UAE-based e-commerce gifting platform, Joi Gifts has expanded to Qatar, its eighth country after raising $750,000 in a pre-Series A funding round earlier this year taking its total funding to $3.5 million. The startup is now looking to raise its Series A from current investors such as KI Group from Germany and leading angel investors from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Joi Gifts claims to be profitable having achieved 5x revenue growth in the past 12 months and is looking to launch operations in Kuwait in April and a further 10 more cities in the countries in which it already operates throughout 2021.

“Now that we have reached profitability, we are ready for explosive growth with new funding to become the online brand in the $28-billion Middle East gifting market,” said Alper Celen, co-founder of Joi Gifts.

Careem Riyadh’s former general manager, Rami Kahale, has also joined the company as CEO to lead its expansion efforts. 

“We consider 2021 to be the year of Joi,” said Kahale, adding that the combination of the low acquisition cost and incoming Series A funding will allow them to dramatically increase the marketing spending to make Joi Gifts a leading gifting platform in the Middle East.

“Having built our foundation, our goal is to not only grow our footprint and reach but also innovate to become the global standard in online gifting,” Kahale said while announcing new features to be added on the Joi platform, such as an AI-driven gift assistant and a premium personal gift concierge, and to build on its “influencer stores” and augmented reality product models.