Riyadh - Mobily Ventures, the venture capital arm of Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), announced an investment in Dokkan Afkar, the E-Commerce startup based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dokkan Afkar, or 'shop of ideas', was founded in June 2012 and commercially launched in June 2013. The E-Commerce store, www.dokkanafkar.com, offers a wide variety of unique products with a strong appeal for the youth in Saudi Arabia and a focus on promoting local suppliers. The company has been listed among the '10 Favorite Startups of 2013' by Arabnet and named as one of the 'Hottest Middle Eastern Startups' by Inc. magazine in October 2014.
Dr. Karl-Michael Henneking, Chairman of the Board of Mobily Ventures "We expect the Saudi E-Commerce market to develop at a fast pace. With our investment in Dokkan Afkar we demonstrate Mobily's strong commitment to finance and support young, talented Saudi entrepreneurs and contribute to the development of the local startup ecosystem."
E-Commerce is growing exponentially in Saudi Arabia; the market is expected to expand to 9.9 billion Saudi riyals in 2015 ($2.7 billion USD) according to PayPal Insights E-Commerce report in the Middle East.
"The backing and investment of Mobily Ventures is very strategic for our growth plans in 2015 and beyond. We are going to expand our business to become the creative hub for products in the GCC. With communities around the globe becoming increasingly web-orientated, Dokkan Afkar is a much-welcomed venture for customers in the region, helping them gain further access to the power of online retail shopping." Ammar Waganah, Co-Founder & CEO of Dokkan Afkar.
Dokkan Afkar brings the total number of investments of Mobily Ventures to four. Besides Dokkan Afkar, Mobily Ventures has invested in Anghami, an Arab music-streaming service, in Easy Taxi Middle East a mobile taxi application, and in Hellofood Middle East a food online food delivery service. All companies are the leaders in their respective markets.
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About Mobily Ventures
Mobily Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Mobily, providing early and growth stage funding to innovative and promising companies in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry. Founded in 2013 and based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mobily Ventures invests capital and builds synergies to enable its portfolio companies to scale rapidly. www.mobilyventures.com
About Mobily
Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) was established in 2004 by a consortium led by Etisalat, the UAE based telecom conglomerate. Mobily is the official brand name of Etihad Etisalat, renowned as the second mobile service provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Mobily is listed on Tadawul (Saudi stock exhange) in December 2004 with an initial public offering (IPO), which was 51 times oversubscribed. Mobily is the fastest growing communications and technology provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. www.mobily.com.sa
About Dokkan Afkar
DokkanAfkar.com is a brainchild of young, energetic and intuitive individuals. It is their passionate inclination towards originality, fascinating ideas and appreciation for creativity and innovation that brought these blend of young minds to converge ideas - the result of which is the emergence of DokkanAfkar. The ecommerce platform sources the world, looking for the very latest gadgets, home decore, culturally inspired products and other amazing stuff. Products that are inspirational, quirky and downright fun. The platform also will give the design community the ability enter the market by contributing on designs and Dokkan Afkar to take care of production, marketing and selling process.
© Press Release 2015
