The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Strategic decision · 2014–2025
Foodics bets Saudi restaurants go cloud; $170M Series C, 33,000 merchants, IPO ahead
Cloud POS and payments for MENA restaurants: from a 2014 Saudi startup to a $170M Series C, 33,000 restaurants and a planned Tadawul listing.
Foodics
What the business is
Cloud point-of-sale and restaurant management platform for MENA's food and beverage sector, with embedded payments, micro-lending and supply-chain services, licensed as a fintech by Saudi Arabia's central bank.
Starting capital：$170M Series C in April 2022, bringing total funding to $198M
How it started
Founded in 2014 by Ahmad Al-Zaini and Mosab Al-Othmani, Foodics built cloud-based point-of-sale and management software for restaurants, cafes, bakeries, food trucks and cloud kitchens — segments that ran largely on cash and paper. By the time of its Series C it was formally licensed as a fintech company by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and had processed over five billion orders through its platform.
What happened
In January 2022 Foodics made its first acquisition, buying Jordan-based POSRocket, the second-largest restaurant cloud-technology provider in MENA. In April 2022 it raised a $170M Series C co-led by Prosus and Sanabil Investments (a PIF-owned company), with participation from Sequoia Capital India and existing investors including STV and Endeavor Catalyst — billed as the largest SaaS Series C round in MENA and taking total funding to $198M. The proceeds were earmarked for regional and international expansion, further M&A, and fintech initiatives including micro-lending and supply-chain management.
How it ended up
Still running and scaling: by 2024 Foodics supported over 33,000 restaurants with annual GMV exceeding $10 billion, and in July 2025 Kuwait's Kamco Invest disclosed a stake acquired in Q4 2024, with a Tadawul listing expected within two to three years.
Background
Foodics' bet was that MENA's restaurants — run on cash, paper orders and fragmented tools — would adopt a cloud point-of-sale system and then stay for payments, lending and supply-chain services, making Foodics the region's restaurant operating system. Founded in 2014 in Saudi Arabia by Ahmad Al-Zaini and Mosab Al-Othmani, it served every F&B segment from dine-in restaurants and cafes to food trucks and cloud kitchens, and became formally licensed as a fintech by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA).
In January 2022 Foodics made its first acquisition, buying Jordan-based POSRocket, the second-largest restaurant cloud provider in MENA. Three months later it raised a $170M Series C co-led by Prosus and Sanabil Investments, with Sequoia Capital India and existing investors STV and Endeavor Catalyst participating — the largest SaaS Series C in MENA, taking total funding to $198M and funding M&A, international expansion and new fintech products such as micro-lending and supply-chain management.
The bet compounded: by 2024 Foodics supported over 33,000 restaurants with annual GMV exceeding $10 billion. In July 2025 Kuwait's Kamco Invest disclosed a stake acquired in Q4 2024, describing Foodics as positioned for a public listing on Saudi Arabia's Tadawul within two to three years.
What has to be true
- Restaurants ran on cash and paper, so a cloud POS was an upgrade merchants could feel immediately in orders and operations.
- The fintech layer — SAMA licensing, payments, micro-lending — turned a software tool into a financial relationship with the merchant.
- The POSRocket acquisition and Prosus, Sanabil and Sequoia backing let Foodics consolidate MENA's fragmented restaurant-tech market.
- Proven scale — 33,000 restaurants and over $10B GMV in 2024 — set up the expected Tadawul IPO.
What can be applied
Digitize the tool merchants already touch daily, then expand into payments and lending: Foodics turned a POS into an operating system, and the fintech layer justified the scale.
Aftermath
As of July 2025 Foodics remained private and scaling. Kamco Invest's private-equity arm disclosed a stake acquired in Q4 2024, describing Foodics as supporting over 33,000 restaurants with annual GMV exceeding $10 billion in 2024, with a public listing on Saudi Arabia's Tadawul expected within two to three years. Its 2022 Series C remains the largest SaaS round in MENA, and its roadmap covers international expansion — including APAC — plus fintech services such as micro-lending and supply-chain management.
Sources
- FOODICS Raises $170 million in Largest SaaS Series C Round in MENA
- FOODICS raises $170 million Series C round for expansion
- Kamco Invest acquires a stake in Foodics
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