Zid, a Riyadh-based Shopify-like ecommerce management startup that helps people (and businesses) setup their online stores has raised $2 million Pre-Series A, the startup announced yesterday. The round was led by VC arm of Elm, a leading Saudi technology company, and joined by China’s MSA Capital, Kuwait’s Arzan VC and some angel investors.
Founded in 2017 by Mazen AlDarrab, a serial entrepreneur who has previously founded and led different companies, and Sultan AlAsmi, Zid enables people to create their online stores and manage them without having any technical knowledge through Zid’s web or mobile apps. The ecommerce-in-a-box solution also comes with services (at discounted prices) including delivery and payments from over 20 partners that can be integrated into any store in a plug-and-play manner.
The store owners, according to Zid’s website, also receive access to special prices for product photography, packaging, logistics, design, marketing, and even shared workspace.
The startup follows a freemium subscription model, enabling, people to setup their online stores for free with basic functionality and up to 100 products. The subscriptions start from SAR 100 (USD 27) per month and go up to SAR 400 (USD107) per month, allowing people to have unlimited products in their stores.
Zid, through its Academy initiative, also educates its users on different ecommerce related topics to make it easy for them to run and manage their online businesses. Zid Academy offers education in the form of online courses, offline meetups and mentorship sessions.
According to its website, Zid currently has over 1200 active retailers using its services. The startup claims to have witnessed five-fold year-on-year growth in the number of orders processed by the online stores they host and support, with sales valued at over SAR 140 million (USD 37.3 million).
Mazen AlDarrab, Zid’s founder, commenting on the occasion, said, “We are witnessing daily growth in the e-commerce industry, not only in Saudi but in the [entire] region. We started Zid with a very simple mission: to enable retailers to capture the opportunity in e-commerce and provide them the whole experience in a box.”
Sultan AlAsmi, Zid’s co-founder and CEO, said, “At Zid we aim to redefine the retail sector with the power of digital solutions. We firmly believe that the retail sector in the region needs disruption. Given the company’s growth, 5x annually, along with the significant growth in e-commerce adoption we’re witnessing, places us in a unique position to lead this transformation.”
The startup that currently employs a team of 15 plans to use the investment to attract new segments in the retail industry and expand into new geographical markets.
It is the third regional startup in this space to have raised an investment within the last fourteen months. Salla, a similar Saudi startup had raised an undisclosed amount of investment in May last year and Ecomz, a Lebanese Shopify-like startup had raised $4 million Series A earlier this month.
