Venture capital (VC) firm Wamda has invested in UAE-based Automotive Startup Seez, which is a Dubai-based startup that helps people buy cars through its mobile app.
Seez has raised $6 million in what it says is a 5x oversubscribed Series A round. The round was led by several automotive companies that distribute a total of 9 brands in the UAE and other MENA (Middle East and North Africa) markets, a statement said.
The round, which was said to be oversubscribed by five times, linked in an investment pool which comprised of Lebanon-based B&Y Venture Partners, German VC Crealize, Phoenician Funds and several angel investors along with other strategic automotive partners.
Seez, offers a platform which comes with a smart search engine tools for car listings and proprietary, AI-fueled pricing and negotiation tools. Having more than a million users, Seez has almost 500,000 cars listed available across five countries.
It has recently also launched a cross-border car shopping app for the users in Saudi, Kuwait, Nigeria, Sudan, and Albania to import cars from the UAE, facilitating people in other states to purchase cars from the UAE via the app.
In 2019, it was reported that close to 275,000 second-hand cars were traded in the UAE, out of which nearly half were for export.
Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman, Wamda remarked, “Seez is functioning to upkeep the automotive industry in the UAE by leveraging collaborations across numerous regional countries, in an effort to promote cross-border economic integration in Mena‘’.
Tarek Kabrit, the co-founder of CEO Seez stated, “From the very beginning, we have been using technology to transform how individuals shop for cars. During the first 3 years, we focused on constructing our product and increasing our user base. Now we are leveraging this platform and using it as a Launchpad for all these thrilling new services we want to launch.”
The startup mentioned that the “latest funding will go in the direction of several new verticals that tap into the $10 billion second-hand automotive market in the UAE and other regional markets.”