Prime Ventures

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (26 April, 2012) - MarkaVIP, the leading private sales club and fastest growing e-commerce operation in the Middle East, today announced the successful completion of its million Series B funding led by European venture firm Prime Ventures with significant participation from New York City-based Invus Financial Advisors (IFA), Antwerp-based Hummingbird Ventures, and San Francisco-based Lumia Capital. The capital garnered through this funding round will be used to expand MarkaVIP's current operations and marketing activities, and to support regional expansion for its private sales club throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

"We actively pursued this funding to focus on decreasing product delivery lead times and improve quality across the board," said Ahmed Alkhatib, founder and CEO, MarkaVIP. "We are excited to partner with Prime Ventures, who have a strong investment track record, and we are pleased to see our existing investors strengthen their commitment to Markavip."

MarkaVIP was founded in Jordan in November 2010 by CEO Ahmed Alkhatib and Amer Abulaila, MarkaVIP's CTO. The company, which has adapted the proven flash sales model to suit the company's local consumers and retailers, sources excess or introductory inventory from premium brands worldwide to be sold to its private members over a limited time period. Since its launch in Jordan and Saudi Arabia in November 2010 and subsequent expansion to the rest of the GCC and Lebanon earlier in 2011, MarkaVIP has cultivated a private membership of over 1,500,000 registered users and is adding over 5,000 new members per day, with 370,000 Facebook fans. Markavip is currently handling over two million unique visitors per month and over 200,000 daily visitors.