Why is Kuwait?
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ePanda goes to the Middle East” (ID: ePandaMENA) .
Kuwait, with a land area of less than 20,000 square kilometers and a population of just over 4 million in the country, the market size is not comparable to that of Saudi Arabia, and the degree of internationalization is not comparable to that of the United Arab Emirates. But this small country is not simple, it is a cradle of entrepreneurs in the Middle East.
Kuwait “Big Three”: Talabat, Carriage, Boutiqaat
Talabat
Speaking of the Kuwaiti company, you have to mention Talabat, the largest local take-out platform in the Middle East.
In 2004, Al Loughan, a Kuwaiti private equity fund employee, took a fancy to the food delivery business and created Talabat, the earliest take-out platform in the Middle East.
After ten years, Talabat’s development has been tortuous, and it has changed three times. Until February 2015, Talabat ushered in its “Highlights Moment”: it was acquired by Rocket Internet for $170 million. In March 2015, Talabat was merged with another delivery platform from RocketInternet, Delivery Hero, to become a strong partner for Delivery Hero to expand into the Middle East market.
Talabat after the acquisition seems to be getting stronger. Today, Talabat has more than 100,000 single-day orders, more than 4,000 restaurants, and a total of 50 million take-out orders, with more than 6 million downloads.
Carriage
A year after Rocket Internet took over Talabat, another takeaway platform, Carriage, was established in Kuwait. The fast-growing Carriage has succeeded in attracting the attention of Delivery Hero.
In June 2017, Delivery Hero acquired Carriage for $100 million. At this time, it was only 14 months since Carriage was first established. Many start-ups may die in less than a year, and Carriage’s entrepreneurial story is a bit inspirational. Prior to the acquisition, Carriage also received a $1.3 million seed round investment.
At present, Carriage has entered into cooperation with 2,000 restaurants and expanded its business scope to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Boutiqaat
In addition to the take-away platform, the beauty e-commerce company Boutiqaat is another dark horse of a Kuwaiti startup with a market capitalization of $500 million.
Boutiqaat was established in 2015 and received $45 million in financing last year, investing in the Kuwaiti local company Boubyan Petrochemical Company. This year, Boutiqaat received another new financing, which doubled its market value to $500 million.
Boutiqaat relies on the network red + social model of the fire, selling more than 25,000 pieces of beauty products, covering more than 700 international brands, such as MAKE UP FOR EVER, ANASTASIA and BENEFIT. In the future, Boutiqaat also plans to expand the market to Asia, Europe and the United States.
In addition to these three more famous startups, there are many small and medium-sized start-ups in Kuwait, such as the Kuwaiti laundry company JustClean, which has a total investment of $12.9 million and plans to go public, and the online financing of millions of dollars. Book the coffee app Cofe, the $1.3 million Pre-A round of online coding teaching company Coded and more.
Why is Kuwait the cradle of entrepreneurs?
Kuwait is also a resource-based country with abundant reserves of oil and natural resources, about 10% of the world’s total reserves. Kuwait, which relies on oil to develop its economy, has also been looking for opportunities to develop a diversified economy, encouraging the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.A measure.
Policy support
In April 2013, the Government of Kuwait established the National SME Development Fund with a total capital of KD 2 billion (US$ 6.58 billion), which provides 80% financial support for the development of SMEs.
It is reported that between 2016 and 2019, the National SME Development Foundation funded 1,035 entrepreneurial projects for a total amount of KRW 177 million (approximately US$ 582 million).
Active local venture capital
From the company financing mentioned above, there are still many active local entrepreneurial transactions in Kuwait.
Boubyan Petrochemical Company
The beauty of e-commerce business Boutiqaat is the Kuwaiti local investment company Boubyan Petrochemical Company, the first private company to invest in government-controlled petrochemicals. In addition, Boubyan Petrochemical Company has invested in various sectors including manufacturing, healthcare and education.
Faith Capital
Kuwait venture capital firm Faith Capital participated in the A round of financing for the laundry company JustClean this year, investing $8 million. In addition, Faith Capital has invested in Saudi startups Foodics.
Amazingly, the CEO of Faith Capital turned out to be Mohammad Jaffar. He was the second CEO of Talabat and bought Talabat in 2010 for KWD 850,000 (approximately $2.8 million).
Mohammad Jaffar has a wealth of business experience in the banking, catering and internet industries, especially in the development of the Internet industry in the Middle East. He founded Faith Capital to use his previous successful business experience to promote the development of startups, especially for potential e-commerce companies in the Gulf.
KISP Ventures
Investing in an online coffee booking application Cofe and online coding teaching company Coded’s KISP Ventures is a subsidiary of Kuwaiti financial company KFH Capital, focusing on technology startups in the Middle East and North Africa.
In addition to localThe startup, KISP Ventures also invested in Dubai-based second-tier e-commerce Melltoo and Middle East Ventures Consulting MAGNiTT.
In addition, the two companies, Sirdab Lab and Arzan Venture Capital, play an important role in shaping the entrepreneurial ecology of Kuwait. SirdabLab is based in Kuwait and is an agency dedicated to providing guidance to entrepreneurs; venture capital firm Arzan Venture Capital has offices in Kuwait and Dubai and has invested in 23 companies, including Careem.
编 | 云晞@出海
图 | Photos
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