Venture Builder Enhance Closes Seed Round of $1.5M

MENA Venture Builder Seeks Rapid Expansion of Region’s Leading Online Gifts Platform joigifts.com and Growth of Online Marketplace Portfolio

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: PRNewswire: Enhance, the holding company for online marketplaces for the Middle East and Africa, has raised a seed round of USD 1.5 million with investment from iNet, 500 Startups, Shorooq Investments and leading angel investors from the Gulf, Europe and the US. Enhance wholly owns Dubai-based joi (joigifts.com), the region’s leading online gifting platform, and plans to utilize funding towards its rapid expansion to the rest of the Middle East.

Founded in late 2015, Enhance employs a unique holding company model to overcome challenges experienced by regional startups. Since its launch, Enhance has built marketing, technical, and operational capabilities in its offices in Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah and Cairo, and plans to use these capabilities beyond its current portfolio in subsequent vertical marketplaces. “We have been involved in the startup ecosystem in the region from its early days as founders and angel investors and directly experienced the unique challenges of building startups in the Middle East,” said Co-founder Alper Celen. “A Silicon Valley startup has immediate access to hundreds of millions of consumers in one market. In the Middle East, we have a fragmented market with different regulations, and fundraising remains a major challenge. Enhance is built to mitigate these challenges by being able to reuse its infrastructure, marketing, technical and funding resources across different businesses.”

“It has been a great experience building an offline to online migration platform like joi. We now plan to use this experience to continue joi’s rapid growth and launch other vertical marketplaces that benefit from joi’s capabilities,” said Co-founder Ritesh Tilani. “With iNet, 500 Startups, Shorooq Investments and other prominent investors on-board, we have access to great regional and global know-how and funding which will be instrumental in the next phase of our growth.”

Abdullah Altamami, Investments Director for iNet, syndicated investment from iNet and leading Saudi angels to lead the close of the funding round. Altamami noted, “We believe in Enhance because of the experience and strong work ethic its founders bring to the table, and also because the Enhance model increases chances of success given the unique challenges in the markets it targets. During this time of inflection in our ecosystem, Enhance promises to build great businesses that will offer better digital experiences to consumers, who are increasingly moving online.”

About Enhance:

Established in late 2015, Enhance builds and grows online vertical marketplaces in the Middle East and Africa from its headquarters in Dubai, UAE. Enhance wholly owns the leading online gifting platform joigifts.com. Enhance will launch other marketplaces in 2018 and beyond using its marketing, technical, and funding capabilities from its offices in Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah and Cairo.

About joi:

Established in 2016, joi is the leading online gifting platform in the Middle East, currently operational in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. joi offers premium flowers, cakes, chocolates, gourmet products, unique gifts, singing telegrams and experiences through its websites and mobile applications. joi works with leading merchant partners (e.g., Godiva, Magnolia Bakery, Armani Dolci, jones the grocer) in its markets to offer premium gifts with memorable, concierge-quality, same day delivery and an exceptional customer care experience.

ABOUT INTEGRATED NETWORKS (iNet):

Established in 2001, iNet is a private organization founded by a group of prominent Saudi investors, with an aim to provide a synergized array of technologies across Payments & Financial Technologies (FinTech), Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and Strategic Global Investments.