KSA-Based Nabt Raises US$3.4 Million To Scale Its Agritech Platform Across The Kingdom

Nabt, a Saudi agritech platform modernizing the Kingdom's fresh produce supply chain, has closed a US$3.4 million seed extension round, which makes the total investment it has raised since its inception to $5 million.

SHG Group, a Riyadh-based investment and business development firm, led the new funding round, with participation from returning investor, the Riyadh-headquartered Merak Capital, and several angel investors.  

The investment, which was announced at a signing ceremony held during the KSA Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture's (MEWA) annual Sunbola program event, saw the presence of Abdullah Alotaibi, CEO of Nabt, Othman Alhokail, co-founder and Managing Partner of Merak Capital, and Mohammed Al-Garafi, CEO of SHG Group. 

Launched by Abdullah Alotaibi in Riyadh in 2022, Nabt is developing a physical and digital backbone for Saudi Arabia's fresh produce sector, connecting local farms with commercial buyers to improve farm profitability, ensure consistent supply quality, and strengthen food security. The new capital is thus set to fuel Nabt's expansion into new Saudi cities, diversify the company's produce portfolio, scale its customer base nationwide, and upgrade operational infrastructure to give more farmers access to modern markets. 

In an interview with Inc. Arabia, Alotaibi explained that the company emerged after he realized there was a fundamental disconnect in how fresh produce moves through the Kingdom. "I founded Nabt in Riyadh in 2022 with a group of brilliant people, technologists, operators, and supply chain builders who all saw the same problem and shared the same ambition," he said. "We wanted to fix the way fresh produce moves in the Kingdom. Even with significant national investments in agriculture, the supply chain was still fragmented, speculative, and slow. There was no reliable way for local farms to reach businesses at scale."

But as Alotaibi and his team started to address this issue, their scope grew bigger. “What started as a simple B2B marketplace quickly showed us that the real challenge was much bigger," Alotaibi explained. "It was clear that Saudi Arabia needed coordinated infrastructure that brings the entire ecosystem into alignment. This is why Nabt evolved into a physical and digital backbone for fresh supply, combining cold chain logistics, spec-based fulfillment, and real-time procurement tools." 

According to Alotaibi, while the Kingdom has made significant investments in agriculture, a structural problem persists in how fresh produce reaches the market. "Saudi Arabia continues to import a large share of its fruits and vegetables, not because local farms cannot produce, but because the system was never built to move their products reliably," Alotaibi pointed out. "The supply chain is fragmented and heavily dependent on informal communication. Procurement is often handled through phone calls and messaging apps, with no standard specifications, no traceability, and limited accountability. Buyers face shortages and inconsistency, while farmers deal with price pressure and uncertain demand." 

It is thus to bridge these gaps that Nabt has built infrastructure that connects every layer of the supply chain. "Nabt is building the missing infrastructure that allows local supply to consistently meet commercial demand," Alotaibi said. "Our cold chain-enabled hubs offer sorting, grading, packing, labeling, and temperature-controlled storage. On top of this, our digital platform enables spec-based ordering, real-time auction, predictive dispatch, and with Nabt Intel, farms gain access to live pricing and demand signals that help them plan better and reduce waste. By removing friction, improving consistency, and offering transparency across the chain, we make local produce more competitive and more reliable." 

For Alotaibi, the company's ambitions extend beyond operational efficiency, though. "We want farmers to earn more through predictable demand and fair contracts, and we want businesses to receive consistent quality, competitive pricing, and on-time delivery," he said. "More than anything, we see Nabt as a stronger infrastructure that helps sustain food security in Saudi Arabia." And while the infrastructure may help, it alone doesn't guarantee adoption, with Alotaibi telling us that the real barriers run deeper. "The hardest part of the value chain to modernize is behavior," he shared. "Technology is not the challenge. The challenge is that for decades, fresh procurement in Saudi Arabia has been built on informal habits and reactive decision-making. Many suppliers operate in silos, separate from logistics, pricing trends, or real-time inventory visibility. This leads to guesswork, variable quality, and limited reliability." 

Beyond infrastructure challenges, the nature of demand itself has transformed in recent years—creating both urgency and opportunity. "Demand for fresh produce in Saudi Arabia has changed dramatically over the past few years," Alotaibi noted. "Vision 2030 has accelerated growth in hospitality, tourism, foodservice, and retail. This has shifted the market from low-frequency bulk orders to high-frequency, spec-driven, time-sensitive demand. Hotels may need more than fifteen types of produce daily. Restaurants want consistency and traceability. Retailers require  shelf-ready formats. Overall demand is not only larger but more complex and less predictable than before."

Alotaibi pointed to these dynamics as proof of the opportunity that the private sector must now rise up to in order to fulfill the demand created by national initiatives. "This change has revealed the limitations of traditional supply chains, which were not designed to serve mega projects like NEOM, or AlUla, or year-round events and tourism ecosystems," he noted. :The public sector has done excellent work advancing upstream agriculture. Now the private sector must build the connective infrastructure that links farms to modern, dynamic demand."

And that's how Alotaibi explains Nabt's significance in this ecosystem. "Nabt sees its role as building resilience in the fresh supply system," he explained. "Our job is to absorb demand volatility, help local farms respond to modern market needs, deliver fresh produce faster and smarter, and build trust and confidence in the local supply chain." The new investment in Nabt thus brings strategic value to the company in the form of investors who understand the long-term infrastructure play. "This round gives us both capital and strategic capability," Alotaibi said. "SHG Group brings regional expertise, operational reach, and deep knowledge of the sectors we serve. Merak Capital has supported us from the early days, and their continued commitment signals trust in our model, our execution, and our long-term direction." 

Now, with the capital in place, Nabt is moving quickly to scale key capabilities. “The extension enables us to expand our fulfillment network, strengthen our digital and intelligence stack, and move toward nationwide coverage," Alotaibi said. "It helps us accelerate the rollout of Nabt Auction, Nabt Intel, and other core modules that support farmers and businesses. Most importantly, it allows us to stay focused on our mission, with partners who understand the long view, and we are now positioned to define the new national standard for how fresh food moves across Saudi Arabia."

Pictured in the lead image is a scene from the announcement of the investment in Nabt. Image courtesy of Nabt.