iMENA Holdings, an integrated and actively managed group of leading online businesses in the MENA region, announced an investment in Desado.com, the Middle East’s first online discovery destination for design-led items, with an aim of providing people in this region with access to well crafted, well priced and unique products, for the home and beyond.
Desado.com was launched in December 2012 in the UAE, as a platform to offer people in the Middle East access to extraordinary home décor, furniture, kitchen supplies, lighting, fashion & accessories, gadgets and quirky items, that cannot easily be found in traditional shopping environments. Only six months later, the website has acquired more than 150,000 members and has expanded across all GCC markets.
Desado.com caters to every taste and style. The Middle East’s audience is extremely heterogeneous, bringing together a customer base that ranges from different nationalities, to all kinds of age brackets.
In order to be successful as a start-up in this region, E-commerce concepts have to offer something new and exciting, an entertaining user-interface, as well as superior service and honest dealing. Desado.com has managed to achieve this formula and has delivered to its promises from day one.
“We at Desado.com make it our mission to achieve absolute customer happiness,” said Muhammad Chbib, founder and CEO of Desado.com. “By providing items our members aspire to, with a service that ensures the browse-to-delivery chain makes them feel comfortable and catered to. The home décor market is growing tremendously in this part of the world, and consumers are showing appreciation for design-led products, so we tapped right into a developing need,” he added.
He further added, “The partnership with iMENA Holdings will help us expand and grow further, to excel in our mission of offering a great platform for people to discover, buy and share great designs and we are proud to have them as part of our globally and regionally renowned investor group, consisting of individuals such as Dr. Klaus Hommels (recently voted into the Forbes 100 of venture investors), and Max Burger (Former Chairman of Apax Partners).”
Khaldoon Tabaza, Co-Founder and Managing Director of iMENA Holdings, said, “The Middle East is the fastest growing market in the E-commerce sector worldwide, and last year alone registered a growth of 300%. Desado.com brings a new taste of style to the region, by offering a great platform to showcase creative designs to a wide audience, making the start-up an obvious choice for us to invest in. We thoroughly investigate any potential investment and Desado.com, with a proven track record of month-on-month growth and a leadership team we strongly believe in, is a business venture we are excited to support.”
