Growdash, a UAE-based start-up that empowers restaurants to build and execute profitable online growth strategies, has announced the closing of a US$750,000 pre-seed round of funding led by Flat6Labs. The round also included participation from Plus Venture Capital (+VC), Judah VC, TPN Investments, as well as a distinguished list of angel investors, including former Talabat CEO, Abdulhamid Alomar, and serial entrepreneur, Zeid Husban.
In the hyper competitive regional food and beverage sector, the biggest challenges that restaurants face are realising the full potential of online food delivery channels, maximising their return on growth investments and achieving profitability on these platforms.
Recognising the struggle of regional restaurants to access in-depth market data and insights that guide informed decision-making, Talabat and Deliveroo alumni, Sean Trevaskis and Enver Sorkun, founded Growdash in 2022. The company’s mission is to help restaurants unlock the power of analytics and business intelligence to enable them to build and execute growth strategies that positively impact bottom-line profitability.
Growdash achieves this through a purpose built, in-house SaaS solution that connects the data points across a restaurant’s pre- and post-order journey. The company’s platform has enabled highly popular brands such as Nandos, Wagamama, Kreative Restaurants & Co, Papa Murphy’s, Malak Al Tawouk and others to increase the returns on their online advertising efforts by over 800%, while simultaneously positively impacting bottom-line profitability.
The newly raised capital will be deployed to hire new talent, further augment its proprietary capabilities with advanced innovative features and expand its services across the wider region.
Growdash currently operates in the UAE and Kuwait. Following the successful funding round, the company is set to launch its SaaS offering in Qatar and KSA this year, followed by inroads into the wider region in early 2024.
“We are excited to partner with Flat6Labs and Plus Venture Capital; alongside a super group of F&B industry-focused investors that continue to support and encourage our ambitious plans on a daily basis,” said Sean Trevaskis, Co-founder & CEO of Growdash.
“We’re proud to have grown by over 500% this year, so far, which truly validates the problem we are solving for restaurants. This funding will help us further accelerate our growth and achieve our goal of empowering restaurants everywhere to stand out in the highly competitive online food delivery landscape.”
Enver Sorkun, Co-founder & CPO at Growdash, added: “We have purposely built a value-add ecosystem for every stakeholder and made this conveniently accessible through our SaaS platform. We currently help over 150 restaurant brands and the leading regional Food Aggregators achieve greater synergy so that restaurants can finally experience the full opportunity that’s on offer to acquire new customers and grow their revenue without taking huge investment risks with growth budgets.”