Participated · Equity · Jul 2020

Fetchr is a Dubai-based logistics startup that provides delivery and shipping services. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy and raised an emergency $10 million late last year to avoid collapse. Bloomberg documents show Fetchr has secured $15 million in fresh funding with commitments from early investor Beco Capital, Saudi-based Tamer Group, and French shipping firm CMA CGM, subject to shareholder approval. Management changes this year include the quiet appointment of former UPS executive Hussein Wehbe as CEO; interim CEO Mazen Mamlouk confirmed the round and is expected to hand control to Wehbe while staying on as an adviser. Since the emergency funding, Fetchr has cut about 1,230 jobs and exited Jordan, Bahrain, and Oman, and the new management has reduced the company’s burn rate. Fetchr builds patented mobile technology that captures customers' geo-location on their phones and uses it as a delivery address to solve the “no address” problem in emerging markets. The company operates an app-based delivery service and in August 2016 launched an on-demand offering called “NOW” for door-to-door deliveries within an hour. Fetchr is operational in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain and partners with governmental organizations such as Oman Post to extend its technology through strategic partnerships. The business emphasizes mobile-first markets where the article notes more than 80% smartphone penetration among users, and it highlights gender‑diversity initiatives including women couriers in Dubai and an all‑women call center team in Saudi Arabia. Fetchr plans to continue expanding its footprint across MENA and beyond while developing its proprietary delivery technology. Fetchr is a Dubai-based provider of a package delivery app that uses the phone as a physical address to eliminate the need for formal addresses. Its app allows drivers to arrive at a customer’s exact location via the phone, pick up packages, and deliver them to recipients. The company targets markets across the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, India, Indonesia and other emerging markets. Fetchr was co-founded by CEO Idriss Alrifai and Joy Ajlouny. It closed an $11M Series A financing to fund its next steps. The company plans to use the proceeds to launch its mobile application on the App Store and Google Play and to accelerate product development.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2018

Mumzworld is a Dubai-based e-commerce platform focused on mother, baby and child products. Founded in October 2011 by Mona Ataya and Leena Khalil, the site carries over 200,000 products, 25,000 of which are exclusive, serves more than 2.5 million mothers and delivers to over 20 countries. The company closed a US$20 million Series B to fund expansion into the Saudi Arabian market and to support its innovation agenda. Mumzworld plans to use the financing to boost automation and to launch vertical-specific consumer offerings as part of an aggressive expansion strategy. Management describes the company as the region's leading vertical for mother, baby and child products and intends to replicate its UAE expertise in KSA and beyond.

Participated · Series E · Nov 2016

Sigfox is a French IoT company building a dedicated global radio network to connect, monitor and control a wide range of devices. Its network is operational in regions across 26 countries, covering 1.35 million square kilometers and 358 million people, and it reports about 10 million devices registered. Pricing starts at €1 per device per month with a sliding scale based on volume. The company aims to expand its footprint to 60 countries by 2018, sees opportunities in China and India, and has completed a recent 100-city U.S. deployment. It plans to integrate with Salesforce’s IoT Cloud to sell solutions to clients already using Salesforce for IoT management. Sources place Sigfox's valuation at around €600 million, and the company has raised just over $300 million to date. SIGFOX provides an Internet of Things (IoT) network protocol built on Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) technology that delivers scalable, long-range, two-way connectivity with high capacity. The company's UNB approach is positioned as a cost-effective, energy-efficient option suited for small-message IoT devices. SIGFOX operates its network in more than a dozen countries and major cities and runs a SIGFOX Ready™ program to certify compatible devices and promote them in a global solutions catalogue. The company’s protocol has been integrated into Samsung’s ARTIK platform, enabling ARTIK-based devices to become SIGFOX Ready™ and connect where the SIGFOX network is available. That integration allows developers to activate the SIGFOX network via a simple cloud connectivity subscription. Samsung Ventures has invested in SIGFOX as part of this strategic relationship; the articles state the investment terms were not disclosed. SIGFOX operates a dedicated Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) cellular network that delivers economical, energy-efficient two-way transmission of small quantities of data for IoT and M2M devices. The company positions its network as complementary to high-bandwidth systems, aiming to unify efficient connectivity across energy and throughput dimensions. Deployments are already live in France, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with expansion plans into the United States and broader roll-outs across Europe, Asia and the Americas. SIGFOX reports more than 2 million square kilometers of network coverage through its SIGFOX Network Operator partnership program. The firm says its technology extends battery and service life of connected devices and lowers barriers to large-scale IoT implementation. Incorporated in 2009, SIGFOX is headquartered in Labège, France, with offices in Mountain View, California and Madrid, Spain. Sigfox provides global cellular connectivity for the Internet of Things, fully dedicated to low-throughput communications. Its solution is based on an antenna and base station infrastructure that is completely independent of existing telecommunications networks. The company was co-founded by Ludovic Le Moan (CEO) and Christophe Fourtet (CSO) and has offices in Labège, Paris, Madrid and San Francisco. In March 2014 Sigfox raised €15m in venture capital funding. The company said it will use the funds to accelerate growth, support international deployment and hire new people. Backers in the round included Idinvest Partners, FSN PME, Fonds Ambition Numérique, Elaia Partners, Intel Capital, Ixo Private Equity and Partech. SIGFOX is a Toulouse, France-based operator of a cellular network fully dedicated to Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things communications. Led by CEO Ludovic Le Moan, the company leverages its patented UNB technology, SIGFOX, to enable large-scale connection of objects. It operates a very low throughput network aimed at wide-area, low-bandwidth IoT/M2M use cases. SIGFOX closed a €10m Series B funding round led by Intel Capital, with participation from existing investors Elaia Partners, Partech Ventures International and iXO Private Equity. The company intends to use the capital to deploy its network across the whole of France and into several foreign countries.