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COFE Tech announced the closing of a pre-IPO investment round at a $178 million valuation, the company said in a press release distributed via PR Newswire from the LEAP 2026 technology conference in Riyadh. The round was co-led by Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital arm of Aramco, alongside Aditum Investment Management, with Masarrah Investment Company and Alyasra Foods also participating. The investment advances plans for a targeted initial public offering on the Saudi Exchange by 2029, aligning with broader ambitions under Saudi Vision 2030 that have drawn increased institutional interest in regional enterprise technology platforms.
The Kuwait-founded company, which rebranded from COFE APP, has shifted from operating a consumer coffee marketplace to delivering an enterprise AI and business-to-business software-as-a-service platform, according to the announcement. Its core Agentic Procurement engine deploys autonomous artificial intelligence agents that forecast demand, automate purchase orders and approvals, monitor inventory in real time, and oversee e-invoicing along with supply chain logistics, vendor management and embedded finance options including its COFE Pay buy-now-pay-later service. COFE Tech now supports more than 1,000 enterprise clients operating roughly 3,000 outlets across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in sectors ranging from food and beverage and hospitality to aviation, healthcare, education and retail.
In the release, founder and chief executive Ali Al-Ebrahim said, “Too many companies in our region still run procurement, sales and inventory on systems that do not talk to one another. COFE Tech brings those operations into a single intelligent enterprise platform, where AI agents watch the business, anticipate what it needs and act on its behalf.” Al-Ebrahim noted the company’s expansion since its 2018 launch in Kuwait has been enabled by Gulf innovation agendas including Saudi Vision 2030 and Kuwait Vision 2035. The latest round follows a $15 million Series B that Wa’ed Ventures also led in 2023 with participation from several regional funds.
Wa’ed Ventures chief executive Anas Algahtani said in the statement that COFE Tech has demonstrated an impressive ability to evolve from a consumer marketplace into an enterprise technology platform addressing critical procurement and commerce challenges. Algahtani added that the company’s growing adoption across Gulf enterprises validates both the strength of its technology and the scale of the opportunity ahead. The executive expressed confidence in COFE Tech’s potential to deepen its presence in Saudi Arabia while building an institutionally ready technology company with long-term regional relevance.
Wa’ed Ventures, established in 2013 as Aramco’s dedicated vehicle for supporting the Saudi startup ecosystem, manages a fund of up to $500 million and has backed more than 50 technology companies since inception, according to details published on Aramco’s corporate website. The firm concentrates on seed to growth-stage investments in areas such as artificial intelligence, sustainability, fintech and deep tech while also running incubation programs for early-stage ventures. Its latest commitment to COFE Tech continues a pattern of repeated support for companies that demonstrate clear pathways toward localization of advanced solutions and alignment with national economic diversification goals.
Clients of COFE Tech include major regional entities such as Emirates, Etihad Airways, Kuwait Airways, Al-Futtaim Group, Kuwait Finance House, the Central Bank of Kuwait, stc, Aramco and Alibaba Cloud, the announcement listed. The platform’s evolution reflects wider demand for integrated enterprise systems capable of reducing operational friction in procurement and commerce across the Gulf, where fragmented legacy tools remain common. The pre-IPO structure positions the company to meet institutional standards ahead of its planned Saudi listing while continuing to scale its artificial intelligence capabilities.
