Lateefa Alwaalan
The story
Lateefa Alwaalan studied computer science at King Saud University and started her first business at 16. Working as a programmer who loved Arabic coffee, she found it took around half an hour to make and rarely came out right, so she created ready-made blends. When they sold out at an exhibition she founded Yatooq in Riyadh in 2012. No existing machine could brew Arabic coffee properly, so she developed her own while in the Badir technology incubator programme, and the first automated Arabic coffee machine went on to sell thousands of units across the GCC. She built a factory in Riyadh where about 90% of workers were women, sited close to their homes because women could not then drive. She earned an MBA from the University of Washington in 2011, sold Yatooq in a private sale in 2019, and in 2020 became the first woman on the board of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce. She now leads Endeavor Saudi Arabia as managing director.
By the numbers
Appearances
On Founding MENA
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