Noon hires ex-Namshi managing director Faraz Khalid as chief executive

He will help to steer new venture through launch this year

Mohamed Alabbar, the founder of Noon and one of its major backers. Christopher Pike / The National
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Noon, a Middle East e-commerce platform founded by Emaar's Mohamed Alabbar, said that it has appointed Faraz Khalid as its new chief executive ahead of the venture's much-awaited launch.

Mr Khalid, the co-founder and former managing director of Namshi, a regional online fashion retailer, will steer the company through its launch later this year. The company did not give further details about when its platform would go live in the UAE.

Noon is a U$1 billion joint venture project between Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and a number of prominent Gulf investors.

“We are on track to launch Noon this year with the final work on the fulfilment infrastructure and payment systems being completed," said Mohamed Alabbar in a statement.

"Several of the region’s leading brand owners and suppliers have come on board, underlining our local strength."

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Mr Khalid, who earned an MBA from the Wharton School, has been mandated with establishing long term strategic partnerships, boosting the company's infrastructure, especially in Saudi Arabia, and building the company's technological platform.

The creation of Noon comes amid a flourishing of e-commerce businesses in region, especially after Amazon purchased the Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com for $650 million.

The e-commerce sector has been rapidly growing in the UAE thanks to the country's affluent and digitally savvy population as well as the adoption of technology. Mergers and acquisitions in the industry have picked up pace over the past year.