The investment fund and business accelerator Adaverse, specialized in supporting the adoption of Web3 technologies in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, has unveiled a new investment in the Saudi company Sorbet, a Web3-enabled freelancing platform.
Sorbet aims to support the $4 billion and rapidly growing freelance sector in the Arab region, by leveraging Web3 technologies to facilitate cross-border payments, which a large portion of the unbanked population in the region struggles with.
To achieve its goal, Sorbet seeks to use smart contracts and stablecoins to execute instant, near-fee-less payments. Sorbet is built on the NEAR blockchain and has a partnership with Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.
Sorbet does not take any percentage of freelancers’ earnings, and helps them overcome reliance on costly and inefficient money transfer platforms like Western Union. The company aims to launch a beta version of its platform later this May.
Sorbet was founded by Rami Djebari, an experienced blockchain developer with a long freelancing background, and Maher Ayari, who has extensive experience in entrepreneurship and business development. Commenting on Adaverse’s investment, Rami said in a press statement: “With this support, we aim to accelerate development and our go-to-market strategy, empowering creatives in the MENA region and beyond through our Web3-enabled freelancer operating system.”
The Arab region has witnessed a growing interest in the freelance sector in recent years, from both companies and workers, in tandem with the digital transformation wave sweeping many countries in the region. In 2023, the Outsized freelancing platform revealed a 142% year-on-year increase in its user base from the region.
Earlier this year, Adaverse opened its Riyadh office and announced a $10 million investment plan in Web3 companies from the Arab region. Sorbet is the third company Adaverse has invested in since opening the office, after previously investing in the Sharia-compliant decentralized finance (DeFi) platform TakaDAO.
