Dubai-based ecommerce platform Awok has shut down just a little over a year after raising $30 million in one of the largest investment rounds for an ecommerce startup in the region. The development was first hinted in a Reddit thread started by a Dubai resident on Saturday and earlier this morning by Omar Kassim in a series of tweets. Awok has just confirmed that it has in fact shut down in a statement posted on its homepage.
“Awok’s journey as a mass-market e-commerce player has unfortunately come to an end and the company has ceased operations,” reads the statement.
Founded in 2013 by Ulugbek Yuldashev, Awok was an ecommerce platform focusing on low to mid-income segments in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi through the sale of ‘affordable’ products – products that sometimes were priced as low as AED 1 ($0.3). Ulugbek had started Awok with $30,000 of his savings and three employees. He had largely bootstrapped the company until April 2019 when Awok raised $30 million in its first external investment round.
Awok at the time used to offer over 70,000 products across 30 plus categories products and had its own fulfillment center and logistics.
Awok in the statement posted on its website cited the current global situation as the reason for shutting down. It said that the company had no choice due to it and had to shut down the platform for good.
We’ve also tried reaching out to Awok’s founder and investors to learn more but haven’t heard back from them.
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