KSA E-commerce Enabler Salla Sets Sights on MENA-wide Expansion Following $8.5 Million Investment
The e-commerce industry has historically lagged in the MENA region, but in recent years has begun to grow ahead of the global average with an annual growth rate of 25%.
Saudi e-commerce platform, Salla, has signalled its intention to increase its footprint in the Kingdom and expand MENA-wide, after it secured $8.5M in a Series A funding, led by STV. Salla allows companies to easily set up Arabic e-commerce stores and, since launching in 2016, has processed over 8 million orders through the 10,000-plus stores currently on the platform.
With e-commerce becoming more and more of a necessity for retailers and vendors of all kinds, setting-up an independent online store often comes with plenty of technical and operational hurdles. Now more valuable than ever in the wake of the pandemic, Salla offers SMEs the chance to set up online stores for free. It has found popularity over the last few years for the fact that it doesn’t take a percentage of each order, instead working with a three-tiered system to make its profits.
“We believe that our easy-to-use and business-friendly platform, coupled with our Arabic offering and our flexible subscription plans, sets us apart from our competitors,” Salman Butt, Co-founder and COO at Salla, said. “With STV and our previous investors, we are confident that we will be able to capture an even larger part of the market.”
