How Gissah accelerated its latest fundraising deal to consolidate its market position

Overview

Since launching its first fragrance in 2019, the Gissah Perfume Company has taken the market by storm, opening more than 90 stores in 4 countries across the GCC region.

In August 2023, Jadwa Investment, a leading investment management and advisory firm in the Middle East, acquired a 35% equity stake in the company, positioning Gissah for a public listing on the Saudi Stock Exchange.

Kareem Al Hossary, their project manager, had already used Ideals in the past, and been positively impressed by the platform’s efficiency. The Q&A tool, in particular, was one of the features that Kareem thought was fundamental to fostering productive collaboration and ensuring the secure exchange of information.

Given his overwhelmingly positive experience, Kareem had no hesitation in recommending Ideals to Gissah.

During the project period, Kareem had no doubt about their decision, for instance: “If we hadn’t used the Q&A tool, it would have taken us much longer to close the deal.”

The context

A manufacturer of luxurious fragrances since 2018, Gissah has been phenomenally successful across the whole GCC region.

After 5 prosperous years, eager to solidify its market position and prepare for the public share listing, the company saw the added value of partnering up with Jadwa Investment to unlock the company’s next phase of growth and institutionalization.

Key challenges

Given the fast pace of this project, Gissah was looking for a tool that would help them:

• Build a strong professional image
• Ensure confidentiality of sensitive information 
• Streamline the management and sharing of data
• Optimize collaboration
• Allow different permission levels that could be easily set, amended, and removed

Having in mind his positive experience with Ideals’ VDR, he had no doubts about including it in the selection process.

The evaluation of other providers only confirmed Kareem’s feelings: Ideals was just the best solution for Gissah’s needs, and they would go for it.

Solutions

Kareem was once again delighted by how quickly and efficiently the Ideals’ team was able to create the data room. Using the VDR, Kareem and his team could:

• Rapidly upload documents in any format
• Agree specific times to upload questions to the Q&A
• Grant access permissions for different groups for limited periods
• Access support 24/7

The ease of use of the VDR really impressed Kareem during different stages of the due diligence, for instance, “if there is a new version of a document, we just use the replace function and mark the document as an updated version.”

The future

Following this remarkable success story, the Gissah Perfume Company plans to list on the Saudi Stock Exchange.

When asked, Kareem lists his three favorite features as:

• The different user-access levels
• Being able to track all the actions taken in the VDR
• The easy-to-use Q&A module