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Tuesday, 6 December 2022

OneOrder closes USD 3 mn round + SideUp raises USD 1.2 mn

One Order raises USD 3 mn in Nclude-led seed round: Tech-enabled F&B logistics platform OneOrder has closed a USD 3 mn seed round led by local fintech fund Nclude, with participation from follow-on investor A15, and Delivery Hero’s VC arm, Techcrunch reports.

About OneOrder: Founded earlier this year by restaurateur Tamer Amer (LinkedIn), the company offers a one-stop shop for restaurants to source all their produce and equipment. It seeks to address inefficiencies and fragmentation in the restaurant supply chain and standardize quality, prices and delivery times. OneOrder secured a USD 1 mn funding round led by A15 in tandem with its launch in February.

Expansion on the horizon: The startup aims to use the capital to increase its network of local warehouses. It will also explore regional expansion opportunities across Africa and the GCC, including in Saudi Arabia.

Read more: Amer was our Founder of the Week earlier this year.

VOO rebrands as SideUp + closes USD 1.2 mn seed round ahead of move to Riyadh: E-commerce platform SideUp (formerly known as VOO) raised USD 1.2 mn in a seed round from Launch Africa Ventures, 500 Global, Riyadh Angel Investors, Alexandria Angels, Al Tuwaijri Fund and Saudi angel investor Faisal Al-Abdulsalam (LinkedIn), the company said in a statement yesterday.

About SideUp: The startup was founded as logistics and on-demand delivery app VOO in 2019 before rebranding as SideUp last month. SideUp connects e-commerce players with B2B services companies who provide payment gateways, API integration, warehousing, fulfillment, and advisory. The company currently works with over 2k e-commerce businesses.

Why the rebrand? “VOO was indicative of the speed with which we moved … as we grew, and expanded our services to payment gateways, API integration for shipping, warehousing, fulfillment, advisory and much more, there was a need to highlight our role in empowering e-commerce business owners,” founder and CEO Waleed Rashed (LinkedIn) told Enterprise. The SideUp name highlights the company’s ability to work side by side with entrepreneurs, he said.

SideUp is moving its HQ from Egypt to Riyadh amid regional expansion plans: With its newly secured funding, SideUp plans to launch in Saudi Arabia over the next 12 months, and relocate its HQ from Egypt to Riyadh. Despite this, the startup says it will “double down” on its Egyptian operations, as well as target one other country in the GCC or Africa. “Being in Saudi also gives us access to new markets in the GCC as well as the rest of Africa … Here in Saudi Arabia, we have access to a young population, digital infrastructure, and small business owners who want to benefit from the e-commerce industry,” Rashed told us.

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