The Oman Technology Fund (OTF) Jasoor Ventures co-led with Hambro Perks Oryx Fund the seed round for Saudi-based Delivery as a Service (DaaS) startup BARQ, successfully raising US$4 million in its latest funding round.
Alongside OTF Jasoor Ventures and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund, the seed fund also saw participation from Sultan Holding, Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), as well as strategic family offices and angel investors.
Founded in 2020, BARQ enables bullet delivery for any business. From e-commerce to food, e-groceries, and various sectors, BARQ utilises state-of-the-art delivery technologies to deliver orders as fast as 15 minutes up to same-day delivery service.
With the acceleration of digital transformation, the transition of businesses from retail to online, and increased demand from consumers for a better and faster delivery service, BARQ converts retail outlets to micro-fulfillment centres/dispatching hubs making delivery faster and easier.
Once a customer places an order through the business platform, the order gets fulfilled by the closest retail outlet and delivered to the customer once ready for pick up known as Bullet Delivery.
BARQ serves warehouses and fulfillment centres with several delivery options, four hours up to the same day or next day delivery window, depending on the business need.
While restaurants and food aggregators enjoy 30-45 minute delivery service, paying only a delivery fee. Co-founder and CEO Abdullah AlShalhoub commented: “We’re on a mission to transform and automate overall business and consumer experience from order creation to delivery.
“We’ve identified a lot of inefficiencies across our served sectors and started with the toughest – Last mile.”
Starting their careers as Strategy Consultants, Abdullah and Ahmad (Cofounders of BARQ), worked together at PwC and have decided to pursue the entrepreneurial path together. Co-founder/COO Ahmad Habbal commented: “Last mile has been a never-ending challenge for businesses. With our multi-vertical and flexible supply model, we’ve been able to increase efficiencies, ensure sustainability, and complement rather than compete with other players.”
The latest fund will be used to expand the company’s geographic footprint Kingdom-wide and increase product offering to provide a wider range of values to its customers across various sectors.
“We pride ourselves as strategic partners for businesses and not service providers. We rely on data to identify market trends and develop solutions to cater to their needs,” CBDO Mohammad AlMarwani continues.
The BARQ team is providing an exciting opportunity for businesses across the Kingdom to explore fast delivery services that elevates their sales and turnover rates.
In light of this recent investment, CTO Djakhongir Makhkamov concluded: “Technology is the heart of our startup; Our location-driven solutions are built using machine learning, route optimisation, process automation, and chatbots help optimise the delivery process and cater to their fast-growing business needs.”
