Shatib
Riyadh-based B2B marketplace for group purchasing of construction materials
Website: https://shatib.sa
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Shatib |
| Tagline | Riyadh-based B2B marketplace for group purchasing of construction materials |
| Headquarters | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
| Founded | 2024 |
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | Marketplace |
| Industry | Proptech |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Middle East / North Africa |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Solo Founder |
| Funding Label | Pre-seed (total disclosed ~$750,000) |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://shatib.sa
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/%D8%B4%D8%B7%D9%91%D8%A8
Executive Summary
PUBLIC Shatib is a Riyadh-based B2B marketplace that aggregates demand from real estate developers and contractors to negotiate bulk discounts on construction materials, a model that aims to capture investor attention by addressing persistent cost inefficiency in one of Saudi Arabia's largest economic sectors [Waya Media, 2025]. Founded in 2024 by Abdulaziz AlMasoud, the company is pursuing a classic marketplace wedge, starting with finishing materials and promising buyers 20-35% cost savings through pooled orders [Startup Researcher, 2025]. The core product differentiates by bundling aggregated procurement with integrated financing services, a combination designed to lock in customers by solving both price and working capital constraints [Startup Researcher, 2025]. The founding team is currently a solo operation, with no other named executives or operational backgrounds disclosed in public sources. The business closed a pre-seed round of approximately $750,000 from an unnamed strategic angel investor in late 2025, capital earmarked for product development and initial market expansion [Silicon Africa, Dec 2025]. Over the next 12-18 months, the primary watchpoints will be the translation of claimed savings into signed, paying customers, the operational scaling of its financing offering, and any team build-out to support execution beyond the founder.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core claims (founding, funding, model) are repeated across multiple regional outlets, but key operational metrics and team details lack independent verification.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | Marketplace |
| Industry / Vertical | Proptech |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Middle East / North Africa |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Solo Founder |
| Funding | Pre-seed (total disclosed ~$750,000) |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
Shatib is a Riyadh-based B2B marketplace founded in 2024 by Abdulaziz AlMasoud [Crunchbase]. The company's public narrative centers on applying a group purchasing model, common in other industries, to the procurement of construction finishing materials within Saudi Arabia [Waya Media, 2025]. Its primary operational milestone to date is a pre-seed funding round of approximately $750,000 (SAR 2.8 million) closed in late 2025, led by an unnamed strategic angel investor [Silicon Africa, Dec 2025]. The capital is reportedly allocated for product development and initial market expansion [Startup Researcher, 2025].
No prior corporate history, legal entity details, or earlier funding events are disclosed in public records. The company's founding appears to be a direct response to perceived inefficiencies in construction supply chains, though the founder's specific background and the catalyst for the venture are not detailed in available sources.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Company founding and funding round confirmed by multiple regional publications; founder name and location corroborated. Legal structure and detailed corporate timeline not publicly available.
Product and Technology
MIXED Shatib's product is a straightforward marketplace built to address a specific, high-friction point in construction procurement. It aggregates demand from developers and contractors for finishing materials, negotiates bulk discounts with suppliers, and facilitates the resulting pooled orders. The core value proposition is cost reduction, with company claims of 20-35% savings for buyers [Waya Media, 2025]. A secondary feature, mentioned in coverage but with less detail, is integrated financing services [Startup Researcher, 2025]. This suggests the platform aims to handle both the sourcing and the payment logistics of a transaction.
The technology enabling this is not detailed in public materials. No technical stack, proprietary software, or unique algorithms are described in the available coverage. The platform's functionality appears to be a classic two-sided marketplace software, likely web-based, connecting buyers and sellers with a layer of order aggregation and financial services. The absence of any mention of artificial intelligence or advanced data analytics in the sources suggests a focus on execution over technological novelty at this stage.
All product claims originate from the company's own statements as reported by regional media. There are no independent customer testimonials, case studies, or third-party validations of the savings figures or platform efficacy. The $750,000 pre-seed round, closed in late 2025, is earmarked for product development [Silicon Africa, Dec 2025], indicating the offering is likely in an early or evolving state.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims are sourced from company statements via regional press; no third-party validation or technical detail available.
Market Research
PUBLIC
The opportunity for Shatib is anchored in a specific, high-friction segment of Saudi Arabia's construction economy, where procurement inefficiencies are amplified by a national building boom. The company's model targets the procurement of finishing materials, a category where demand aggregation can unlock meaningful savings for small and mid-sized contractors who lack the purchasing power of large developers.
Available public sources do not cite a specific TAM, SAM, or SOM for group purchasing of construction materials in Saudi Arabia. For context, the broader Saudi construction market is substantial. According to a 2024 report from the Saudi Contractors Authority, the value of awarded construction contracts in the kingdom reached approximately SAR 200 billion (about $53 billion) in 2023 [Saudi Contractors Authority, 2024]. While this figure represents the total project value, not the addressable materials spend, it illustrates the scale of the underlying activity. The finishing materials segment, which includes tiles, sanitaryware, paints, and fixtures, typically constitutes a significant portion of a project's material cost, though a precise public breakdown is not available.
Demand drivers are well-documented and align with the company's stated focus. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 initiative continues to drive massive public and private investment in real estate and infrastructure, including giga-projects like NEOM, the Red Sea Project, and Qiddiya. This sustained activity creates a fragmented base of contractors and subcontractors who are price-sensitive and often operate with thin margins. The primary tailwind for a group purchasing model is this fragmentation, coupled with the traditional opacity and inefficiency of materials sourcing, which often involves multiple layers of agents and distributors. A secondary driver is the increasing digitization of business operations in the kingdom, supported by government initiatives to modernize the industrial and commercial sectors.
Key adjacent markets include broader B2B e-commerce platforms for construction (like the regional player Buildersmart) and traditional building materials distributors. The primary substitute market remains the offline, relationship-driven procurement network that dominates the industry. Regulatory forces are generally supportive, with Saudi authorities actively promoting technology adoption and SME growth, though any platform offering integrated financing would need to navigate the kingdom's financial services regulations.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing context is drawn from an analogous industry report; specific TAM for the company's niche is not publicly quantified.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED Shatib enters a procurement market where competition is defined less by direct digital clones and more by a fragmented ecosystem of traditional agents and nascent, often region-specific, platforms.
A named, direct competitor is not yet visible in public coverage, which suggests the competitive map is currently drawn along functional lines rather than head-to-head startup rivalries. The analysis therefore focuses on the broader set of alternatives a Saudi contractor or developer would consider when sourcing finishing materials.
- Traditional procurement agents and distributors. This is the entrenched incumbent model. Individual brokers and local distributors act as intermediaries between factories and construction sites, marking up prices for their services and relationships. Their advantage is deep, localized knowledge and established trust networks. Their disadvantage, which Shatib aims to exploit, is the inability to aggregate fragmented buyer demand to achieve wholesale pricing power [Waya Media, 2025].
- Regional B2B marketplaces. While no direct competitor is named for group purchasing of construction materials, the broader MENA B2B e-commerce landscape includes players like Tradeling (UAE-based, multi-category) and Sary (Saudi Arabia, initially F&B). These platforms demonstrate the model's viability in the region but have not publicly focused on construction material pooling. Their existence validates the digital procurement shift but does not yet contest Shatib's specific wedge.
- Supplier-direct relationships and bulk buyers. Large developers and contractors with sufficient scale often bypass intermediaries to negotiate directly with factories. This segment represents both a potential customer for Shatib's aggregation service and a competitive threat, as they could theoretically form their own buying consortia without a tech platform. Shatib's value proposition here is operational efficiency and access to financing for smaller players who cannot command such terms alone [Startup Researcher, 2025].
Shatib's claimed edge rests on a classic marketplace flywheel: aggregating buyer demand to secure better prices from suppliers, which in turn attracts more buyers. The specific, stated mechanism is pooled orders for finishing materials, generating reported savings of 20-35% [Waya Media, 2025]. This edge is perishable in its early stages, dependent entirely on achieving critical mass in a specific geographic pocket (Riyadh) and material category. Without a proprietary technology moat cited in sources, defensibility would shift to transaction volume, supplier lock-in, and the integrated financing service, which could create a stickier user experience.
The company's most significant exposure is its narrow focus. By concentrating on finishing materials within Riyadh, it avoids immediate clashes with broader platforms but also leaves vast segments of the construction supply chain (e.g., structural materials, heavy equipment) and other Saudi cities uncontested. A well-capitalized regional B2B marketplace, or a logistics giant like Aramex expanding its digital procurement arm, could decide to layer on a group-buying feature, leveraging existing supplier relationships and a much larger customer base to outflank Shatib.
The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on execution speed with its pre-seed capital. If Shatib can rapidly onboard a dense network of small-to-mid-sized contractors in Riyadh and demonstrate clear, auditable cost savings, it becomes an attractive regional acquisition target for a larger B2B platform seeking instant category entry. The loser in that scenario would be the traditional, un-digitized procurement agent whose value is eroded by transparent pricing. Conversely, if traction is slow and the platform fails to achieve liquidity, it risks being sidelined as a niche experiment, leaving the market open for either the incumbents to modernize or a better-funded challenger to emerge.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitive analysis is inferred from market structure and company claims; no direct competitors are named in available sources.
Opportunity
PUBLIC
If Shatib can successfully aggregate the fragmented procurement of finishing materials in Saudi Arabia, the prize is a high-margin marketplace that sits at the center of a multi-billion dollar construction supply chain. The opportunity rests on a simple, proven model of demand aggregation applied to a market with unique structural inefficiencies.
The headline opportunity is to become the default procurement platform for finishing materials among small to mid-sized real estate developers and contractors in the Kingdom. This outcome is reachable not because the technology is novel, but because the market conditions are uniquely favorable. Saudi Arabia's construction sector is undergoing a historic expansion, driven by Vision 2030 projects and private development, yet procurement remains a fragmented, relationship-driven process [Waya Media, 2025]. Shatib's proposition of 20-35% cost savings through pooled orders directly attacks this inefficiency. The strategic angel backing, while unnamed, suggests validation from an insider familiar with the construction sector's pain points, providing a wedge to achieve initial liquidity between buyers and suppliers.
Multiple paths exist for Shatib to scale from an initial wedge to a dominant platform. The following scenarios outline concrete, high-impact growth trajectories.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Become the Embedded Procurement Layer | Shatib's API is integrated directly into the project management software used by large developers and contractors, automating material sourcing. | A partnership with a major regional construction SaaS provider or a government-backed digital transformation initiative. | The company's focus on integrated financing services [Startup Researcher, 2025] indicates a product vision beyond a simple listing site, aiming to embed financial workflows that create stickiness. |
| Win the SME Contractor Segment | Shatib becomes the go-to source for thousands of independent contractors and small firms, who are most price-sensitive and lack bulk purchasing power. | A successful geographic expansion from Riyadh to other major Saudi cities, replicating the supply network and demand pool. | The core value proposition of 20-35% savings is most compelling for this segment [Waya Media, 2025], and the capital from the pre-seed round is earmarked for market expansion [Silicon Africa, Dec 2025]. |
What compounding looks like for Shatib is a classic two-sided network effect with a financial data moat. Each new developer or contractor on the buyer side increases the aggregate order volume, strengthening Shatib's negotiating position with suppliers for better prices and payment terms. These improved terms attract more buyers, creating a virtuous cycle. The integrated financing service, if successfully deployed, would generate proprietary data on buyer creditworthiness and project cash flows. This data could lower financing costs over time and create a significant barrier to entry, as competitors would lack the transaction history to underwrite risk as effectively. The pre-seed funding is reportedly for "product development" [Startup Researcher, 2025], suggesting the initial build-out of this flywheel is underway.
The size of the win can be framed by looking at comparable marketplaces in emerging markets. India's Infra.Market, a B2B online marketplace for construction materials, reached a valuation of approximately $2.5 billion in its 2021 funding round [Crunchbase]. While Saudi Arabia's market is smaller, a platform that consolidates a meaningful portion of the finishing materials segment could command a significant premium. If the "Win the SME Contractor Segment" scenario plays out and Shatib captures a leading position in the Saudi market, a valuation in the high hundreds of millions of dollars is a plausible outcome (scenario, not a forecast). This represents a substantial multiple on the current pre-seed capital, defining the scale of the opportunity for early investors.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core opportunity claims (savings, integrated financing) are cited from regional press; market context and comparables are established. Specific catalysts and flywheel mechanics are extrapolated from the company's stated model.
Sources
PUBLIC
[Waya Media, 2025] Saudi's Shatib Raises USD 750K to Scale Construction Materials Marketplace | https://waya.media/saudis-shatib-raises-usd-750k-to-scale-construction-materials-marketplace/
[Startup Researcher, 2025] Shatib Raises $750,000 to Cut Construction Costs | https://www.startupresearcher.com/news/shatib-raises-usd750-000-to-cut-construction-costs
[Silicon Africa, Dec 2025] Saudi B2B Startup Shatib Lands $750K Pre-Seed for MENA Growth | https://siliconafrica.com/2025/12/01/saudi-b2b-startup-shatib-lands-750k-pre-seed-for-mena-growth/
[Crunchbase] Shatib - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/shatib
[Saudi Contractors Authority, 2024] Saudi Contractors Authority Report on Awarded Contracts | https://www.saudicontractors.org/en/reports
[Crunchbase] Infra.Market - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/infra-market
Articles about Shatib
- Shatib's Pooled Orders Target a 35% Discount on Saudi Construction Materials — The Riyadh-based B2B marketplace, backed by a $750,000 pre-seed, aggregates demand for finishing materials and offers integrated financing.