Created in Lebanon in 2015, Ecomz, the ecommerce management platform that helps merchants sell and grow online, announces a Series-A round of 4 million-USD to expand the platform’s reach and build their MENA region lead.
While the past 4 years were focused on research and development, the funding round, led by Cedar Mundi Ventures, a leading VC firm based in Beirut, with the joint participation from iSME (Lebanon) and BLC Bank (Lebanon), aims to scale-up the company and to evangelize the merchants in the region, by promoting the utility of building and running an online business by themselves, without requiring any technical skills or marketing and sales expertise.
“Ecommerce is not only a game for pure players. Traditional retail can be largely enhanced with an online presence. Ecomz can ensure a smooth and seamless shift towards building a successful online business and aims to empower retailers throughout their business journey.” says Rudy Bekerejian, Co-Founder and CEO of Ecomz. Amer Tabbara, Co-Founder and CSO of Ecomz, adds: “With a beautiful website storefront natively optimized for mobile usage and a powerful store management system, we are helping our customers generate millions of dollars in online sales. We want to bring our ecommerce expertise and know-how to our clients and work with them hand in hand, to show them that, contrary to belief, doing business online is easy and efficient.”
Ecomz accompanies merchants throughout their business journey to maximize their profitability and enhance their customers’ shopping experiences. First, it guides them to create their online store in a few clicks, thanks to advanced store builder capabilities, and easily personalize their storefront without requiring technical skills. Secondly, it empowers them to efficiently run their business using built-in store management applications, powered by a personalized insights engine to identify weaknesses and optimize store performance. Thirdly, it enables them to grow in new markets through new sales and distribution channels, such as product sourcing and dropshipping, multi-vendor marketplace, and multi-channel integration.
“The ecommerce industry experiences double-digit yearly growth rates in Middle East countries, often more than in the rest of the world.” says Bassel Attieh, Chairman and Managing Partner of Cedar Mundi Ventures. “Ecomz cleverly supports traditional businesses and brick-and-mortar retailers in their online journey, opening up new omni-channel growth perspectives for them.” Page 2 of 3 Ecomz counts, among its key fulfilment clients, LibanPost, the national post office of Lebanon, and large clothing and CPG brands, such as Brands, Fine Solutions and other regional retailers.
This funding round will allow Ecomz to further enhance the platform with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities, hence enabling the merchants to efficiently build and manage their stores, and create limitless opportunities to sell. By serving an increasing number of customers, SMEs and large corporations alike, Ecomz aims to create the MENA’s largest merchant hub and find new ways to connect them together.
About Ecomz
Ecomz is a world class end-to-end ecommerce management platform that helps merchants sell and grow online. It is powered by advanced store builder capabilities that require no technical skills, a wide range of built-in store management applications, and new sales and distribution channels to maximize the merchant’s profitability and enhance their customer’s shopping experience. Ecomz operates in more than 55 countries, serving more than 4,000 merchants helping them generate over $50M in sales. Named 2018 Top 5 B2B website by Seamless Conference, 2017 Top 10 Business by ArabNet, Ecomz has also been recognized by Google, Disrupt San Francisco (TechCrunch) and MIT Silicon Valley Program for its achievements and has been awarded by the 2018 Touch Innovation Program (TIP) and was a finalist in the BLC Bank’s 2018 Brilliant Lebanese Award (BLA).
About Cedar Mundi Ventures
Cedar Mundi Ventures (“CMV”) is a Lebanese venture capital firm specializing in cross-border technology investments between Europe and the Middle East. With deep roots in both markets, CMV’s team and operating partners seek to identify and invest in relevant high-growth technology scaleups seeking smart expansion capital for the Middle East. CMV reaches out to the Lebanese Diaspora and is in close partnership with Lebanese in Technology (“LiT”), a community network of tech-savvy Lebanese Diaspora members and entrepreneurs advocating Lebanon’s eco-system and opportunities in prime European tech hubs (London, Paris, Dublin). Investee companies also benefit from the corporate network and market expertise of CMV’s parent, Kuwait Holding K.S.C., to support their growth in the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.cedarmundi.com.
About Kuwait Holding Company K.S.C.
Kuwait Holding Company K.S.C. (“Kuwait Holding”) is a leading Kuwait-based institutional investor with significant participations in technology-driven businesses across a wide spectrum of industries. Its participations and affiliates comprise, among others, Aqarat KPSC (Real Estate, aqarat.com.kw), OnCost (Ecommerce FMCG, oncost.com), IFA Hotels & Resorts KPSC (Hospitality, ifahotelsresorts.com), Arzan Financial Group (Financial services, arzan.com.kw), Ghaliah (Digital Media, ghaliah.com), Bag Borrow or Steal (Luxury Tech, bagborroworsteal.com), Yotel Limited (TravelTech, yotel.com). In addition to its principal investments, Kuwait Holding manages substantial venture capital and private equity funds, investing in technology through affiliates Arzan Venture Capital (UAE, arzanvc.com), Cedar Mundi Ventures (Lebanon, cedarmundi.com), Chart Ventures Partners (USA, chartventure.com) and Nox Management (Kuwait, noxmanagement.com).
About BLC Bank
BLC BANK SAL, is a Lebanese bank duly incorporated under the laws of Lebanon, registered under number /11/ on the list of Banks issued by the Banque Du Liban and under number /1952/ at the Beirut Registry of Commerce.
Following the issuance of Circular 331 by the Central Bank of Lebanon in August 2013 and its related appendices, Lebanese banks were given the possibility to receive financial facilities to participate in the capital of Lebanese startups, Venture Capital Funds and accelerators. In this context, BLC Bank SAL was the only bank in Lebanon to play ever since an active role in the Lebanese technology startups’ ecosystem by directly investing in Lebanese innovative startup companies.
To date, BLC has an approximate $20M investment capacity out of which 76% were already deployed and booked in different sectors.
About iSME
The iSME Program is a US$ 30 million initiative funded by the Government of Lebanon through a loan from the World Bank. The program aims to encourage the equity investment market to increase early stage investment finance for financially viable, new, and existing innovative firms. For more information, please visit www.kafalatisme.com.lb.
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