan rolls, Mloiukhiyye and Zaytoon Fatayer (Explore more on www.yawmi.com) and highly scalable model, Yawmi has grown 10x+ in just 9 months via food ordering platforms such as Talabat, Zomato, Deliveroo and others. The Company is committed to achieving rapid, exponential growth and is set to operate 8 brands over 10 locations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, United Kingdom and beyond. Moving forward, it is building B2B relationships with catering services and event management companies while also advancing partnerships with leading platforms like LunchOn and Bill Bayt.
This staggering success of Yawmi finds its roots in its Founder Joy Kanaan, a woman of Lebanese origin with a strong passion for homemade, healthy F&B business. Since its launch in Jan. 2018, Joy has been simply amazed by the strong brand recognition and exponentially increasing demand. “Yawmi (which means every day in Arabic) was inspired by a real need. Given today’s fast-paced lifestyle, I personally needed to find good, clean, homemade meals that I could order for myself and my family. Alongside that, I also needed peace of mind that it was freshly cooked and affordable to order every day. Now with Shorooq, I am excited to further develop and integrate various tech-elements that will increase our efficiency and transform our journey.”
Shorooq has identified a unique opportunity to invest in and build the “Homemade Style Cuisines” of F&B empire that is asset-light, capex-light and scalable. “We are humbled to partner with Yawmi as we have seen Joy preparing its launch and how Yawmi has grown to become one of the most popular Levantine cuisines in UAE. We are confident that with her dedication and customer-first principles, Yawmi, JYP Bap, Taco & Bao and the other brands soon to be launched will continue to grow rapidly” says Mahmoud Adi, Founding partner at Shorooq Investments.