The Middle East North Africa (MENA) coffee market is heating up with new investment from venture capital funds. COFE, a coffee delivery platform and digital marketplace offered across the region, recently won $15 million in series B funding from Saudi and Chinese investors.
Launched in Kuwait in 2018, COFE has branched out to serve coffee consumers and businesses in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Its mobile app offers online coffee and beverage ordering, payment, and real-time delivery, a business that has boomed since the beginning of the covid pandemic in 2019. In 2021, the app ranked among the 10 most popular food and beverage delivery platforms in Saudi Arabia's booming market.
The investment was led by Waed Ventures, eWTP ArabiaCapital, and Alibaba. Waed Ventures is an investment institution under Saudi Aramco, the giant oil and gas company. EWTP Arabia Capital is a growth-state investment fund backed by the Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, and affiliated with various Chinese tech companies.
COFE recently formed a partnership with the Saudi Coffee Company, which was established by the Public Investment Fund and which is investing $319 million to develop the Saudi coffee industry over the next 10 years. According to the investors, the MENA coffee market is worth $44 billion per year.