CVC in MENA: Hits and misses

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Wadi, an ecommerce marketplace launched by Rocket Internet in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2015, experienced significant turmoil only three years later, despite successfully raising substantial funding.

Just ten months after its launch, Wadi had raised a record $67 million in a Series A round led by Al Tayyar Travel Group (now known as Seera).

When Wadi launched, it took on Souq, which was the only serious horizontal e-commerce player in the Gulf region. The Rocket Internet-backed company made significant inroads very quickly. By late 2016, it had become the number-one shopping app in Saudi Arabia.