Daily deal website Cobone.com has raised an undisclosed amount of second-round funding from Jabbar Internet Group. Jabbar, who are backed by Tiger Global, now take complete ownership of the company by buying out the minority shareholder, Group Buying Global (GBG), which is run by Klaus Hommels, a European Angel Investor.
Cobone.com is the largest deal-of-the-day site in the region in terms of cities live, coupons sold, amounts saved and revenue. Since it was launched in August, 2010, Cobone.com has grown its registered user base from 1,000 to 600,000, to whom more than 240,000 coupons were sold and $13 million in savings. Cobone.com already has 75 employees operational in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Cobone.com has a 10-digit run rate and huge growth rates in a market with over 350 million inhabitants, 70 percent of whom are under the age of 30.
“We are very excited about the prospects and future of Cobone.com, and we are investing heavily in it,” said Samih Toukan, CEO of The Jabbar Group. “In the face of harsh competition and a demanding market, Cobone.com has proven itself to be the definitive daily deals web site in the Middle East, and we aim to grow this business into one of the largest online businesses in the region.”
Cobone.com CEO and founder Paul Kenny also praised the website’s success and the Jabbar Group’s vision for the company’s future. “In just nine months, we have become the leading name in the e-commerce industry in the Middle East,” he said. “We are extremely excited to be able to work alongside Jabbar, and this investment will help scale operations, grow our teams in each country and also bring more innovation to the MENA region.”
These investments by Jabbar demonstrate the growing interest of well-recognised, international firms in companies that have a high growth potential in the Middle East and North Africa.
