Investcorp leads $130m pre-IPO investment round for Saudi Arabia’s Salla

Investcorp leads $130m pre-IPO investment round for Saudi Arabia’s Salla

Mubasher: Investcorp, a Bahrain-based alternative asset manager, has led a $130 million pre-IPO investment round in Salla, a Saudi Arabian SaaS e-commerce enablement platform.

Sanabil Investment, a wholly owned company by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) also participated in the funding round, alongside regional venture capital investor STV, according to a press release.

Investcorp’s investment in Salla was facilitated by Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, a platform targeting equity growth capital investments across a range of companies primarily based in Saudi Arabia with the potential to access the capital markets.

Principal at Investcorp Robin Mansour is set to join the Salla’s board of directors.

Walid Majdalanim, Head of Emerging Markets Private Equity at Investcorp, said: “We believe that the Kingdom’s transformation agenda will continue to drive innovation and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, with Salla acting as a key enabler to support the development of new companies in the e-commerce ecosystem”.

He added: “We see great interest in the potential of Saudi companies to IPO, especially as scale-ups and unicorns demonstrate local and regional success. Salla has managed to grow exponentially and deliver best-in-class margins.”

For his part, Nawaf Hariri, CEO and co-founder of Salla, stated: “We are deeply grateful for the trust and