Saudi online grocery startup Nana Direct raises $6.6m in funding

Saudi online grocery platform Nana Direct has raised $6.6m in funding.

The funding was co-led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and Riyadh-based Impact46, a statement said.

The deal marks the debut investment for the partnership between MEVP and Impact46.

Other investors include Watar Partners, Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) Company and Wamda Capital.

Nana is an online grocery platform currently serving 13 cities across Saudi Arabia. Its core product is a technology suite that connects customers, in-store pickers, supermarkets and delivery services.

Its technologies built completely in-house, the Nana platform has tripled in turnover in the past year.

The company said it is in advanced stages of on-boarding new stores and supermarkets to offer greater availability to users. The new capital will be used to accelerate growth plans, continue to build the team and further develop vendor relations.

Nana founder and CEO Sami Alhelwah said: “Groceries form a significant fraction of a Saudi family’s monthly expenditure, and I believed the experience they get in return could be enhanced manifold. All around MENA more and more offline retail verticals from electronics to food were moving online, and this is what led me to Nana, a supermarket in your mobile phone.”

Middle East-focused venture capital firm MEVP invests in early and growth stage companies in the region, with a focus on the GCC and Levant countries.

“At MEVP, we like to back strong founders with exceptional technical capabilities, who are building truly differentiated products,” said Walid Mansour, partner and chief investment officer at MEVP.

Nabeel Koshak, CEO of SVC added: “Our goal is to minimise current equity financing gaps for startups in Saudi Arabia by co-investing in different sectors. We believe in startups such as Nana Direct with growth potential.”