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UAE-based online marketplace ServiceMarket.com announced yesterday that it had secured $4 million in funding from international venture capitalist fund AddVenture and Dubai-based Emaar Industries & Investments.
The latest funding round brings the total amount raised by ServiceMarket since it was founded in 2013 to $8 million.
The online marketplace allows users to find and book home services online, provides removals, home cleaning and pest control, as well as a range of among other offerings. The company said in a press release issued on Sunday that it had served 150,000 customers in the past year.
ServiceMarket’s founder Bana Shomali said: “This investment will allow us to offer an even wider range of services to our customers, further establishing ServiceMarket as a one-stop home services platform. We will also be investing in our customer experience to ensure we retain our competitive edge in that area.”
Shomali said the home services market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is worth between $20-30 billion annually, with only one per cent of services currently booked online, compared to the developed markets where 50-80 per cent of other services including travel, hotel flights and entertainment are booked online.
“ServiceMarket’s ambition is to deliver home services online to consumers in the region. Our platform does so by making the pricing and the quality of these services much more transparent to consumers, through our quote comparison and user-rating engine,” said Shomali.
A report by start-up community Magnitt revealed that the UAE received the lion’s share of regional start-up funding in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the first half of 2018, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as more favourable environments are created for entrepreneurs in the region.
Further reading:
- A flying start: The UAE received the lion's share of regional start-up funding, but Saudi Arabia and Egypt show growth
- UAE's MoveSouq.com rebrands as ServiceMarket, following a $3 million funding round
- Startup MoveSouq.com closes $3 million funding round
- Emaar Industries & Investments acquires stake in UAE-based Leaders Fort Contracting
- Venture playground: MENA start-ups raise $475mln in 2017
(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; Editing by Michael Fahy)
(Imogen.lillywhite@thomsonreuters.com)
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© ZAWYA 2018
