Flat6Labs, the Mena region’s leading Seed and early-stage venture capital firm, today signed the investment contract through their Jordan Seed Programme with Midient, a startup based in Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq working on loyalty management software to digitise loyalty programmes in the region.
The investment, a total of $125,000 in pre-Seed funding, will be used to help Midient expand into the rest of Iraq and further develop the mobile application, such as enabling business owners to run offer campaigns inside the platforms alongside their loyalty programmes. In addition to the investment, the general manager of the Jordan office of Flat6Labs, Rasha Manna, will be joining Midient’s Board of Directors.
Founded in July 2021 by Ahmed Jamal and his three co-founders, Omer Sabah, Muhammed Yassein, and Ahmed Bayiz, Midient’s mission is to build a tool that will enable business owners to easily set up and manage their loyalty programmes. Businesses can use the mobile app to put up offers and discounts, give loyalty points to their customers, and reward their loyal customers. At the same time, on the consumer side, this app will act as a platform where users can see all the offers and loyalty programmes available in their city in one central location.
“Flat6Labs’ investment in Erbil-based Midient marks the first investment by Flat6Labs in Iraq,” said Rasha Manna, General Manager, Flat6Labs Jordan. “This partnership is an important milestone for Midient to expand its impact in Iraq and the wider region while giving Flat6Labs the opportunity to learn more about the Iraqi market as we look to scale our investment activity throughout Iraq in the near future. Flat6Labs’ investment in Midient demonstrates its commitment to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.”
Currently, business owners have to contact the Midient staff in order to onboard and set up their loyalty programmes in the app. However, with this investment, the company is planning to develop self-onboarding features so that any business anywhere can onboard themselves and manage their offers and rewards directly in their mobile apps. Other key features, such as in-app dashboards and analytics, will be added later on. Midient is currently operational in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in Erbil and Suleymaniyah, however, it is planning to expand into the rest of Iraq by the end of this year. In 2024, the company expects to expand beyond Iraq to other emerging markets in the Middle East.
“Brick-and-mortar business owners want to reward their loyal customers because they know it leads to higher retention and thus more revenue. However, they haven’t been able to do that in a systematic and easy way due to the lack of a digital solution, until now. We are excited that with this funding, our product will enable businesses to set up their loyalty programmes in as fast as 10 minutes, start rewarding their loyal customers, and increase customer retention and revenue. We are now one step closer to digitising the entire loyalty and rewards sector in Iraq and beyond.” said Midient’s Ahmed.
