SIQL - Undisclosed Round
$110M Raised
There are deals that shift markets. Then there are moves like this. SILQ Group wasn’t just built. It was engineered like a power play, with a blueprint traced from the trade routes of Dhaka to the boardrooms of Riyadh. April 2025 marked the merger of ShopUp (Bangladesh’s B2B e-com giant) and Sary (Saudi’s wholesale disruptor). What emerged? A commerce machine that doesn’t just sell; it moves, finances, and delivers for 600,000+ SMEs across some of the world’s most complex markets.
CEO Afeef Zaman and SILQ Financial Mohammed Aldossary aren’t just threading the Gulf–South Asia corridor. They’re stitching together entire economies. Zaman scaled ShopUp from Dhaka’s startup trenches into a logistics and embedded finance engine. Aldossary turned Sary into one of Saudi’s fastest-growing platforms. Together, they now own a $682B corridor projected to move more goods than the Suez in five years. SILQ didn’t show up to disrupt. They came to dominate.
The $110M raise announced April 9 isn’t just capital, it’s a coalition. Sanabi Investments (via Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF)) and Valar Ventures LLC (Peter Thiel’s squad) led the charge. Add Flourish Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Prosus Ventures, Tiger Global, Qatar Development Bank, and Wafra Investments, and you've got a geopolitical chessboard backing this build. The post-merger war chest? Over $200M in equity and $750M+ in embedded financing fueling $5B in transactions and 100M shipments.
SILQ’s game isn’t inventory, it’s infrastructure. From Mokam, their B2B marketplace, to REDX logistics, to SILQ Financial’s POS and lending rails, they’ve built the full stack. A vertical VCs dream of, and rivals can’t replicate without years in-market.
This isn’t just APIs and buzzwords. It’s AWS-backed architecture, ISO certified ops, AI-powered supply chains, and inspection layers that spot risk before it hits P&L. While others chase flashpoints, SILQ is embedded in the everyday, serving hotels, retailers, and wholesalers across Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Qatar’s already in motion.
ShopUp lost $49M pre-merger in FY22–23. Net loss: 38%. For most, that’s fatal. For Zaman’s crew, it bought scale, talent, and territory. SILQ is now IPO-ready by 2027, targeting the Saudi Exchange with a cross-border pipeline most fintechs are still pitching in decks.
Still think this is just another B2B platform? SILQ isn’t selling products. They’re selling velocity of trade, of money, of access.
Tagging the visionaries: Afeef Zaman, Mohammed Aldossary, Ataur Rahim Chowdhury, Navaneetha Krishnan J, this isn’t just business. This is infrastructure in motion.