Saudi Arabian software start-up Salla has raised $130 million in an investment round ahead of its initial public offering (IPO).

The fundraising was led by Investcorp, with participation from Sanabil Investment, a wholly owned company of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and STV, a technology venture capital fund and existing shareholder, according to a statement on Monday.

Investcorp said its investmnet was made through its $500 million Saudi-Pre-IPO Growth Fund, which was launched in 2022 to invest in a diversified portfolio of businesses, primarily in Saudi Arabia.

Established in 2016, the company provides an SaaS solution to businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Its fully digitised and automated solution allows merchants to build e-commerce websites, start selling their products online within a few hours, accept online payments and ship their products to the end user.

Since 2020, Salla has enabled $7 billion in e-commerce sales. It now serves more than 80,000 merchants on the platform, which features 400 applications. It also has more than 160 developers focused on technology and product development.

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria) seban.scaria@lseg.com