The Zid story: a merchant's whole business on one dashboard

Imagine a merchant who sells from an online store, from Instagram, from Snapchat, and also has a real shop. Every channel has its own accounts, stock and shipping. That's the problem Zid built on.

The beginning

In 2017 Sultan AlAsmi and Mazen AlDarrab founded Zid in Riyadh. Sultan became CEO, and Mazen head of growth.

The first idea was clear: any merchant should be able to open an online store quickly. But a store alone isn't enough. The merchant needs shipping and payments working from day one.

The store, plus shipping and payments

So Zid built two services around the store:

• Zid Ship: shipping built into the store.
• Zid Pay: payment solutions for stores.

The merchant doesn't have to assemble every piece alone.

From a store to total commerce

In 2024 Zid launched Total Commerce: one dashboard to run your online store, your social sales and your physical branch.

It connected merchants to Amazon, TikTok Shop, Snapchat and Meta, with planned integrations with Trendyol and Noon.

Your customer doesn't live on one channel. Don't build them a tool for one channel.

Funding

• 2019: $2 million pre-Series A led by ElmVC.
• 2021: A $7 million Series A led by Global Ventures.
• 2022: A $50 million Series B led by IMPACT46, with Waed Ventures, Aramco's venture capital arm. At the time the platform had more than 7,500 stores.

In total: about $59 million.

Where is it now?

For 2024, Zid says it passed 12,000 active merchants, its merchant base grew more than 30%, and merchant sales rose more than 25% year on year. These are company figures.

The lesson for you as a founder

Don't just build a store. Look at where your customer actually sells, and build the whole business around them.

Sources: Zid 2021, Wamda 2021, Wamda 2022, Arab News 2024.