Mumzworld signs acquisition deal with Tamer Group

Dubai - The Middle East’s largest mother, baby & child e-commerce platform is set to expand its regional and product footprint

Mumzworld, the largest mother, baby & child (MBC) e-commerce platform in the Middle East, has announced that it has signed a Sales and Purchase Agreement with Tamer Group of Saudi Arabia, for Tamer’s proposed acquisition of a majority stake in Mumzworld.

Tamer Group is one of the largest regional healthcare distributors with its consumer and nutrition divisions and logistics services. Tamer’s annual turnover is SAR9.2 billion with a CAGR of 11 per cent.

Mumzworld and its founders are pioneers of e-commerce focused on the mother, baby & child vertical in the Middle East. The company’s vertical market leadership spans across the entire GCC and the Levant region. The proposed transaction follows 10 years of stellar growth by Mumzworld, founded in late 2011 by CEO Mona Ataya, and CCO Leena Khalil. The company has demonstrated how to build a scaled ecommerce vertical efficiently with gold standard metrics and utilizing relatively limited resources.

Mumzworld’s choice to partner with a regional player is a deliberate one, as it allows the company to continue to grow in key regional markets and expand its digital footprint leveraging the many synergies and complementary strengths of Tamer. The transaction also bolsters the significance of digital channels for large conglomerates in the region. The proposed transaction recognizes the strong brand equity and ecosystem creation that Mumzworld has had on the Middle East. It is the only specialized vertical player to fully integrate localised product, community and content thereby creating an unparalleled user experience and supply chain dominance.

Whilst Mumzworld will retain a high degree of autonomy - including retention of the full Mumzworld management team and Mumzworld branding - the combined platform has scope for enormous synergies in procurement, logistics and infrastructure. The transaction will give Mumzworld access to a large, committed pool of capital that will allow the business to supercharge its growth. Tamer will also help further institutionalise the business, and use Tamer’s portfolio companies to spur organic growth of Mumzworld.

Mona Ataya, CEO of Mumzworld, said: “We are delighted to join the Tamer Group, having created the Middle East’s largest female-led ecommerce business. We have recorded 10x growth over the last five years, and this is just the beginning for us. We are better positioned than ever to accelerate growth, drive wider geographic expansion and continue to build a tech footprint serving customers better than ever. We will continue to own the supply chain for mother and child; both our customers and suppliers are at the forefront of this next exciting phase for Mumzworld.”

She added: “This new milestone for Mumzworld is a win for the customer with even more customer-centric unique offerings and services, a win for our brand partners driving faster and greater growth and expansion and our Mumzworld team who will continue to shape the ecosystem and anchor Mumzworld as the admired and respected indispensable online extension of a mother’s life. The large mother, baby & child market is supported by strong market drivers and we look forward to continue our deep entrenchment in this vertical ecosystem, and to the future, with great excitement.”

The regional MBC market is worth over $10 billion, with the online segment growing approximately 39 per cent per annum, yet online penetration remains in the single digits. A young population, strong birth rates, robust purchasing power and highly digitized consumers with growing e-commerce adoption will continue to drive growth in the online segment particularly in Saudi Arabia - where ecosystem enablers grow, become more efficient and seize the white space market opportunity - and where Mumzworld is set to further widen the gap between it and other players in the market.

Ayman Tamer, chairman of Tamer Group, said: “We are extremely excited to announce our acquisition of Mumzworld. The deal coincides with our 100-year anniversary - operating as the largest healthcare distributor in the region, and major player in FMCG, logistics and beauty care - and this is a further, hugely significant, milestone for Tamer Group. We believe that e-commerce is the future for the GCC. As a major player in the FMCG space, e-commerce is no longer an option, but a necessity. The world has shifted to a customer-centric model with consumer behaviours, trends and data having become the new gold. Players in the space need to understand their customers, and adapt to their changing needs.”

business@khaleejtimes.com