Ahmad AlZaini on Building a $13B Restaurant Operating System From Al Khobar

Is the software business dying? Loulou sits down with Ahmad AlZaini, 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. Subscribe for weekly conversations on business, investing, leadership and what is actually happening in the Arab world. Chapters 01:42 Foodics at 11: the top line, $13B GMV, 40,000 locations, 40% revenue outside Saudi  04:08 From Al Khobar to Aramco to Foodics: why the founder was never supposed to be a founder  09:43 Investor due diligence in reverse: not all money is equal, cap-table hygiene from an acquirer's chair  14:47 Growth capital advice: do not take from Saudi at growth stage, go global, come back with matched terms  18:36 40 SF VC meetings, 3 term sheets: how to raise when nobody knows where Riyadh is  21:04 Talent reverse migration: C-suite relocating from Boston, NY, SF, Paris and London to Riyadh  23:54 AI is out of the box: the Anthropic February 2026 SaaS selloff explained  31:15 The PhD intern: how a fresh graduate should show up with an AI use case, not a certificate  33:37 The pricing shift: nobody pays for logins in 2030, everyone pays for outcomes and usage  43:09 The exit conversation: if for one minute you decide you need to exit, you are not in the right business  48:45 Secondary markets, buybacks, and why every employee should have liquidity options  53:46 The under-30 Saudi generation: high-school AI hackathons, curiosity, and where they spend Follow Loulou Khazen Instagram: /louloukhazen LinkedIn: /louloukhazen X (Twitter): /louloukhazen Follow the guests Ahmad AlZaini Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alzaini/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.