News

Saudi Arabia’s NOMU Secures $5 Million For Expansion Plans

The FoodTech startup will use the capital to enter new markets across the MENA region and, eventually, Pakistan and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Published

3 years ago

July 4, 2023

Nour Nasir

NOMU

NOMU, the Saudi Arabian food technology startup, has raised $5 million in seed funding that will allow the company to expand further into the Middle East and across North Africa, reaching over 50 cities by 2025.

The Riyadh-based startup received investments from DIV Capital, Core Vision, Shurfah, and Purity for Information Technology. As well as investing in new technology, NOMU will use the funding to grow its business-to-business services across the MENA region’s hotel, restaurant, and cafe sectors.

“NOMU is committed to revolutionizing the FoodTech supply chain, providing greater convenience and efficiency for businesses in the Mena region,” explained Shehab Mokhtar, co-founder, and chief executive of NOMU.

Shehab Mokhtar established NOMU in 2022 alongside Yassir El Ismaili, Salman Attieh, and Ahmed Eldemerdash. The NOMU platform helps to streamline food industry inventory sourcing, financing, storage, and delivery, helping hotels and restaurants run more efficiently. The startup has also launched an app for families to purchase groceries.

So far, NOMU has partnered with key players such as Savola and Procter & Gamble and recorded 10x revenue growth over the last 12 months.

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The company’s success comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is pushing itself as a global hub for emerging technology as part of its grand “Vision 2030” program. The Kingdom was the second-most funded MENA country after the UAE last year, attracting nearly $1 billion in investments as the government attempts to pivot the economy away from its reliance on the oil industry.

Although FinTech was the “industry of choice” for angel investors in Saudi Arabia last year, food and beverage startups like NOMU accounted for the second-most funded industry, raising a substantial $187 million.

News

LUVED Is A New Curated Preloved Marketplace For The UAE

Sellers keep 100 percent of every sale and AI can build a listing in five seconds — though the app’s smartest tools are still coming.

Published

10 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Joanna Melki

luved is a new curated preloved marketplace for the uae

Secondhand shopping has become mainstream in the UAE, but the experience is still scattered across resale sites, social media and informal group chats. LUVED, a mobile-first marketplace that launched in Dubai this month, is betting it can pull that activity into one place — and that the thing buyers and sellers actually want is not more inventory, but trust.

The app trades in what it calls circular luxury: preloved fashion and lifestyle pieces across men’s, women’s and children’s categories, bought, sold or given away peer to peer. Its main pitch is economics, with sellers keeping 100 percent of every sale under a zero-commission, fast payout model, while buyers are promised vetted pieces at lower prices.

Where LUVED is staking its reputation is verification. Sellers pass a KYC check, and items run through a two-layer authentication system powered by Entrupy that pairs instant AI screening with human expert review for high-value pieces. Authenticity certificates travel with each item, payments sit in escrow, and a buyer-protection package the company calls The Safety Net adds a 48-hour return window and dispute resolution. Door-to-door logistics removes the in-person meetups that make most resale deals awkward.

An in-app assistant called Luvbot — offering selling insights and demand-based recommendations — is soon to be introduced to the platform. Other features include autofill and dynamic pricing that lets users build a listing in as little as five seconds from three photos, plus a swipe-based feed, story-style drops and in-app chat in English and Arabic. Finally, a gifting layer, Luved & Gifted, lets users pass items to others inside the app rather than sell them.

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“After moving to Dubai, I saw how difficult it was to sell or even give things away,” says founder and CEO Shaima Sibtain. The friction is real, and so is the competition. In resale, trust is won transaction by transaction — and that is the test LUVED has set itself.

The app is live on the App Store now, with Google Play to follow. The company also plans to expand across the region, which will be the real test for a marketplace staking everything on trust.