CAIRO: Saudi venture capital firms are bolstering the regional startup funding landscape, with Nama Ventures and RAZ Group leading the investment round to support the expansion of the UAE-based logistics startup Cargoz in the Kingdom. Cargoz, often called the Airbnb for commercial warehousing, has secured an undisclosed amount in bridge funding from Nama Ventures, RAZ Group and a select few angel investors from the UAE and Saudi Arabia who are key players in the logistics industry. The company, founded in 2022 by Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony, offers a platform that connects small and medium enterprises with warehouse companies for short-term contracts. According to a press release, the company plans to utilize the funds to spur growth in the UAE and prepare for a soft launch in Riyadh by the third quarter of this year. Cargoz has reported significant growth over the last eight to nine months, indicating that it addresses a substantial market issue. “We underestimated the pain of finding on-demand storage for SMEs and how broken and stressful that experience was,” Cargoz stated in the press release. Nama Ventures, known for its 29 investments, including notable startups like Muqbis, Punt Partners and Faceki, expressed great enthusiasm about backing Cargoz. “Nothing makes us more excited at Nama Ventures than seeing founders as complementary as Premlal and Lijo. Premlal breaths logistics; his depth of the space and his understanding of the pains in the space are unparalleled. Lijo, on the other hand, is a coder’s coder; he is very well versed in tech space and knows how to build tech products,” said Mohammed Alzubi, founder and managing partner of Nama Ventures. In August 2022, Nama Ventures also led Cargoz’s pre-seed funding round with an undisclosed amount used to foster growth in the UAE.