Saudi Food Delivery Startup Jahez Eyes Over $2 Billion IPO Value

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi food delivery firm Jahez, which competes with companies like Delivery Hero’s Hungerstation, is targeting a valuation as high as $2.4 billion in an initial public offering that would vault it to the ranks of the biggest startups in the Middle East.

Jahez International Company for Information Systems Technology, as the four-year-old firm is formally known, set the price range for the offering later this month at between 750 riyals ($200) and 850 riyals, according to a statement on Thursday. 

The company, which hired HSBC Holdings Plc’s local unit to manage the share sale in May, also agreed to sell a 4.99% stake to Hassana, the kingdom’s pension fund that oversees more than $250 billion in assets, as a cornerstone investor in the IPO.

The goal represents a huge leap for the firm, which closed a $36 million Series A funding round last year. The boon came partly as a result of shifting consumer habits during the pandemic. Gross merchandise value nearly tripled to 1.4 billion riyals in 2020 from 497 million riyals the previous year.

Saudi Arabia’s first tech startup worth more than $1 billion was stc pay, the digital payment unit of mobile operator Saudi Telecom Co. That firm was valued at $1.3 billion in a funding agreement with Western Union last year.

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