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SmartQ, an emerging food tech startup, announced Wednesday that the company secured $1 million in funding from a consortium of Dubai-based investors. Among the investors that participated in the latest round was YourNest, a VC firm that has been associated with SmartQ for a while now.

The fund raised in the latest round will be used to expand the company’s business in India and around the world. Apart from that, the company also plans on expanding its workforce.

“The funding has enabled all of us at SmartQ to take the organisation to the next level of strategic growth and further scaling up on technology, talent and brand building in full swing. With our partners’ firm belief in our business strategy and our unique solution-providing capabilities, we look forward to achieving our expansion goals and ultimately fulfil the vision of SmartQ,” said Krishna Wage, co-founder and CEO, SmartQ.

SmartQ is one of the many Indian startups to have attracted funding from VC firms and angel investors in the Middle East. The cooperation among startups in the subcontinent — particularly India — and the GCC nations have been steadily on the rise over the past few years. It was only last week when we covered how Bahrain was looking to emerging Indian tech firms to meet the growing requirement of the ICT industry back home.

Kilmartin, the Executive Director of ICT in Bahrain EDB, said that he was visiting India at least thrice a year to develop a comprehensive framework for a greater participation of Indian tech companies in the Kingdom’s ICT sector.