NearMotion Eyes Global Expansion After Follow-up Funding from Wa’ed

NearMotion, a leading Saudi-based digital mapping and indoor navigation startup, has received follow-on investments from Aramco’s entrepreneurial wing Wa’ed, to boost its expansion on a global scale.

The startup, founded in 2016, provides tools for mobile navigation in airports, hospitals, museums, shopping malls, theme parks, and event stadiums, giving users real-time information and services using bluetooth communications. It also provides facility operators with information regarding consumer foot traffic, data which is used for adjusting services and setting store rents.

As the demand for digital indoor mapping and navigation services continues to boom in the Gulf, NearMotion wants to build on its regional success and replicate it on a global scale.

Wassim Basrawi, the Managing Director of Wa’ed, explained the follow-up funding: “We initially invested in NearMotion because its technology was unique and game-changing, and its success in the GCC has shown this. With this second investment, we aim to help globalise this exciting Saudi success story.”

NearMotion plans to change its business model from selling enterprise software and hardware, and adopt a subscription-as-a-service (SaaS) model, enabling the startup to sell access to businesses around the world.

Meanwhile, NearMotion’s CEO and Founder Faisal Al-Ferdos reiterated Basrawi’s sentiments, saying “this second vote of confidence from Wa’ed comes at a good time for NearMotion, we are seeing growing demand for our services regionally and this will help us take our business global.”