OhSaudi-based fashion ecommerce platform Nejree has raised $15 million in a Series A led by Impact46’s growth fund, it announced in a statement. The round takes Nejree’s total financing to over $19 million. The Riyadh-headquartered startup had raised $4 million in a Pre-Series A round in December 2019.
Founded in 2018 by Ibrahim Al Mogren, Nejree started as an online retailer for sneakers but now also sells apparel. The web and mobile-based platform features products for men, women, and kids, from leading international brands, including Adidas, Nike, Lacoste, Puma, Under Armour, Rebook, Converse, and many more.
Its latest offering, Nejree Closet, enables customers to try the products at their homes before they buy them. The service that’s being termed as try-now-buy-later (TNBL) by the Saudi platform is available for free for customers and aims to make the purchase decision easier. The customers can add products on Nejree to their try-on cart and have them delivered to their homes so they can try and choose the products they would like to purchase.
It addresses most of the concerns of customers associated with online shopping of apparel and shoes; including fit-size issues, and feel-look-quality of the products. It has basically taken the best things from the offline shopping experience and has packaged them into its online offering.
Nejree claims that it is the first online platform to have introduced such an option at scale. Since the launch of the new offering three months ago, Nejree Closet has shipped 100,000 products for try-on, stated the startup in a statement, adding that it has seen a growth of over 50 percent in average order value and conversation rate during this period.
Ibrahim Al Mogren, the founder and CEO of Nejree, in a statement, explained, “We have released five different versions of app updates in less than 60 days to deliver Nejree Closet experience at scale. A whole ecosystem is very critical for the success of this service, we are investing tremendously in the whole in-house supply chain and infrastructure from logistics, operations, real-time updates & automation. He also argued that it would take a lot of money and awareness for the concept to get to mass adoption but eventually, the whole industry will move towards TNBL model.
The latest funds will be used to fuel the growth of Nejree Closet. The startup will also use the investment to introduce new categories and brands, and launch new markets, “We are extremely happy to have obtained the trust & support from Impact46, a leading VC in the region, which will bring more expertise & value,” noted the CEO in a statement.
Abdulrahman Almodaimigh, a Managing Partner at Impact46, said, “Nejree is tackling a great challenge in the ecommerce space, addressing customer pain points with the ordering online experience through Nejree Closet’s TNBL. With the right framework, innovative technology, and the team behind Nejree, the platform is set to play a driving role in growing the market.”