We are co-leading a $20 million USD (~75m SAR) investment round in Foodics, the leading cloud point-of-sale solution in MENA. Foodics is further expanding in Saudi, growing into new geographies, and bringing new capabilities in FinTech.
It’s not only about point-of-sale; it’s about running the business. SMEs, especially in the food & beverage segment but equally true for broader retail, have been shifting from on-premises single-function POS to cloud-based full-stack retail management solutions. Countries are going cashless (card payments are up 34% YoY in Saudi), retail analytics is becoming more relevant, and end-to-end system integrations is now a priority. Point-of-sale systems are in a unique place to enable much of these needs.
At STV, when assessing a sector, we have a bias to look for the “single source of truth”; which are players who fall in a juncture in the value chain enabling them to drive industry-wide growth through data, giving them access to adjacencies, and serve as the gateway for others to plug-in. Foodics is exactly that.
Foodics started in 2014 by Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani. What began as a two-person shop in Khobar grew to become a 150+ employee company operating from four countries. Their growth story, from a few small restaurants, to landing the first enterprise customer, to becoming a licensed fintech company, is a great playbook for building high-growth §B2B brands. Today, Foodics is critical infrastructure for over 10,000 businesses, helping them delight their customers, access capital, and stay competitive.
We invest in resilient and innovative entrepreneurs who go after bold strategies. Ahmad and Mosab are the best examples of that profile. We’re excited to see them build next generation solutions for MENA retail and we are proud to join Sanabil, Endeavor Catalyst, and RTF in this journey.