Saudi technology start-up Lucidya raises $6m to fund expansion

Saudi technology start-up Lucidya has raised $6 million in its latest funding round that will help it to expand its operations across the Mena region.

The funding round, which was led by Riyadh-based early-to-growth-stage venture capital fund Rua Growth Fund, will help Lucidya to “strengthen its consumer insights and expand the product offering”, the company said on Monday.

Other investors in the funding round include MAL Ventures, AlRashed Group and Venture Souq.

Founded in 2016, Lucidya offers marketing technology (MarTech) tools to customers. The start-up helps organisations to understand their customers by analysing interactions across different online channels on one platform.

Lucidya uses artificial intelligence and Arabic language processing technology to help businesses make data-driven decisions.

The start-up wants to "revolutionise customer experience in the Mena region", founder and chief executive Abdullah Asiri said.

“This funding will enable us to expand our offering and bring it to more markets, enabling more businesses to reap the benefits of AI-powered customer experience management,” he said.

"We are leveraging our Arabic-tailored AI to bridge the gap between businesses and their customers and make customer voices heard loud and clear."

On an average, brands using Lucidya have registered an improvement of 200 per cent in customer satisfaction, according to the company.

The global market for MarTech solutions was worth about $344.8 billion last year and is poised to grow exponentially in the coming years, according to London-based Martech Alliance.

While almost every business is exploring how they can use customer experience as a competitive advantage, very few are able to do so effectively today due to the lack of technologies that understand Arabic interactions.

“With such a growing market, the opportunity for Lucidya and its customers is undeniable,” the start-up said.

The company serves more than 100 customers in the UAE, Kuwait, the US, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan and the UK. Its annual recurring revenue has grown five-fold annually, the company said. It did not provide the amount.

“The Saudi market and the Mena region have been underserved with technology solutions and services tailored to the local market ... this has left significant gaps and opportunities for digitisation that can only be successfully filled by local players,” said Turki Aljoaib, managing partner of the Rua Growth Fund.

“Having developed their technology in-house by and for Arabic speakers, they [Lucidya] serve the needs of the global market while also demonstrating the kingdom’s potential of innovative tech entrepreneurs,” Mr Aljoaib said.