Dubai’s AI-Driven E-Commerce Market BulkWhiz Closes Series A Funding Round Led by Global Investors

BulkWhiz, the Middle East’s first AI-driven bulk value e-commerce platform closes its Series A round of funding supported by BECO Capital and other regional investors from the UAE, Kuwait, China, and the US, including MSA Capital, 500 Startups and Faith Capital. The exact amount of the investment was undisclosed but several publications have reported it to be a multi-million-dollar deal.

The recent investment round will allow Bulkwhiz to continue personalising their customer’s grocery shopping experience and streamlining the grocery e-commerce value chain for greater benefits. It will also continue to upscale Bulkwhiz proprietary artificial intelligence (AI), as well as adding new channels and new markets.

“We are very excited to be scaling our platform to address a huge market opportunity across the region through leveraging our homegrown technology,” says Amira Rashad, CEO and co-founder of BulkWhiz.

BulkWhiz was established in 2016, launched officially in 2017, and expanded rapidly to cover the UAE, witnessing a promising month-on-month growth of 30%. In 2018, BulkWhiz became the first woman-led MENA-based startup to become part of the Harvard Business School Curriculum, covering teachings on entrepreneurship, leadership, business negotiation and work-life balance for and from the region.

“As a mom, I am acutely aware of the challenges of grocery shopping from wasted time, and running out, to not getting proper service or value for money. Frankly, I am excited that BulkWhiz is addressing all these challenges one by one for MENA consumers,” adds Rashad.

According to industry reports, grocery accounts for around $175 billion across the MENA, however, the grocery e-commerce market is under indexed below %1, in comparison to 8% in more advanced markets. BulkWhiz has built its own proprietary AI technology to leverage the transforming e-commerce landscape while focusing on bulk buying as the industry moves towards an Internet of Things (IoT) future.

Read more about Bulkwhiz in our interview with the founder earlier.