KSA-Based Food Delivery Startup Barakah Raises $300k in Pre-Seed Round
Barakah is creating the first discounted surplus marketplace in Saudi Arabia, enabling businesses to monetise unsold food, and allowing consumers to access affordable meals.
Barakah, a KSA-based food delivery startup, raised $300,000 in a pre-seed round from Alriyadah Investments, a Saudi real estate and energy development fund.
Founded in 2021 by Rabah Habiss and Munira AlMuammar, Barakah tackles food waste by allowing restaurants, hotels, bakeries and grocery stores to list their surplus food on its app for consumers to buy at a discount.
According to the startup, food waste amounts to $1.2 trillion globally, representing 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. To address this socio-economic issue, Barakah looked to create the first discounted surplus marketplace in Saudi Arabia. In doing so, they enable businesses to monetise unsold food, and allow consumers to access affordable meals, all while saving food from going to waste.
Startups in Saudi Arabia have been receiving significant interest from investors this year. In H1 2022, startups in the kingdom have received $584 million over 79 transactions, a 245% YoY increase in funding and a 26% increase in transactions from H1 2021, according to KSA Venture Investment Report by Magnitt. Some Saudi startups leading this growth include Foodics, which raised $170 million in April 2022, and Yaa, which raised $2.1 million in March this year.
