Riyadh-based online car marketplace Syarah has raised fresh funds from Impact46, it announced in a statement today to MENAbytes. The startup did not disclose the size of the investment but said that its a bridge to Series B and includes the participation of an angel investor too. It had previously raised $2 million in a Series A from BECO Capital, Raed Ventures and Vision Ventures in 2018 and an undisclosed amount of investment from Elm in 2019.
Founded in 2015 by Salah Sharef and Fayez Alanazi, Syarah that had started as a car listing website is now one of the largest online auto marketplaces in Saudi, helping both individuals and dealers buy and sell used and new cars, through its website and mobile apps. The platform also provides users with Mojaz car history reports for used cars and facilitates car financing.
Their latest offering, Syarah Online which is available as a dedicated platform, allows users to buy new and used cars completely online and have them delivered to their doorstep without having to contact anyone or visit the showroom. It also offers different complimentary services including selling warranties and extended warranties for cars, selling insurance, and roadside service (AAA).
The Saudi startup claims to have sold more than 1800 cars since last year and has around 300 dealers from all across the Kingdom active on its platform. According to the publicly available data, their website receives half a million visitors every month.
Salah Sharef, the co-founder and CEO of the startup, said, “Syarah Online is on a mission to disrupt and reshape the way cars are bought and sold in the region. Our new partnership with Impact46 will help us greatly towards achieving this goal. It will help us to improve our product offering and to better serve our users with a wider range of services.”
Kholoud Almohammadi from the Impact46, said, “Saudi Arabia is the largest automotive market in MENA accounting for ~40% of total car sales [of the region]. Syarah is well positioned to take the market not only by being one of the very first movers but also by uniquely utilizing their expertise to hone the opportunities in this underserved space.”
Fayez Alanazi, co-founder and CMO of Syarah, said, “The partnership will open up new opportunities for innovation for Syarah, and this will help in creating new services for facilitating car buy and selling in the kingdom. It will also help the Syarah team to continue enhancing it’s existing services, and to better execute future plans for improving the user experience and improving the quality of service and safety in the market.”
Syarah plans to use the investment to increase its sales, expand to new cities in the Kingdom, increase the inventory of used cars, and integrate with financial institutions to offer auto financing leases.
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