Grove raises $5m to rebuild how fresh food moves from farm to home in Saudi Arabia

Grove, a Riyadh-based technology company focused on the fresh-produce sector, has closed a $5 million seed funding round led by Outliers VC, with participation from angel investors.

Founded in 2024 by Mohammed bin Ghanam and Ayman AlFifi, Grove operates as a consumer-facing brand with a vertically coordinated supply chain that links farms, distribution, and households. Instead of acting as a traditional marketplace, the company says it aligns production and pricing decisions around actual consumer demand, aiming to move produce through the system with less waste and higher quality.

The round comes against the backdrop of Saudi Arabia’s push to strengthen food security and local production. The Kingdom’s agricultural sector is valued at roughly $31.5 billion, while imports of plant-based products are expected to reach $10.7 billion in 2025. Yet much of the existing fresh-produce supply chain was built for long storage and transport, prioritising volume and shelf life over freshness, flavour, or nutritional value.

This structure has created persistent problems: inconsistent quality, limited variety, and production decisions driven by intermediaries rather than by farmers or end consumers. Over time, these incentives have discouraged investment in better farming practices and contributed to higher food waste and environmental strain through water mismanagement, pesticide overuse, and soil degradation.

Grove says its demand-driven model is designed to address those incentives by coordinating production, pricing, and market access earlier in the cycle. According to the company, this approach has resulted in repeat-purchase rates approaching 48% and food waste reduced to below 5%.

“For generations, farming was rooted in responsibility to the land and community,” said Mohammed bin Ghanam, co-founder of Grove. “Short-term commercial pressure shifted that balance. Our goal is to give farmers the data and incentives to protect resources and plan for the long term.”

Ayman AlFifi, the company’s other co-founder, said the core challenge is not farming itself but the way supply chains have evolved. “They were optimised for speed and scale,” he said, “not for how food actually reaches families.”

What the funding means

Beyond Grove’s balance sheet, the $5 million seed round reflects a broader test underway in Saudi Arabia’s food economy. Early-stage capital in the Kingdom has historically favoured asset-light marketplaces and logistics platforms. Grove’s model, by contrast, requires deeper operational involvement with farms, tighter planning, and slower scaling — all of which are harder to finance and harder to execute.

The funding gives Grove enough runway to prove whether a vertically coordinated, quality-first approach can scale without collapsing under cost pressure. It will likely be used to expand farmer partnerships, invest in planning and demand-forecasting systems, and grow consumer distribution. More importantly, it buys time to answer a question that policymakers and investors are increasingly asking: can local agriculture compete with imports on quality and reliability, not just price?

For investors, the bet is not only on Grove as a company, but on whether consumer trust, lower waste, and better margins for farmers can translate into a durable business in a sector known for thin economics. If the model holds, it could influence how future agri-tech ventures in the region are structured. If it doesn’t, it will reinforce why many have avoided deep integration in fresh food altogether.

Outliers VC said Grove’s rethinking of the farmer–market relationship was central to its investment decision. “Quality has been pushed to the margins of the system,” said Mohammed AlMeshekah, founder and general partner at the firm. “This approach puts it back at the centre and could make the food system more resilient over time.”

Grove has not disclosed revenue figures or profitability, and the long-term economics of integrated fresh-produce models in the region remain uncertain. But the round signals growing investor willingness to fund slower, more structural experiments in how food is produced and distributed in Saudi Arabia — not just how it is delivered.