COFE closes pre-IPO round at $178M valuation, targets Saudi listing by 2029

COFE Technologies, the company formerly known as COFE App, has closed a pre-IPO funding round at a $178 million valuation led by Aramco-backed Wa’ed Ventures, as it targets a listing on one of Saudi Arabia’s capital markets by 2029.

Aditum Investment Management, Masarrah Investment Company and Alyasra Foods also participated in the round, which was announced at LEAP in Riyadh. COFE hasn’t disclosed how much new capital it actually raised.

COFE started in Kuwait as a consumer app for ordering coffee from chains and independent cafés, but now describes itself as an enterprise technology company spanning procurement and commerce, with software agents designed to manage functions including purchasing, inventory, customer engagement and sales. It says more than 1,000 enterprise customers across 3,000 outlets in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE now use its infrastructure.

That’s not to say the consumer app has disappeared, rather it appears that the company is increasingly treating that business as the live consumer layer for technology it can also sell directly to brands, including payments, loyalty, ordering, marketing and customer data products.

Ali Al Ebrahim originally conceived COFE in Kuwait in 2017 before beta-launching the app in 2018, initially connecting consumers with cafés for delivery and pickup. It raised a $3.2 million pre-Series A in February 2019 led by KISP Ventures, then backed by KFH Capital and Cedar Mundi, alongside Towell Holding International, Takamul Capital, Dividend Gate Capital, Nizar AlNusif Sons Holding and Arab Investment Company. Later that year it closed an undisclosed seven-figure Series A at a $25 million valuation.

In 2021, Kuwait-listed Al Imtiaz Investment Group invested another $10 million through a capital increase. Its stock-market disclosure showed the investment bought 25% of COFE, implying a roughly $40 million post-money valuation. COFE described that financing as a Series B.

Wa’ed arrived in March 2023, leading a $15 million Series B alongside eWTP Arabia Capital, with Al Imtiaz, KISP Ventures and Rasameel Investment Company also participating. Al Imtiaz disclosed that its $1 million contribution to that capital increase was made at a $100 million post-money valuation, giving an unusually visible valuation trail from $25 million in 2019 to roughly $40 million in 2021, $100 million in 2023 and $178 million today.

COFE spent much of that earlier period trying to deepen its ownership of the coffee customer journey. It acquired UAE specialty coffee marketplace Sippy Beans in early 2022, followed weeks later by Saudi coffee-ordering platform Kaffeen, while adding e-commerce for beans, capsules, equipment and home brewing alongside its core ordering product.

The more significant change came later when COFE began selling its tech directly to operators through COFE Cloud, building branded ordering, payments, loyalty and back-office systems for companies including Saudi coffee chain Darat Al Qahwa and UAE tea brand FiLLi.

COFE now says it went further in 2025 by merging with the beverage business of Alyasra Foods, combining its software with an established physical procurement and distribution operation.

Today, the company lists Riyadh as its HQ and Kuwait City as another location on LinkedIn, although its holding company, COFE District App Holding Ltd, remains incorporated in ADGM in Abu Dhabi.

The latest round also coincides with the exit of one of COFE’s longest-standing shareholders. Al Imtiaz, which had invested $11 million across the 2021 and 2023 rounds and was once COFE’s largest investor by contribution, completed the sale of almost all of its holding on September 1. The Kuwait-listed group will receive $10.084 million in cash and a $2 million interest in Phoenix Venture Partners Innovation Fund, while retaining a 0.8% COFE stake that it intends to sell separately. It expects to book an $8.4 million accounting gain from the transaction.

IPO talk isn’t entirely new either territory either. After the $10 million financing in 2021, Al Ebrahim told Arabian Business that COFE could go public within five years, which would have put a listing around 2026. That never materialised, but now pitching itself as the “Salesforce of MENA” it has its sights set on a renewed effort by 2029.