Souq.com, the Middle East’s largest e-commerce site, has just announced the acquisition of Sukar.com, a private Middle East sales club founded two years ago.
Sukar.com was one of the Middle East’s first private shopping clubs, and the site took off to an impressive start, gaining 100,000 users in its first two months, prompting a quick expansion throughout the region.
It has since found stiff competition in private flash sales club, MarkaVIP, which has also been growing at an impressive rate, and recently raised $10m in Series B funding.
Sukar.com wasn’t shy of funding itself, with the Jabbar Group, which also happens to own Souq.com, investing $5m in the site, making it a majority owner. With today’s news, Jabbar Group appears to be merging two of its most successful sites.
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Speaking about the acquisition, Sukar.com founder Saygin Yalcin said, “Sukar.com has continuously proven to be the market leader in its sphere. The acquisition by Souq.com has now created the largest e-commerce force in the region.”
He added, “This investment will enable Sukar.com to accelerate its growth, add unique values to the new organization and further ensure its market leadership.”
Souq.com CEO Ronadlo Mouchawar commented, “The acquisition of Sukar.com will strategically align our two companies, maximizing our synergies and consolidating our resources with the aim of further building the largest e-commerce business in the region.”
Souq.com offers a wide variety of products, from electronics and gadgets to clothing and accessories, while Sukar.com has been firmly focused on the fashion and lifestyle industry. One of the priciest items sold on the site happens to be a pure gold $100,000 iPhone case.
Looking to the fashion industry is something which Mouchawar sees a great deal of potential in, saying, “The fashion market in the Middle east is more than $30bn, and on line share is less than 1%, we have a huge potential and that is the main reason of this acquisition.”
It is unclear how the acquisition will affect operations or Sukar.com’s private membership approach, but it certainly is a space worth watching, marking the beginning of what could be an unstoppable duo in the Middle East’s e-commerce market, and the timing couldn’t be better.
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