Sanabil leads $110m funding for Saudi-Bangladesh startup

Sanabil Investments, a venture capital arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has made its first investment in South Asia.

The PIF unit and the US venture capital fund Valar Ventures, which was co-founded by Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Paypal, are jointly leading the $110 million funding round for SILQ Group, a new e-commerce platform, Bloomberg reported.

SILQ has been created through the merger of ShopUp, a Bangladeshi business-to-business (B2B) commerce platform, and Sary, a Saudi Arabia-headquartered B2B marketplace.

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The new business said it intended to target markets across the Gulf region and emerging Asia.

Qatar Development Bank is part of the new funding round, the report said. Saudi Arabia’s STV and Raed Ventures are also among the investors in SILQ.

SILQ’s CEO, Afeef Zaman, said the company was exploring an initial public offering in 2027, possibly listing in Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed Aldossary, CEO of SILQ Financial, the company’s financing arm, said the merged entity will focus on achieving profitability over the next six months.

ShopUp and Sary have jointly processed more than $5 billion in transactions and facilitated upwards of 100 million shipments so far.