Saudi start-up Foodics acquires Jordan's POSRocket

Saudi technology start-up Foodics that serves the retail and food and beverage industries acquired Jordan's POSRocket, the second largest restaurant cloud services provider in the Middle East and North Africa.

Foodics is focused on the retail and food and beverage industries.

The start-up's first acquisition will help it consolidate its position and become the market leader in Egypt, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan, while also paving the way for further deals and its international expansion, the Riyadh-based company said on Sunday.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

“The region has recently witnessed a significant acceleration in the digitalisation of operations in both the retail and food and beverage sectors due to the pandemic,” said Ahmad Al Zaini, chief executive and co-founder of Foodics.

“As a result, businesses have had to augment their online presence to follow their customers’ footprints and provide them with an optimal customer experience. We chose POSRocket as they were able to fully leverage this trend, having gained the trust of an exponential number of merchants for their services, which will be further enhanced with this strategic acquisition,” he added.

Foodics provides operating software to restaurant businesses and secured $20 million in venture funding in February last year to expand. The Series B funding round for Foodics was led by Sanabil Investments, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and STV. Other backers include Endeavor Catalyst, Elm and Derayah.

The company's software manages customer orders, inventory, staff scheduling and other operational aspects of restaurants, cafes, food trucks, cloud kitchens and other businesses. It has eight offices across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and the Netherlands.

Since its inception in 2014, Foodics has processed more than $5 billion worth of orders through its platform and is aiming at 150,000 terminals by the end of 2024, the company said.

Its software is available in English, Arabic and French and Foodics is planning to release a Spanish version in the coming months.

The company also signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia-based Maalem Financing to set up Foodics Capital, a division that will offer micro-loans to its SME customer base. It introduced a $100m micro loan fund in 2020 to support SMEs in the food and beverage sector through Sharia-compliant micro loans.

POSRocket, which was founded in 2016, offers cloud-based point-of-sale software for restaurants and retailers and the acquisition will allow its merchants to benefit from Foodics’ ecosystem in managing payments, supplies and capital lending infrastructure, the companies said.

“Foodics is a natural fit for POSRocket as both brands are driven by helping business owners grow their operations. Bringing our talented teams together is a strategic move that yields us a unique competitive advantage,” said Zeid Husban, chief executive and founder of POSRocket.

Total funding secured by start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa region rose by 64 per cent in the first half of 2021 to $1.2bn from a year earlier, figures compiled by data platform Magnitt show.

In terms of capital, food and beverage, FinTech and e-commerce were the industries that had the most capital invested, said Magnitt.

Although the food and beverage sector took the biggest share of funds invested, FinTech companies were involved in the most deals, the company said.