Saudi Delivery-as-a-Service Company BARQ Raises $4M

BARQ, a Delivery-as-a-Service (DaaS) startup, has raised $4 million in its latest funding round to deliver growth, WAYA reported Monday (Feb. 7).

Founded two years ago by Abdullah AlShalhoub and Ahmad Habbal, the Saudi Arabia-based company said it plans to use the cash to expand the company’s geographic footprint across the region and boost its product offering to provide a wider range of values to its customers, according to the report.

The round was led by OTF Jasoor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in tech and tech-enabled startups in the Middle East and North Africa, and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund, a London and United Arab Emirates-based international investment firm. In addition, there was participation from Saudi Venture Capital Co. and Sultan Holding, as well as angel investors, the report stated.

BARQ enables delivery technologies to get products to their destination in as fast as 15 minutes up to same-day delivery for any business from eCommerce to food, eGroceries and other sectors, according to the report.

As the digital transformation accelerates, the transition of businesses from brick-and-mortar retail to eCommerce has increased demand from shoppers for a more efficient and faster delivery service. BARQ converts retail outlets to fulfillment centers and dispatching hubs, making delivery fast and easy, the report stated.

“Last mile has been a never-ending challenge for businesses,” Habbal said in the report. “With our multi-vertical and flexible supply model, we’ve been able to increase efficiencies, ensure sustainability and complement rather than compete with other players.”

In December, as the challenges of staffing restaurants continued, businesses were looking to automate. While restaurants have experimented with autonomous home delivery for years, Presto, a California-based restaurant technology company, was working on a new use case for delivery robots.

Read more: Robots Help Restaurants Improve Curbside Delivery