<span>The e-commerce platform Awok.com raised $30 million (Dh110m) in its first outside fundraising round, which it will use to expand operations outside the UAE to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.</span> It will also open its online marketplace to third-party sellers. <span>"We started six years ago with $30,000," Ulugbek Yuldashev, founder and chief executive of Awok, told </span><span><em>The National</em></span><span>. "Now we're working with 1,000-times more [money], which means we need to grow exponentially across the region."</span> <span>The company, which </span><span>employs 700 people in the UAE, is looking to double or treble that figure by year-end, Mr Yuldashev said. Awok will </span><span>hire to support new fulfilment centres and operations and marketing roles in Saudi Arabia and, eventually, in Egypt. </span> <span>The financing round was jointly led by StonePine ACE Partners – a joint venture between private equity firm StonePine Capital Partners in Dubai and ACE & Company in Geneva – and Al Faisaliah Ventures, the newly created corporate venture capital arm of Al Faisaliah Group, and investment group Endeavor Catalyst.</span> <span>Renan Baroukh, principal at StonePine</span><span> Capital, told </span><span><em>The National</em></span><span> the company was enticed to invest by strong e-commerce figures for the region. </span> <span>Stone</span><span>Pine found that the "value e-commerce" market – defined as discount, typically non-name brand products sold online – is </span><span>worth around $180m in the UAE, approximately 8 per cent of the total e-commerce market, and is forecast to grow five-fold by 2022. In Saudi Arabia, the value e-commerce market is worth $470m and is projected to grow more than four-fold </span><span>in the same time period.</span> <span>“We really see Awok as being the Alibaba of the Middle East,” Mr Baroukh said. </span> <span>Growth in the middle to low-income population and online shopping penetration are the main drivers for growth, according to </span><span>StonePi</span><span>ne. </span> <span>Awok is looking to compete directly with Amazon’s Souq.com in the third-party seller space, Mr Yuldashev said.</span> <span>To date, the company has merchandised the site on its own, with at least 80 per cent of its budget-friendly consumer goods – from electronics and sports gear to bassinets and sunglasses – coming from China. Opening the site up to outside merchants will mean a greater variety of goods and lower prices. </span> <span>"The start-up ecosystem in the region is the Careem story, the Souq.com </span><span> story," Mr Yuldashev said.</span> "There is definitely big momentum in the region that is being created, people have been waiting for this moment for some time."