Saudi Arabia’s Qawafel, a B2B marketplace simplifying trade between buyers and suppliers of perishable food products, has raised $3m in a seed round. The investment was co-led by AlSayed Group and Khwarizmi Ventures, in addition to a number of angel investors.

Qawafel is a B2B tech-enabled company linking suppliers to various buyers and points of sale in the confectionery and refrigerated market. It provides integrated technical solutions aimed at enhancing the fragmented wholesale market through a full-stack B2B platform and digital services, offering a seamless user experience for both customers and vendors when managing operations.

“Qawafel started in the confectionery & chocolate market, where sales are estimated at 5 billion Saudi Riyals annually, and acquired approximately 1% of said market in a short period as 500 tons of chocolate were processed and passed around the cities of the Kingdom. We aim to expand vertically in the confectionery sector in general, where annual sales exceed 20 billion Saudi Riyals,” Turki AlAyyad, CEO of Qawafel, said.

Qawafel launched during the last quarter of 2020 by co-founders Turki AlAyyad, Walid Al-Ghobain, and Qays Bahurmuz. Today Qawafel serves more than 5000 points of sale in more than 188 cities and towns in Saudi Arabia, and has maintained a sales growth rate of 30% per month; a testimony to seamless customer experience and trust.