DHAKA: Bangladesh’s largest B2B commerce platform ShopUp has entered Saudi Arabia’s startup ecosystem through a merger with Riyadh-based services and marketplace platform Sary, backed by US and Saudi investors.
Both ShopUp and Sary help small businesses buy products in bulk from wholesalers or manufacturers with digital ordering platforms, delivery and financial services.
Together they have formed SILQ Group, backed by a $110 million funding led by Sanabil Investments — a company owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.
The companies said in their merger announcement on Wednesday that they are “set to become one of the world’s largest trade corridors. It is projected to reach $682 billion.”
“We’re building infrastructure that helps small businesses move goods, access financing, and grow. A key part of this is the launch of SILQ Financial, our dedicated financing arm focused on driving innovation in SME funding. It allows us to offer embedded financial products — natively within our platforms,” ShopUp’s CEO Afeef Zaman told Arab News.
“There’s a $682 billion trade opportunity emerging right here between the Gulf and Emerging Asia. We want to go deep and serve this corridor well ... We’re laying the foundation to expand beyond this corridor in the long term.”
ShopUp was founded by Zaman, Ataur Rahim Chowdhury, and Navaneetha Krishnan J. in 2017, while Sary was founded in 2018 by Mohammed Aldossary and Khaled Alsiari.
Zaman will serve as the CEO of SILQ Group and Aldossary as CEO of SILQ Financial.
ShopUp and Sary have served more than 600,000 retailers, hotels, restaurants, cafes, and wholesalers, to date. The combined network has facilitated over $5 billion in transactions and disbursed more than $750 million in embedded financing.
Zaman believes that more Bangladeshi startups will follow in ShopUp’s footsteps, as the Saudi market offers not only scale, capital, and sophistication, but also a cultural overlap, a strong consumer base — including 3 million Bangladeshi expats — “and a hunger for innovation” across retail, finance, and logistics.
“Bangladeshi startups have a lot to offer in terms of resilience and operating in high-density, resource-constrained environments. In return, Saudi Arabia offers access to institutional partnerships, forward-thinking regulation, and the ability to test and scale products that can work globally,” he said.
“Saudi Arabia is writing one of the most exciting startup stories in the world right now. The pace of change, the vision, and the level of institutional support — especially for high-impact sectors like fintech, logistics, and B2B — make it one of the most promising markets for founders.”
The Bangladeshi government welcomed ShopUp’s merger as “a defining moment” in its digital journey and “one of the most significant global expansion milestones ever achieved by a startup from Bangladesh.”
It also announced the establishment of a dedicated fund to provide capital support to startup companies.
“This moment is more than a funding headline — it’s a clear signal that Bangladeshi startups are ready for the world stage,” the government’s press wing said in a statement.
“To accelerate this momentum, Bangladesh Bank has committed to a landmark startup funding initiative: TK 800 crore (about $66 million) in equity and TK 400 crore (about $33 million) in debt. This fund will serve as a catalytic boost for early and growth-stage startups, empowering local founders to innovate, scale, and compete globally.”
