Ahmad AlZaini on Building a $13B Restaurant Operating System From Al Khobar
About this episode
Loulou Khazen interviews Ahmad AlZaini about the future of software in the restaurant industry amidst the rise of AI.
Is the software business dying? Loulou sits down with Ahmad Al Zaini, co-founder and CEO of Foodics, at the 11-year mark of the company for the operator's read on the biggest question in tech this year: what happens to software when AI agents replace the human at the login screen. Foodics is the restaurant operating system for the region: 40,000+ locations across the GCC, Egypt and Jordan, $13B in payments processed to date, on track for $14B by end of year, 700 people, licensed by the Saudi Central Bank, backed by a $198M capital raise including a record $170M Series C. Ahmad is a Forbes-recognized entrepreneur with executive credentials from Harvard, Stanford and MIT, and was appointed to the Endeavor Saudi board of directors in 2026.
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