Saudi 'Flexible Staffing' Startup Sabbar Secures $4M Series A Funding

Saudi-based tech startup Sabbar, which specialises in flexible staffing across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has secured $4 million in a pre-series A round led by STV with participation from previous investors Derayah VC and SEEDRA Ventures.

Sabbar will use the new funds to expand its services across MENA and Pakistan. The startup will also use the investment to broaden its scope to include the warehousing, logistics, and tourism industries. 

Sabbar works to streamline the hiring and staffing of blue-collar workers in industries with notoriously high turnover rates, such as retail, hospitality, and entertainment. Sabbar takes care of sourcing, interviews, vetting, training, placement, shift scheduling, worker payments, and all that falls in between. By doing so, the company takes on the heavy lifting of the recruitment process, relieving its customers from the significant cost and time commitments.

Founded in 2019 by Mohamed T. Ibrahim, Abdulrahman AlMudaiheem, and Afnan Sherbeeni, Sabbar has been avidly working to disrupt flexible staffing by assessing the pain points of their partner companies and better understanding worker motivation with a hyper-localised approach. With more than 70,000 workers currently on their registration waiting list, Sabbar endeavors to transform the perception of blue-collar jobs and offers its workforce opportunities to upskill as well as receive full-time perks and benefits.

Currently, the platform boasts the ability to deploy workers to businesses within 60 minutes, with a fulfillment reliability rate of 98%. With its hyper-localised approach and a two-sided marketplace connecting businesses with flexible staff, Sabbar has been able to achieve a steady 40% monthly growth rate. Since its inception, the startup has fulfilled shifts for more than 150 customers including IKEA, Toys ‘R’ Us, Domino’s Pizza, and Tamimi Markets.