Sprii raises $8.5-mn in funding

Home-grown, e-commerce platform Sprii.com has raised a further $8.5 million in funding, as it accelerates its expansion across the Middle East and invests in new technology and recruitment to further enhance customer experience.

Sprii is an online marketplace which connects mums to their favourite global brands. The fund raising follows the company’s successful debut into Saudi Arabia earlier this year, with the latest injection of funds earmarked to support further expansion into Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. The technology platform is currently delivering 20% month-on-month growth. Sales in 2019 are on track to be triple as compared to 2018.

To date, Sprii has raised over $13 million of investment, which has enabled the platform to recruit the best technology and marketing talent to fuel this regional expansion. Expert hires within the fields of big data and analytics, combined with a renewed focus on strategic business development, are expected as a result of this latest funding round.

“The first six months of 2019 have exceeded our expectations,” said Sarah Jones, founder of Sprii. “We have launched a new app, opened our operations in Saudi and have now finalised our funding round early, which will allow us to continue to deliver on our promise to our loyal customers.”

The closure of this Series A investment caps off an impressive few months for the e-commerce platform. The round closed with support from previous investors, and attracted a range of new strategic players with interests across the retail, logistics and finance spaces.

Sprii’s inventory-free model has been an attractive plus point for the business, as it has allowed an agility to move and scale at an incredibly fast pace. Sprii doesn’t manage inventories directly, instead the site connects directly to partner inventory and provides customer support, including same-day deliveries and a 14-day return policy.

“Our scalable business model is made possible by our investment early on in the right technological infrastructure, and this has proved crucial in helping us expand so quickly. We’ve been able to effectively enter each new market with relative ease, which has then enabled us to respond to customers’ needs in real-time with local experts on the ground and a first-class team in-house, managing daily operations,” Jones added.