The SME Story
A B2B marketplace that connects local food suppliers with foodservice businesses, a secondhand online marketplace for preowned luxury goods and an e-commerce auto and spare parts platform are on our radar this month
Interviews with entrepreneurs and insights from experts on how the regional SME ecosystem is evolving
Igor Nikolenko
Co-founder and CEO, SupplyMe
What were you doing prior to starting SupplyMe?
Prior to starting SupplyMe, I was running a digital agency that helps other startups and enterprises to launch their online ventures. My co-founder and COO of SupplyMe, Husam Al Bardawil, has significant experience owning and managing restaurants.
The shift in consumption and purchasing patterns witnessed in 2020 led to the B2B food industry embarking on its journey to embrace innovation and be more efficient. Understanding the opportunities of this market eventually ignited our passion to launch SupplyMe, an online B2B marketplace that connects local food suppliers with cafes, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, and other foodservice businesses of all sizes.
How does SupplyMe work and what is its USP?
The registered users of the application can choose from a selection of food and beverage products required by Horeca businesses from a network of dedicated regional suppliers.
The main USP of this marketplace for buyers includes stress-free ordering with a wide variety and availability of products listed on a single platform.
This will enable them to simplify their buying process, and be assured of competitive pricing and on-time delivery to manage their business needs. With the power of machine learning and datadriven technology available on the platform, businesses can keep track of their procurement needs and restock their supplies – streamlining the tedious process, manage finances, improve decisionmaking, and help mitigate risks.
For suppliers, the application aims to take the sales and marketing efforts under its umbrella. The tech solution installed on the app will support with transparent reporting metrics for simplified sales management. It can assist with confirming orders and details, offer promotions, improve customer experience, and most importantly, build a new customer base.
Some of our biggest clients include suppliers of brands such as Coca-Cola, Barilla, Pomi, Taylors, Alpro, Elle & Vire, and Ile De France.
What is the market size that you are competing in regionally ?
According to Statista, the size of the F&B industry in the GCC is currently at $34.1bn and another report by Forrester suggests B2B e-commerce will hit $1.8 trillion by 2023. The number of online marketplaces in the region is extremely low and the number becomes even more segmented when it comes to the B2B food and beverage industry.
We are still in the nascent stages of our operation and soon we will be looking for investors. We are only operational in Dubai at the moment. We plan to operate across the entire UAE by the end of this year.
What are some of the biggest challenges you are facing with SupplyMe at the moment?
Covid-19 has created new dynamics for the evolving F&B industry. Sixty-seven per cent of the buyer’s journey is now completed digitally. B2B suppliers are aware of this fact, but are still a little skeptical to let go of the traditional methods of doing business and jump on the digital bandwagon. This is one of the biggest challenges we are facing when it comes to suppliers.
Customers, on the other hand, are looking for an immersive experience and expect the B2C convenience to transfer over in B2B e-commerce as well.
What are your plans for growth?
In the next 12 months, we aim to extend our presence to other GCC countries, with our first priority being Saudi Arabia. Depending on the market requirements, we might be looking at expanding our product offerings too.
Sandeep Shetty Co-founder, NorthLadder
What is the central idea around NorthLadder?
NorthLadder is a UAE-based secondhand online marketplace for pre-owned luxury assets and electronics such as smartphones, tablets, watches, bags, cars and jewellery. Our aim was to create a transparent platform that delivers the best possible value to our customers. With NorthLadder, people can sell or finance their secondhand goods through our global auction platform.
The auction-driven element allows buyers from all over the world to bid for goods, delivering competitive prices for our customers. Our process includes the authentication of all goods we receive in addition to handling the logistics and payment to create a simplified user experience for both the seller and the buyer. In the last year, we have completed over 20,000 transactions. We have a growing team of over 50 employees.
What percentage of the pre-owned luxury market within the UAE are you aiming to capture?
Currently, we are experiencing high supply and demand for luxury secondhand goods in the UAE. Consumers in the Middle East have the highest spend per capita on luxury goods in the world. This strong consumption has opened up opportunities in the secondhand luxury goods market in the GCC. For example, the pre-owned watch market alone globally is estimated to be worth $30bn, capturing just a small percentage of the total pre-owned luxury market.
What are some of the inherent problems that you have to contend with in the pre-owned luxury space?
Operating in the pre-owned luxury market presents three key challenges. These are authentication, international shipment logistics and payments. For example, we ensure reliable authentication by establishing credible third party partnerships. We have partnered with Franck Muller’s atelier in Dubai where all luxury watches are tested for authenticity prior to being listed on the platform. When it comes to inventory, we don’t have any – every watch or bag sold on our platform is against a bid by a global buyer.
You received $5m funding earlier this year. To what end has that been used?
So far, we have invested in our talent to build a cohesive team of experts. We have also invested in the technology behind our platform. We have additionally focused our investments into building consumer awareness of the product and service across the region. We still have part of this investment, which we plan to allocate towards our continued growth. We look forward to our next round of funding early next year primarily to support our global expansion plans.
What are your expansion plans?
We are currently focusing on setting up operations in Saudi Arabia and aim to be fully operational there by Q4 of this year. After expanding our reach in the region, we plan to go international with expansion plans into the US next year.
Ahmed Omar
CEO and co-founder, Odiggo
Why did you decide to create Odiggo?
We answered the market need of the “do-it-for-me” generation by connecting the best fitting suppliers and car service providers to car owners. Odiggo receives the supply from the vendors, so our prices are in fact cheaper than the market price.
We noticed that car owners, especially in the UAE, have always found it very difficult and time consuming when it comes to taking care of their cars and meeting their auto needs. People spend hours looking for a car part or finding a good quality and trusted service provider to fix their cars. As car enthusiasts, we noticed a massive gap in the market for this and now our core business is filling that need for our customers and car owners.
What is the market size of the e-commerce auto spare parts business?
The global market for the auto parts and accessories manufacturing industry is currently valued at $2 trillion and it is one of the top 10 industries in the world. It is a $61bn industry in the Middle East and Africa alone, which is a brilliant opportunity for Odiggo. We aim to be the first $100bn company coming out of the region.
Can you provide us with details about your latest round of funding?
Y-Combinator, 500 Startups and PlugAndPlay have invested $2.3m in Odiggo’s latest seed round. Following this round of highly successful investments, Odiggo’s top priority will now be consistent growth. That’s the main thing, so mainly it’s focusing on technology and expanding our team in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Currently, Odiggo services over 45,000 users across three markets and works directly with over 300 merchants. [We have seen] a 40 per cent month-on-month consistent growth and 200 per cent user base increase at the start of the pandemic.
What are some of the biggest pain points you are experiencing currently?
Initially, when researching suppliers, we would find both parts of excellent quality and also low-quality items that will not work for our customers. This is because there are many options to choose from. We needed to make sure we have the right pieces and [the right] suppliers.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as an entrepreneur?
Two of the biggest mistakes I have made as an entrepreneur were not hiring leadership from the beginning, and not listening to customers from day one. The statement – “The customer is always right” – has never been truer.
What are your expansion plans and will you branch out into further product offerings/services?
We are looking not only to scale in the region, but also be the number one global player in the autotech space. We have exceptional team members that will definitely secure that and we are looking to bring convenience and development to the aftersales industry.
TWO OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES I HAVE MADE AS AN ENTREPRENEUR WERE NOT HIRING LEADERSHIP FROM THE BEGINNING, AND NOT LISTENING TO CUSTOMERS FROM DAY ONE
born, and as they reached their teenage years in the Seventies, their impact on the world was gaining momentum. Part of this third industrial revolution was moving from mainframe to personal computing, and clearly these two entrepreneurs had a huge part to play in that change, putting computers in both homes and schools.
While both Gates and Jobs were essentially trying to do the same thing – create products that enabled affordable home computing – they went about it in very different ways. As their careers moved forward, Jobs in particular showed an incredible ability to pivot and create products quite far from his initial area of expertise.
The entrepreneur of today may sometimes feel a market is already taken. Many probably felt that Bill Gates and the mammoth Microsoft had things covered. But it was Jobs who came at the same problem from a new angle, who emphasised a different set of customer values in his attempt to solve the same problems, and carved out not just a niche, but a revolution of his own.
Today: The fourth industrial revolution – IoT and cyberphysical systems
The fourth industrial revolution is where we find humans in working environments with robots, and where factories and warehouses form entire networks. It’s a place where the Internet of Things (IoT) takes mass production to new levels, allowing machines to predict when they will need maintenance and diagnose their own problems. It’s this big data approach which produces insights that humans can then use to produce greater optimisation.
The opportunities here for an entrepreneur are almost endless. From artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality, to cloud services and 3D printing – these may be tools you use in your own company, or they may become part of your offerings. But more than that, it’s an era that is wide open. And it’s highly likely that some of the most exciting ideas (and perhaps entire sectors) have yet to be invented.
Your entrepreneurial journey starts now
Whatever areas that today’s entrepreneurs venture into, their goal won’t be so different to those early tribes bartering with volcanic rock, to Henry Ford making his first cars, or Bill Gates creating an operating system that would revolutionise personal computing.
It’s about solving a customer problem, or like Steve Jobs, offering them something they didn’t even know they wanted. The fourth industrial revolution has yet to be fully written, it’s over to you to fill in the pages with your ideas.