Saudi Unicorns: Makkah-Based Salla Aims To Become The Go-To Platform For All E-Commerce Needs In KSA And Beyond "Today, we are extremely proud that Salla merchants have sold over SAR21 billion worth of products, and currently more than 55,000 thousand individuals, small and medium brands, and well-established enterprises trust us to help them run and grow their businesses."
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This article is part of a series covering enterprises that have been a part of the Saudi Unicorns Program, a national program by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), National Technology Development Program (NTDP), and the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (Misk), to enable and nurture successful and established tech companies to reach unicorn status in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
When Salla was founded in 2016 in the Saudi Arabian city of Makkah, it had been conceptualized as a platform that simply automated the process of selling products on social media channels. Over the years, however, that initial iteration of the tool was converted into an e-commerce platform that enabled merchants to build online stores without code and also offered smart, easy- to-use payment, shipping, inventory management, and marketing solutions. In fact, it is this idea that inspired the startup's name as well—you see, Salla in Arabic(سلة) simply means "basket."
"We chose a descriptive and simple name, but the name isn't everything- it is your product that will make the name unique and recognizable," notes Salla CEO Nawaf Hariri who co-founded the company with Salman Butt. "Today, we are extremely proud that Salla merchants have sold over SAR21 billion worth of products, and currently more than 55,000 thousand individuals, small and medium brands, and well-established enterprises trust us to help them run and grow their businesses. Our philosophy is plain and simple: We remove the hassle, high cost, and expertise of setting up and scaling infrastructure for your commerce. We want merchants to focus on their craft of creating products and selling them, knowing that they have a solid partner in Salla that addresses their sophisticated needs in an ever-changing commerce landscape with easy to use and personalized solutions at their disposal as they wish and see fit."
With its promise to be able to create an online store within mere minutes, Salla has already positioned itself as a go-to solution for brands and entrepreneurs who are looking to digitally transform or expand their ventures. The platform accepts payments from over 79 nations worldwide, supports more than 40 languages, and also offers shipping to major global destinations by connecting a given store to more than 160 local and international shipping/courier companies. But according to Hariri, Salla's most unique selling point lies in its offering of a very simple and comprehensive solution for its merchants. "They [our merchants] trust that we will implement what is best for their needs and ensure it [the entire process] is extremely intuitive," Hariri adds. "Our merchants' customers enjoy a great shopping experience as well. All of this is driven by two values: being customer-centric and innovative. At Salla, we simply do what is right even if we have to redefine the standards."
It is with this value-first approach, that Salla's revenue comprises two primary streams: subscription solutions, and Merchants solutions. "We offer four primary subscription plans: Basic, Plus, Pro, and Special," Hariri explains. "Each plan is tailored to different business sizes and requirements from individual and small startups to large enterprises. On the other hand, we make significant revenue from other solutions we provide to our merchants. This encompasses shipping solutions, payment solutions, fees from third party apps, and vetted service providers. Collectively, both revenue streams provide tremendous value to our customers, and ensure a sustainable model that fuels our growth and profitability. As a result, we are more empowered to serve our mission of opening success doors for our merchants, and enabling them to leave a lasting impact."
In the years since it launched, Salla has seen its team grow to nearly 500 employees, and it was also able to raise a US$130 million pre-initial public offering (IPO) investment round in March 2023 that was led by Investcorp, a Bahrain-based alternative investment firm, Sanabil Investment, a sovereign wealth fund wholly owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), and STV, a KSA-based venture capital (VC) firm. "This investment propelled us forward in our ongoing mission to open opportunities and empower individuals as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to start and expand their businesses both within and beyond Saudi Arabia," Hariri adds. "We thus remain committed to delivering innovative and customer-centric solutions that simplify and enhance the e-commerce experience for our merchants."
The Salla team in Saudi Arabia. Source: Salla
Of course, to deliver such solutions, the Salla team has had to stay vigilant of the constantly changing landscape it functions in, and the key to that lay in the choosing to innovate only when there was an absolute requirement for it, says Hariri. "Innovation is one of the core values in Salla's work culture, but we believe that innovation in Salla does not stand apart from authenticity," he adds. "Innovation stems from necessity, and in a company like Salla, we use genuine needs that come from the challenges of the market, and the pain points of our merchants as fuel for innovation. Therefore, we remain innovative, as long as we look to the ground before looking to the sky."
It has been this principle that, in effect, has underscored Salla's participation in Saudi Unicorns as well- as Hariri lists how the program has helped the company pick and choose the right areas to further finetune. "Being among the leaders of the region, sitting with great minds and different mindsets from the ecosystem, and participating in different activities related to the digital economy, and adding to the national values and achievements has been wonderful," Hariri says. "An introduction to the xto10x Program [an India-based startups program that helps with scaling and expansion] was one of the most valuable synergies we gained and built out of the program, which led to amazing enhancement of our leaders' mindsets, which reflected our overall operations and daily activities, including the relations of our teammates at all levels."
Salla's journey at Saudi Unicorns has also helped Hariri and his team revisit why they chose to start this company in the Kingdom in the first place. "We are Saudis, and we know Saudis well," Hariri declares. "We understand our needs and pain points. We believe that Saudi Arabia's visions are ambitious, and that's why we found that the best place you can serve is your homeland. The first people who deserve your product are your extended family: the Saudis." But none of this is to say that the company has restricted itself to the Kingdom's borders either. Regional and global expansion is certainly on the cards, but Hariri notes that it is something that will need to be dealt with precision.
"Since we base our product designs on the actual needs of people, individuals, SMEs, and enterprises, we target actual needs and expand to meet them," he says. "And so there will be a lot of homework to do before we think about expansion. There would be a cultural issue regarding new market localization alongside the technical problems we strive to solve. No matter how great your technical solution is, it will not be successful unless it is accepted by the culture you are aiming to expand into. We are aware of this, and we take it into account in our expansion studies. Additionally, participating in international events through the Saudi Unicorns program has helped us to be recognized in the market and become an attractive organization for talent domestically, regionally, and internationally too."
For the foreseeable future though, Hariri has a clear set of goals he hopes to first achieve within the Kingdom itself. "We aspire to be a listed Saudi tech company, bringing together the best Saudi talents, and leading a unique journey in creating a global Saudi product," Hariri says. "Whatever this phase may be called, we are heading towards it, God willing. In March 2024, we closed a pre-IPO funding round, and now, as we continue to scale domestically, we are moving towards more sophisticated and intelligent products, and we aim to attract the best talents to mature the product to better meet the expectations of the Saudi market. Of course, we are considering expansion, but we are studying the markets carefully. We still believe that the Saudi market holds many opportunities and surprises!"
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