Press Release.
Calo, a direct-to-consumer foodtech company offering personalized meal subscriptions, recently raised a $13m Pre-Series A round led by two of the region’s largest investors, Nuwa Capital and STV. This round brings the total investment in Calo to $26.5m after raising its Seed round just last year.
Calo serves personalized meal subscriptions to busy people, catered towards fitness or lifestyle goals. Customers receive their meals daily and get to choose from a rotating menu with over 500 options. The service is loved by tens of thousands of customers that have enjoyed millions of Calo meals. The company prides itself in being customer centric, and their Customer Experience team goes above and beyond in delivering happiness. Calo reports that most of its customers come through word of mouth.
The new funds will be used to double down on the GCC market, serve new categories, and explore opportunities for regional and international expansion. This comes after the company has expanded to 2 additional countries and 6 new cities this year including Dammam and Jeddah in Saudi, as well as the UAE and Kuwait. Calo’s most recent funding round also included the participation of Khwarizmi Ventures, Al Faisaliah Group, AlRajhi Family Office, and other investors.
Ahmed Alrawi, CEO at Calo, highlights, “We’re delivering millions of meals per year and have consistently been quadrupling in growth year over year. We foresee that this trend continues over the next few years as the wellness wave continues to grow.”
Nitin Reen, partner at Nuwa Capital, said, “The team at Calo has mastered the ability to hone the fundamentals while continuing to innovate within the realm of FoodTech. However, what truly makes Calo special is that they maintain an unrelenting focus on their customers in their journey to a healthy lifestyle. We have strong belief in the founders and their traction and ability to recruit a very special team, in such a short time, is a testament to their capabilities and vision. We are very excited to partner with Calo in their next chapter of growth and have every confidence that the team will continue to succeed.”
Mazin Alzaidi, general partner at STV, agreed, “Calo is truly making healthy easy for thousands of customers across the region. The continuous growth and positive reviews are a sentiment to the teams obsession with the customer and focus on operational excellence. Calo is solving a real problem, and we are excited to double down on our partnership with the team and company as they solve it for thousands more.”
Calo’s vertically integrated model allows the company to serve its customers a high quality personalized experience while maintaining healthy margins, making the company’s business units very profitable.
“Today, there’s no global leader in the personalized nutrition space. We believe we can be that company. The biggest food companies in the world serve food that’s good for your tastebuds, but terrible for your body. We’re on a mission to change that,” said Alrawi.
Founded in 2019 in Bahrain, the company has quickly grown to nearly 700 employees located around the world. Calo currently operates in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Kuwait, with plans to expand to other markets in the future.