The story of Zid: how Zid brought the Saudi merchant's whole business into one dashboard
The story of Zid and its founders Sultan AlAsmi and Mazen AlDarrab: from wrapping merchants' shipments in the office in Riyadh in 2017, to Zid Ship and Zid Pay, and one dashboard that brings together the store, social, and the physical branch, and a $50 million round led by Impact46 with Wa'ed.
Full film transcript
Imagine the founders of a tech company, wrapping merchants' shipments by hand in the office.
That was the start of Zid, in Riyadh in 2017.
Sultan AlAsmi and Mazen AlDarrab built a platform that lets any merchant open their store online.
With shipping and payments ready to go: Zid Ship and Zid Pay.
But the Saudi merchant doesn't sell only from their own site.
They sell on Instagram, Snap, and marketplaces, and they have a real shop too.
So Zid decided to bring all of this into one dashboard.
Your store, your social channels, your physical branch, all in one place.
And it connected the merchant to Amazon, TikTok Shop, Noon, and Trendyol.
And Zid says it's the first Arab commerce platform to integrate with Amazon's marketplace.
In 2021, it raised $7 million.
And in 2022, it raised 50 million, led by Impact46. And with them Wa'ed, the Aramco affiliate.
And in 2024, it passed 12,000 active merchants, growing more than 30 percent.
And its merchants' sales grew 25 percent over the previous year.
So what's the difference between it and Salla?
Salla made starting easy for anyone.
And Zid bet on the merchant who wants to grow everywhere.
The lesson for you as a founder: don't build just a store.
Build the whole commerce operation around your customer.
Follow us at Saudi Founders, the next story is even stronger.
Detailed figures and sources are in the Zid profile in the directory.
