• Bahrain-founded D2C foodtech platform Lola has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Vision Ventures.
• The round included participation from Aljazira Capital, Seedra Ventures, and Plus VC, alongside other investors.
• Founded in 2023 by Othman Janahi, Lola enables users to design and order fully customised cakes through a seamless digital experience.
• The platform operates across Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, driven by rising demand.
• In February 2025, Lola closed a $1.3 million pre-seed funding round from Plus VC, Vision Ventures, and angel investors.
• The funding will support the development of a central production facility in Dammam, alongside a network of cloud bakeries.

Press release:

Lola, the fast-growing cake ordering and customisation platform, has raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by Vision Ventures with participation from Aljazira Capital, Seedra Ventures, Plus VC and other investors, reflecting strong investor confidence in its business model and ability to scale. Lola’s goal is to transform how people experience celebrations across the MENA region. 

But Lola didn’t start as a cake business; it started by solving a frustrating experience, ordering a cake the way you want it. 

Ordering a customised cake has always been complicated and frustrating, involving endless back-and-forth with bakeries, trying to explain an idea that only exists in your mind, often resulting in something that doesn’t quite match expectations. 

This gap is what Lola set out to fix

Founded in 2023 by serial entrepreneur Othman Janahi, Lola turns the process into a seamless digital experience. Instead of describing your idea, you actually see it, shape it, and refine it directly within the platform. The goal is simple: what you imagine is precisely what you get, delivered fast. 

What began in Bahrain quickly proved to be more than just a convenient idea. It was something people were actively looking for. Within a short period, Lola expanded into Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, growing rapidly as demand surged across the region.

Funding as fuel for expansion

Lola’s early model relied on local bakeries to fulfil orders. While this enabled fast expansion, it had its limitations. The newly raised funding will support the development of a central production facility in Dammam, designed to bring consistency, control, and scalability to the business. The model blends centralised production with distributed “cloud bakeries” in key cities, allowing Lola to maintain quality while scaling efficiently across markets. 

Kais Al Essa, Founding Partner and CEO of Vision Ventures, commented: “We all experience pain trying to describe how we want our cake to look for an occasion, only to get something totally different. Lola solves this issue through technology. With a market size of US$ 9.5 billion in 2025 projected to reach over US$ 12 billion by 2030, this is one of the largest in F&B. Othman and his team showed courage and perfect execution by being able to scale Lola to where it is today. We are proud to back such ambitious founders and to help bring such innovative solutions to the masses.” 

Hasan Haider, Founder and Managing Partner at Plus VC, added: “Lola is setting a new benchmark in the market by leveraging technology to streamline a traditionally fragmented industry, delivering a seamless and reliable customer experience that is clearly resonating with users. The platform has already demonstrated strong value creation for customers, reflected in its rapid and enthusiastic demand growth across markets. We believe in Othman and his team’s ability to identify operational bottlenecks and proactively evolve their model, combined with a strategy aligned for long-term scalability, positions them strongly to expand across MENA and capture a meaningful share of the celebrations space.”

Othman Janahi, Founder of Lola, said: “We’re grateful for the trust our investors have placed in us. What we’re building at Lola goes far beyond cakes , it’s a new way to create and experience celebrations. This funding allows us to scale that vision, strengthen our infrastructure, and maintain full control over the customer experience. With strong demand and a clear roadmap, we’re closing the gap between imagination and reality, making perfection the standard for every celebration.” 

For Lola, this is only the beginning

While cake customisation remains at its core, the company is expanding toward a broader vision of becoming a full celebration platform, including gifting, decoration, and the moments that bring people together. 

Because Lola isn’t just about cakes; it's about making every celebration feel exactly as it was imagined – perfect!