Saudi’s Rwaj Raises USD 1.2M to Build Live Shopping & Auction Marketplace

Jeddah-based startup Rwaj has raised USD 1.2 million (SAR 4.5 million) in a pre-seed round to build a live social shopping and auction marketplace that combines livestream selling, timed auctions, payments and shipping into a single platform. Founded in 2024 by Taher Alblowe, the company says the fresh capital will be used to accelerate product development and scale across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the wider region.

Founder statement

“We built Rwaj so a seller can go live, sell at a fixed price or by auction, get paid, and ship without leaving the app, and a buyer can purchase or bid knowing their money is protected until the item is in their hands,” said Taher Alblowe, Founder and CEO of Rwaj.

Product and market details

Rwaj aims to formalise and streamline a form of commerce that is already common across Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, where independent sellers use social media livestreams to demonstrate products and collect orders via comments or direct messages. The startup’s platform lets sellers stream live and choose between fixed-price sales or timed auctions where buyers bid in real time. It is positioned as an Arabic-first, bilingual social marketplace intended to let sellers build followings and host recurring streams rather than treating each transaction as a one-off.

• Escrow payments: Rwaj holds funds in escrow until delivery is confirmed, adding a layer of buyer protection not typically available when purchases are handled informally through social channels.
• Integrated shipping: The platform integrates with carriers to manage fulfillment, reducing the logistical coordination sellers currently perform outside livestreams.
• Payment options: Buyers can pay using Mada, Apple Pay, or card payments, enabling local and international payment flows.

The company is deliberately category-agnostic, targeting products that benefit from live demonstration — items where seeing usage or details in real time helps conversion. By combining discovery, selling and fulfilment, Rwaj seeks to reduce the fragmentation that many social sellers face today when they must stitch together livestreams, payment collection, and shipping across different services.

Outlook and next steps

Rwaj’s immediate challenge will be converting existing social selling behaviour into sustained activity on its own platform. Key performance indicators the startup will need to show include seller adoption rates, repeat buyer engagement, transaction volume and the effective roll-out of its escrow, payments and shipping integrations across the GCC. The company also points to an international buyer base as a potential growth vector that could allow sellers to reach customers beyond their home markets.

Success will depend on how easily sellers can migrate from informal social channels to Rwaj’s integrated flow and whether buyers embrace escrow-protected live auctions and purchases. The platform’s bilingual approach and support for local payment rails such as Mada are intended to lower barriers to adoption, but scaling the end-to-end experience across multiple countries — and maintaining trust in payments and fulfilment — will be critical tests as Rwaj moves from pre-seed development into broader regional expansion.