COFE Tech takes new backing from Phoenix Venture Partners

COFE Tech has new backing from Phoenix Venture Partners, and the size of the cheque was not disclosed. The Abu Dhabi firm, based in ADGM, said the investment was completed earlier in 2026. Co-investors included KSH Investments, the international platform of the Private Department of Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalid Al Nahyan, and others from the Phoenix Venture Partners Innovation Fund. Steve Khayat, founder and chief executive of Phoenix, has joined the COFE Tech board. He first backed the company at pre-Series A in 2018. That leaves the harder question of where the money went. Phoenix confirmed to market reporters that the purchase was of existing shares, from shareholders already on the register, and that it came before the pre-IPO financing. A secondary sale pays the seller. It does not, by itself, put cash into the company. The company release speaks of support for growth, governance and a listing. It does not say the cash landed in the operating account. Both lines can be true if Phoenix bought stock and the company is still preparing a float. They cannot both mean a new primary round. The float in view is a Saudi listing by 2029. In September COFE Tech announced a 43 million dollar pre-IPO round at LEAP, with Wa’ed Ventures, Aditum Investment Management, Masarrah Investment Company and Alyasra Foods among the investors. The 178 million dollar post-money valuation cited with the Phoenix note belongs to that later round, not to the secondary. Phoenix did not publish its own price, its stake, or the names of the sellers. A Kuwait-listed clue sits next to the dates. Al Imtiaz Investment Group sold almost all of its COFE holding on 1 September for 10.084 million dollars in cash and a 2 million dollar interest in the Phoenix innovation fund. It kept 0.8 percent, which it said it would sell separately. Phoenix has not confirmed that this was its purchase. A reader should not add the 10 million to the 43 million and call the sum new capital. The 2 million dollar fund interest is also not cash in COFE Tech. It is a slice of Phoenix’s own vehicle, taken by a seller. The company itself is older than the listing talk. Ali Al-Ebrahim founded it in Kuwait in 2018 as COFE App. It is now headquartered in Saudi Arabia and sells procurement and commerce tools to businesses. It says it serves more than 1,000 clients across 3,000 outlets in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, in aviation, hospitality, retail, food and corporate buying. Named UAE customers include Emirates, Etihad and Al-Futtaim. Those counts are the company’s. No contract values were published. A cafe chain and an airline do not buy the same product at the same price, and the note does not split revenue by line. For a buyer of Gulf software, the useful split is the register. A secondary from an Abu Dhabi fund, with a sheikh’s investment office alongside, is a change of owners ahead of a hoped-for Tadawul print. It is not proof that the 43 million dollar round was extended, and it is not proof that 2029 is a filed date. Khayat on the board is the part that can be checked. A board seat lasts. An undisclosed stake does not tell a minority holder how much of the company just moved. Governance help is real. It is not a substitute for a prospectus. Al-Ebrahim welcomed Khayat back and pointed to pre-IPO readiness. Khayat described a consumer habit that became a business system. KSH’s Ahmed Mansour tied the bet to the UAE as a base. None of the three put a number on the shares. The release also calls the firm an agentic provider. That is a product label. The checkable facts are the outlets, the board seat and the missing amount. A listing in 2029 is three reporting years away. Between now and then COFE Tech has to show audited revenue, a clean shareholder list and a use of proceeds that a Saudi prospectus can print. A secondary in 2026 does none of those by itself. It does put an Abu Dhabi fund manager, and a member of the Al Nahyan investment office, on the same page as a Kuwait founder who moved the headquarters to Riyadh. If Phoenix publishes the stake and COFE Tech files a Saudi prospectus, the secondary was a step toward the float. If the next note is another board line, count shares that changed hands and cash that reached the company. The figure still missing is the size of this purchase.