• UAE e-commerce startup seeks to spread wings across Middle East and North Africa.

Dubai: UAE-based eyewear e-commerce player – eyewa – has raised a pre-series B bridge round of $2.5 million from Wamda Capital, EQ2 Ventures and Nuwa Capital. 

This is eyewa’s third funding round, it comes hard-on-the-heels of a mid-2019 Series A round of $7.5million and $1.1 million in a seed round in 2018. 

In the span of three years, eyewa has raised a capital of $11.1 million, demonstrating the tech startup’s growth and scalability potential as well as investor confidence in its business model. 

It is the largest online eyewear retailer in UAE and Saudi Arabia and saw its business double during the lockdown as many customers switched their shopping habits away from the malls and stores towards the convenience and safety of online shopping. 

Unique portfolio

Eyewa co-founder and co-CEO Anass Boumediene said, “eyewa has seen exponential growth over the last year by making eyewear more accessible in our region. We offer a unique portfolio of trendy eyewear products at an affordable price and a great online shopping experience, solving a big pain point for our customers.” 

Eyewa will leverage the additional capital to double down on the rapid expansion, e-commerce has witnessed during the pandemic and build new capabilities to further strengthen its position in the online eyewear space in the MENA region.

Mehdi Oudghiri, co-founder and co-CEO added, “These funds will allow us to accelerate our disruption of MENA’s eyewear retail sector through the implementation of innovative tech solutions, expanding our product portfolio and offer best in class customer service.”

Last year, eyewa was selected as one of the top 100 Arab startups by the World Economic Forum for its contribution to the region’s digital transformation.

Growth opportunity

 “The strong resilience and consistent performance demonstrated by eyewa’s founders and team over the last few months speak to the company’s immense potential to lead over the coming years. The founders’ response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak does not fall short of efficiency and reassures our confidence in eyewa as a unique e-commerce platform that continuously seizes market opportunities and will only continue to grow and enhance the user experience across the Mena region,” said Fadi Ghandour, Executive Chairman of Wamda.

Patrick Thiriet, CEO of EQ2 Ventures, said, “Ever since it was launched by Anass and Mehdi, eyewa has been a role model for the MENA innovation ecosystem. Its talented, dedicated team keeps on finding ways to better serve consumers’ needs, raising the bar for all players in the eyewear market. We are, more than ever, proud to be part of their journey.” 

“We launched Nuwa Capital with a singular goal, to back and support the region’s most remarkable founders. This investment in eyewa is the very first step in a wider investment thesis that looks to deliver on this promise, and we are deeply excited to start realizing the vision of Nuwa Capital through our partnership with eyewa’s founders Anass and Mehdi,” said Nuwa Capital’s Managing Partner Khaled Talhouni.