January 22, 2025

For acquiring and progression of the MENA E-Commerce Brands Dubai-based Opontia accumulates out $20m

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Key Highlights

  • The Seed Investment Financing round has now become one amongst the largest ever fostered out within the Middle East and Africa territory.
  • Dubai and Riyadh-backed start-up Opontia, which is within the business of acquiring as well as progression of the E-Commerce brands had driven up and raised around $20 Million within the seed funding financial round that has now become one amongst the major seed rounds in the Middle East and Africa territory.

Launched in March 2021 by Philip Johnston and Manfred Meyer, Opontia empowers E-commerce entrepreneurs to realize the full probable of their brands, both in terms of getting an exit as well as earning from future progression. Furthermore, Opontia aims to nurture and shape the entrepreneurial e-commerce ecosystem in the territory.

The seed round was led by Raed Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Presight Capital, and Kingsway Capital with an active participation from angel investors like Tushar Ahluwalia, CEO of Razor Group, Jonathan Doerr former CEO of Daras and co-founder of Jumia, and Hosam Arab the CEO of Tabby and the former CEO of Namshi.

The seed funding was nurtured just over a year post the start-up launched its business in March 2021. Opontia, which also has existence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia attains brands that are profitable and have the competence to make more money, then utilize their expertise to scale them up.

Opontia will utilize these funds to attain exceptional e-commerce brands and to capitalize in a team of qualified e-commerce experts in the Middle East and Africa who will be accountable for managing and nurturing the brands post acquisition. The firm has already arranged a top-tier team with noteworthy experience from Amazon, Noon, McKinsey, Uber-Eats and Namshi.

In a statement, Opontia stated out that its business model supports entrepreneurs in realisation of the full capability of their brands, “both in terms of getting an exit as well as profiting from future growth.”

Opontia currently operates in Dubai and Riyadh, with plans to open offices in Istanbul, Cairo, and Lagos in the forthcoming months.

The e-commerce industries being aimed are those with more than $10,000 in monthly revenues, predominantly those that are autonomous and have “superior organic search rankings and lots of great customer reviews”.

Philip Johnston, CEO of Opontia, stated out that; ““We are extremely thankful to our partners who joined us on this journey to transform the MENA e-commerce ecosystem. We founded Opontia to enable e-commerce entrepreneurs to realise the potential of their brands, both in terms of getting an exit now, as well as benefiting from future growth. We saw that many sellers had started their brand because they were passionate about their product and their customers but had hit a ceiling in terms of how far they could grow due to constraints on working capital, operations, logistics, and e-commerce commercial management. This is where Opontia comes in. We enable entrepreneurs to sell their brand and we take care of the daily operations while encouraging them to be involved in the part they enjoy – building the brand. Many sellers tell us that this frees up time to enable them to start their next venture or take a hard-earned break.”

Manfred Meyer also stated out that; “The market in the Middle East and Africa region is currently less mature than in the West but is growing much faster than any other market in the world, with the number of entrepreneurs selling on marketplaces growing at over 50 per cent per year. The business model will work here because there have been so many amazing entrepreneurs in the Middle East coming up over the last few years. It’s a great opportunity for sellers to be able to realise some of the hard work from building their brand so they can take some time off or work on their next big thing.”

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