Bahrain’s angel investor network Tenmou secures 20x return on their investment
Each country in the Middle East has their own crown jewels when it comes to startups – the UAE has unicorns like Careem and Souq.com, Egypt has Swvl and Basharsoft, and Saudi Arabia has Telfaz11 and Unifonic.
Very often, these startups have been around for some time in order to have garnered the reputation and notoriety that they have, including several rounds of funding by venture capital firms and angel investors. However, as time goes on, these venture capital firms and angel investors are looking to make a return on their investment, which means that they have to sell their shares in the startup – a so called exit.
One of Bahrain’s crown jewels in the startup ecosystem, is the food platform Eat that was founded in the country, which saw one of its earliest investors, Tenmou Angel Group, announce a partial exit from the startup earlier this year.
Through this exit, Tenmou was able to secure a 20 times return on their investment, an impressive feat in a startup ecosystem that is as nascent as the one in the Middle East.
“We are proud to witness the growth of Eat, having supported its development from the early seed stages up until the success story it is today, on the verge of becoming one of the leading providers of tech solutions in the F&B industry.”Nawaf Alkoheji, Chief Executive Officer at Tenmou
Eat is essentially a Software-as-a-Service platform that allow diners to reserve a table in a restaurant via the app as well its website, instead of traditionally having to call. With the digitisation of the food industry, this is just one one of steps that is helping diners get a reservation with ease.
Founded in Bahrain in 2014, Eat is currently headquartered in Dubai and is the number 1 SaaS reservation platform and marketplace for restaurants in the MENA region that has raised $4.2 million till date.
The platform has seated more than 3.5 million diners in over 1200 restaurants and is one of the highest funded startups from Bahrain.
Bahrain is a growing startup hub that has seen multiple initiatives from the government to help startups grow while attracting foreign investors to the country. Eat is an example of how a startup born in the island nation has scaled with the right strategy, growth mindset, vision and investors who believed in the potential of the idea and the startup's founders.
