Noon.com is set to draw as much as $2 billion in financing from investors including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund over three to four years, as it seeks to capture a larger slice of the Gulf e-commerce market.

The investments from the Public Investment Fund and others will be used to upgrade infrastructure and help speed up deliveries, Noon founder Mohamed Alabbar said late on Sunday. “They are happy with our progress and they are happy to fund,” he said.

Alabbar said e-commerce currently accounts for 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent of total retail in the region, compared with 20 per cent to 22 per cent in the western world and China.
Noon operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt and is looking to expand in other nations across the Middle East.

Alabbar, who owns 50 per cent of Noon jointly with other regional private investors, raised $1 billion from backers including the PIF, as Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is known, to create the firm in 2016. It now has about 4 million daily users and growth is accelerating as it pushes into grocery delivery.