Investcorp leads $130mln pre-IPO investment round for Saudi Arabia’s Salla

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Investcorp, a Bahrain-based alternative asset manager, has led a $130 million pre-IPO investment round in Salla, a Saudi Arabian SaaS e-commerce enablement platform.

Sanabil Investment, a wholly owned company by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) also participated in the funding round, alongside regional venture capital investor STV, according to a press release.

Investcorp’s investment in Salla was facilitated by Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, a platform targeting equity growth capital investments across a range of companies primarily based in Saudi Arabia with the potential to access the capital markets.

Principal at Investcorp Robin Mansour is set to join the Salla’s board of directors.

Walid Majdalanim, Head of Emerging Markets Private Equity at Investcorp, said: “We believe that the Kingdom’s transformation agenda will continue to drive innovation and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, with Salla acting as a key enabler to support the development of new companies in the e-commerce ecosystem”.

He added: “We see great interest in the potential of Saudi companies to IPO, especially as scale-ups and unicorns demonstrate local and regional success. Salla has managed to grow exponentially and deliver best-in-class margins.”

For his part, Nawaf Hariri, CEO and co-founder of Salla, stated: “We are deeply grateful for the trust and investment from Investcorp and Sanabil in Salla, which reflects their confidence in our vision and our platform’s potential.”

“This investment propels us forward in our ongoing mission to open opportunities and empower individuals, SMEs, and enterprises to start and expand their businesses both within and beyond Saudi Arabia,” Hariri noted.

Established in 2016 in Makkah, Salla promotes Saudi Arabia's entrepreneurial ecosystem. It offers SMEs and entrepreneurs a SaaS solution for e-commerce ambitions.

Salla operates in a $20 billion e-commerce market, facilitating $7 billion in sales since 2020 with over 80 thousand active merchants.

The platform has 160 developers focused on product development. Its solution enables quick setup of e-commerce websites, online sales, payments, and product shipments.