Jamalon, the largest online Arabic book retailer, announced today that it has successfully completed the first leg of its Series B funding round, raising over $10 million in investments from existing and new shareholders. This makes it the largest amount ever received by an e-commerce retailer in Arabic publishing.
The latest funding round secured investments from leading investor Wamda Capital, Aramex, Anova Investments, 500 Falcons, Endeavor Catalyst, and others. The funds will be used to increase the reach of Arabic books across the globe, by scaling-up its print-on-demand services, which is able to print over 2 million titles in under 5 minutes per book.
Jamalon, founded in 2010 by CEO Ala’ Alsallal, now offers more than 10 million publications in both Arabic and English. The startups revenues has grown over 7-fold since 2013, with %15 of its titles sold outside of the Middle East. CEO Ala’ said, “We are very excited to close this new round with investors that have been supporting us from the beginning. Today, adding new regional and global industry leaders will make a great difference in our journey to become the most powerful global hub for Arabic books.”
Fadi Ghandour, Executive Chairman of Wamda Capital, said, “We are excited to lead this funding round and to continue supporting Jamalon in its mission to reinvent the region’s publishing and distribution industry. The Print On Demand (POD) solution is an example of how the industry is evolving and Jamalon is primed to capitalize on this shift and further scale its business.”
Nouf Aljreiwi, Executive Director at Anova Investments added, “We strongly believe in Jamalon’s concept and founding principles as a vehicle that breaks down barriers facing knowledge exchange in the region. Our investment will help them grow even further and cement their leading position in the Saudi Arabian market. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Jamalon will continue to realize exponential growth over time.”