Grocery shopping has never been easier ever since the launch of the Bahraini-based startup GetBaqala in 2016. But the startup’s journey doesn’t just end here, as Amjad Puliyali, Co-Founder & CEO of GetBaqala announces their expansion in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia!
Amjad also tells us that they’ve added a new Co-Founder and Managing Director – KSA, Mashari Al Omayyer. With a great amount of exposure gained during his education and work experience in San Francisco, Mashari surely adds a lot of value to the startup. “Being so close to the city as well as Silicon Valley I was exposed to many startups, which slowly throughout the years tremendously increased my passion towards starting up my own business. I was fortunate enough to hear about GetBaqala in Bahrain and I met with Amjad to partner in the expansion in Saudi Arabia and hopefully across the GCC countries,” he tells us.
According to Amjad, since Saudi is the largest market in the GCC, this encouraged them to launch their operations in the neighboring country. “For the first two years of GetBaqala we focused on Bahrain, which is the smallest market in the GCC – it’s great to have this good combination of markets,” Amjad shares with Startup MGZN. “While we tested many different models, we believe we figured out the business model, which is scalable and sustainable – in order to prove this is a viable model we built we have to roll out into a market like Saudi,” he says.
Expanding to Saudi will definitely have a direct impact on GetBaqala in several ways, Amjad states, as he predicts the growth rate will continue for at least 40% MoM. They’ve already started expanding their team in Saudi, and have hired an excellent team to kick off their operations in the Eastern Province. “We expect our platform to be ready for the next level of growth in terms of capacity and volume. Our last mile delivery is fully prepared to take a large number of orders in Saudi, as we are starting with 50 temperature controlled delivery vans in Saudi,” he tells us.
Amjad adds that GetBaqala’s next phase of growth will come from Saudi’s expansion and their new business models that they’re trying out in Bahrain, especially after launching “Baqala Next”, their next day delivery from partner stores. “We believe with e-Commerce and Mobile – we could clearly help SME’s and local merchants go online, as we have been adding many partner stores and their inventory to GetBaqala App,” he says. This, in turn, will connect these small & medium businesses to sell directly to customers online. GetBaqala has also enabled farmers to sell directly to consumers with their “This is our Farm to Table” option, where they’re planning on doing a full roll out in the upcoming months.
“There are many different experiments we are currently rolling out – we will never stop experimenting with our business models,” Amjad concludes.
GetBaqala is available on Apple Store and Google Play Store. You can also shop for your groceries through their website!