From left to right: Elie Skaff (CEO), Mohammad Abu Ajamieh (Technology Director) and Mazen Mourad (Operations Director), the three co-founders of Right Farm. (Credit: DR)
Co-founded by Lebanese-Canadians Elie Skaff and Mazen Mourad, and Jordanian-Palestinian Mohammad Abu Ajamieh, Right Farm, a digital platform for trading agricultural products, announced yesterday that it has raised $2.8 million in funding from Enhance Ventures and DisruptAD, the investment platform of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, ADQ.
The amount represents the second round of funding secured by the startup, bringing its total amount raised to $3.7 million, following a first round of $900,000 closed in July 2021 and invested in by ADQ.
Founded in mid-2021 and officially operational since October of that year, Right Farm aims to facilitate and improve the sourcing of more than 1,000 types of fresh fruits, vegetables and microgreens, by connecting companies in the sector directly to producers.
Designed to act as a one-stop shop, Right Farm claims to be able to deliver goods, 90 percent of which are imported, within 12 hours of ordering, a timeframe that the startup intends to further reduce, given the importance of "delivering fresh and quality products in the shortest possible time, especially to restaurants, caterers and hotels," explained Elie Skaff, CEO of the startup. These entrepreneurs intend to meet this challenge with their platform, which incorporates predictive technology tools that allow them to "optimize the operational and financial aspects of the fresh produce value chain" by modeling and predicting the future preferences and behaviors of their consumers.
Just seven months since its launch, Right Farm now has 67 employees, not including the jobs it outsources, including those related to delivery and cold storage used to preserve produce. Although it is only currently operational in the United Arab Emirates, the startup intends "to use the new funds raised to expand its presence in the MENATP [Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey] area," explained Skaff, with Egypt and Saudi Arabia being the preferred destinations for the short term.
To do this, the team is considering two strategies: "We will either acquire a local player already established, or train a team of experienced executives to prepare the launch of our subsidiary," continued the CEO, whose also said his company plans to hire nearly a hundred employees by the end of the year.
At the same time, and just a few days after closing the $2.8 million fundraising round, Skaff said that his team is already "in fundraising mode". Their next goal? To expand to Pakistan and Turkey and to be the first player in this sector to cover such a large area of the region. To do this, they plan to close a $14 million Series A financing round by the end of September.