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‘TREP TALK Mona Ataya, founder and CEO, Mumzworld.com What factors do you keep in mind as you enter new markets? “We are driven, first and foremost, by what the customer wants. There are nuances in every market with customer habits and preferences that we need to take into account. Given that we are from the region, we are confident that we have our finger firmly on the pulse of what our consumers, across the entire MENA region, need. Secondly, infrastructure and political variances impact how we enter and how we operate. Again here, we have been in the region for over four decades, so we are all well-versed on the requirements.”
MUMZWORLD.COM www.mumzworld.com
E-commerce platform Mumzworld.com continues to go from strength to strength as it announces the closure of its fifth round of funding to date. In its latest Series B round, Mumzworld has raised an undisclosed amount led by investors Wamda Capital and Swicorp, which brought a group of new investors including KSA-based healthcare firm Tamer Group. Moreover, seven of Mumzworld’s existing investors have joined the round including Precinct Partners, WSB Holding, and Saned, as well as new investors consisting of a KSAbased conglomerate, and other companies in similar segments with manufactur-
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“our marketplace model, technology platform and operations infrastructure can be used to scale into any market.” ing and distribution capacities in the mother and child categories. In addition to all this, the enterprise claims to be also in advanced talks with two other investors that are interested in joining the round. Mumzworld is a MENA enterprise that has certainly shown significant growthlaunched in 2011 by founders Mona Ataya and Leena Khalil, Mumzworld.com is an e-commerce platform dedicated to everything in the mother, baby and child segment, enabling shoppers
to source and buy products using an interactive online marketplace from the convenience of their own homes. As of date, according to Ataya, the site boasts a catalogue of 200,000 products, of which 20,000 are exclusive to Mumzworld.com. On its traction, Ataya says that, as of writing, 68% of their customers come back again, indicating their users’ loyalty. “Our gross merchandise volume (GMV) last year doubled again, and we are set to double [it] yet again this year.”
With GCC as its home base, the e-commerce enterprise ships to 20 countries and is seeking to expand further across MENA, and head to the Levant and North Africa region at the appropriate time- and the fundraising round is a step towards scaling their operations. When asked on how they’re preparing to enter and scale operations in new markets, Ataya asserts their readiness: “We have built a plug and play model, based on seven years of experience in what works in building vertical ecommerce leadership. While every market has nuances in its ecosystem, our market-
IMAGE credit MUMZWORLD.COM
Mona Ataya, founder and CEO, Mumzworld.com
As an enterprise, which has raised its fifth round, what’s your advice to startups pitching to investors? “Good unit economics drive smart investments. Build a business that is customer centric, that creates true consumer value with solid unit economics, and the money will come.”