Abdulaziz Al Loughani
The story
Abdulaziz Al Loughani ran talabat, the Kuwaiti food delivery platform, as managing partner until 2010. In 2007 he took out a loan and, with two co-investors, bought 90% of the company, living on about $1,000 a month while paying off the debt; he sold it in 2010, and talabat was sold to Rocket Internet for $170 million in 2015. He co-founded the investment firm Faith Capital, and in 2016 he and his partners invested in Q8Flowers.com, a Kuwaiti flower delivery site. With the Gulf flower market worth about $1.5 billion and almost entirely offline, he and his partners rebuilt the site as Floward in 2017, sourcing directly from growers and running its own delivery. When COVID struck at Floward's peak season of Valentine's Day and Mother's Day and disrupted flower supply, people sent gifts to loved ones they could not see in person, and Floward grew more than tenfold in 2020. It raised a $156 million pre-IPO round in 2023, and he remains Chairman and CEO.
By the numbers
Their company
Saudi ArabiaRetailFloward
Online flowers and gifts platform with same-day delivery across the Gulf and UK
