PHOTO
Saudi Arabia’s retail powerhouse Alhokair family is investing $12.4 million in Egypt-based fintech firm valU, which operates a buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) platform that enables customers to shop across thousands of stores and service providers.
In a statement on Monday, the BNPL firm said that Fawaz Abulaziz Alhokair, Salman Abdulaziz Alhokair and Abdul Majeed Abdulaziz Alhokair have entered into an agreement to acquire a 4.99 percent stake in valU through the capital injection.
The Alhokair family’s investment, which is still subject to regulatory approvals, signifies a valuation of $247.4 million for the company.
Looking to tap into the Saudi market, the fintech firm has recently created a joint venture with the kingdom’s franchise retailer FAS Labs, owned by Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair and Arabian Centres Company (ACC), to set up a consumer microfinance firm called FAS Finance.
The platform has more than 574,000 app users in Egypt. In 2020, the app processed close to 196,000 transactions worth $60 million.
(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
