The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh backed F&B as well as retail tech start-up Foodics servicing for the retail as well as food and beverage industries, along with a partnership with the Maalem Financing has rolled out a $100 Million micro loan fund on Tuesday for supporting the Small, Medium-sized enterprises here on Tuesday by launching Foodics Capital-its micro lending arm.
The Firm further stated in the statement that within the post Covid-19 era, their latest lending arm Foodics Capital, will be able to support kingdom’s F&B merchants via Sharia-compliant micro loans which will be ranging in between $5,000 as well as $1,33,000, depending upon the client’s preferences and their requirements.
Ahmad Al-Zaini, the Co-founder as well as Chief Operations Executive of the firm stated that “Within the current ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic turmoil, the cash flow has hugely become the core pain point for survival of the small businesses and for their owners at the moment, for which they wish to be able to support them a one-stop shop or solution that aids in covering up all their financial requirements and then aid in swiftening up their expansion rate. The Finance offering was always the integral part of their vision and the Foodics group is proud in order to be associated for providing access for the merchants for financing their working capital woes by providing them aid with direct access for loans.”
The Foodics’ CFO Abdullah Tahboub stated that “this fund is all set to develop SME lending, as well they will enable them to make them swifter as well in easing up the lending than majority of other lending facilities within the territory. Their application is indeed quite straightforward and all are finished online on their platform as the platform grants the initial approval within just less than 24 hours and the concluding approval within just seven working days. He also further added that depending on the loan requirement of Small, Medium Sized Businesses it will aid in extending loans worth $5,000(SAR 18,750) as well as up to $1,33,000 (SAR5,00,000) within the territory. He was also quick to add that the fund processing will be made swifter and will be readily available as well as flexible lending process than majority of other facilities within the territory.”
For launching the fund, Food Capital has joined an alliance with Saudi-Arabia based Maalem Finance-a provider that is backed by Sharia-compliant consumer as well as SME based financing. The initial phase will primarily be beneficial for the firm’s existing clients, who are pre-qualified, as well will then be rolled out more broadly across kingdom before the year end closure.
Since its inception within 2014, the firm has already has established a robust presence within the Kingdom and as well as the UAE with the firm’s robust presence felt across MENA territory with its offices in and around Saudi Arabia, the UAE as well as off lately the Egyptian territory. It is also lately in the process of ceasing out the Series-B funding round.
The Foodics offers a well-knit restaurant management platform that aids in the owners of food joints, as well as in smooth operation of businesses in more efficient manner. It has already had serviced in excess of 10,000 clients and have proceeded over a billion-dollar orders via the platform, via which $200 Million transactions measured within gross merchandise value are generated each month.
It raised a $4 Million in pre-Series B funding from Riyad Taqnia Fund, Tech Invest Com, Naseel Holding and Kuwait-based Faith Capital the previous year. It also raised $4m in an earlier Series A funding round during 2017. Foodics is currently available in English, Arabic and French and the firm is planning to issue a Spanish version of its software in the forthcoming time frame.
