We are participating in a $30.5 million USD (~114.4m SAR) investment round in Sary, a B2B platform that’s reinventing wholesale starting with FMCG retailers and suppliers
B2B logistics can be significantly improved in Saudi Arabia, especially for the traditional FMCG retailers that make up 50% of the 41bn USD annual grocery GMV. Offline sourcing is fragmented, delivery hours are not flexible, and prices are often volitatie. Transactions are cash-based and there is minimal technology involved in inventory management and accounting specifically for traditional retailers. For that to happen in one of the biggest industries, those inefficiencies get very expensive. Not only that, retailers also do not have the order sizes to unlock quantity discounts, they lack inventory forecasting skills, and they do not have enough space to store products the way larger marts do. This reliance on ad-hoc procurement results in many phone calls, manual account book documentation to do business and massive inefficiencies. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that this lack of digitization in such an essential and notoriously opaque market has a major effect both on these businesses and on consumers, which included limited SKU availability, prolonged procurement, and increased handling, processing, and delivery costs.
In comes Sary, a B2B marketplace that connects retailers with a large network of FMCG wholesalers, suppliers, and manufacturers through their web and mobile platforms. Sary’s disruptive solution helps digitize the entire supply chain. It also unlocks retailers’ potential to find the best deals, do inventory forecasting, and take advantage of a number of other digital services, as well as gives suppliers and manufacturers accessibility and visibility to retailers.
By digitizing supply and demand along the grocery value chain, Sary is boosting efficiency of one of the most sizable sectors in the economy, delivering benefits to both the business players and the end consumer.
Sary’s performance, achievement, and most importantly, vision gives us confidence in their unique position and potential to redefine retailer-supplier relations. The company has built the necessary infrastructure and network to introduce and integrate further financial and digital solutions that will allow Sary to reinvent and fully own the wholesale supply chain across retail industry verticals.
We are very glad to have met Mohammed AlDossary, the ex-general manager at Careem, and Khaled Alsiari, the co-founders of Sary. Throughout our engagement with the team, we have seen them successfully navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, build a solid product, and grow the company quite impressively to have moved 4 million tons of goods across the country. We are very excited to see this ambitious team take the company forward towards being the go-to platform for both sides of the retail market, and are very pleased to be along for the ride.