The Foodics story: how Foodics became the system for thousands of restaurants from one customer's request
The story of Foodics and its founders Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani: from a small software company called Alwans in Khobar, to a cloud cashier on the iPad, to a system that says it is in more than 40,000 branches and finances restaurants from their daily sales. Is it the next Saudi startup worth $1 billion?
Full film transcript
Open any Foodics app in the Apple store, and look at the publisher name.
You won't find Foodics. You'll find the name of a small company, founded by two university students 16 years ago: Alwans.
And this is the story: how a small software company in Khobar became the system your restaurant order goes through every day.
In 2010, Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani, classmates at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, founded Alwans.
A company that built apps and websites for anyone who asked.
Until a restaurant owner came to them with a different request: he wanted to run his whole restaurant digitally.
Back then, most restaurants ran on paper: printed menus, handwritten orders, and accounts at the end of the night.
The first product they built was a digital menu on the iPad.
But every restaurant asked the same question: can it connect to the cashier?
So they decided to build the cashier themselves.
In 2014, Foodics launched: a cloud cashier system on the iPad.
And for three full years, they worked without a single riyal from an investor.
After that, the cashier became the gateway.
Inventory, kitchen, online orders, payments, and accounting. All in one system.
Then came the smarter move: Foodics started financing restaurants.
Because it sees a restaurant's sales every day, it gives it financing, and the restaurant repays from its daily card sales.
Investors caught up. In 2017, $4 million. In 2021, $20 million, led by Sanabil Investments.
In 2022, $170 million, led by Prosus and Sanabil Investments.
Today, Foodics says it is in more than 40,000 branches.
More than 6 billion orders have passed through its systems.
In 2025 alone, $13 billion in sales, according to its CFO.
Its valuation, according to reports, reaches $1 billion. And the focus now is on listing on Tadawul.
The lesson for you as a founder: sometimes the biggest idea comes from one customer's request.
Follow us at Saudi Founders.
Detailed figures and sources are in the Foodics profile in the directory.
