Among more than 1,800 global technology brands, 1,000 speakers, and 1,900 investors gathered in Riyadh over four days, Salla came to LEAP 2026 not only to showcase what it has built over the past decade, but to share a glimpse of what it is building for the years ahead.

The event welcomed more than 201,000 people from around the world, including technology leaders, founders, investors, and developers. For Salla, it brought several major moments together in one place: a new step in payments, a vision for the future of commerce, a bet on the next generation of AI products, partnerships that expand merchant operations, and four days of meeting merchants and entrepreneurs face to face.

This is what four days at LEAP 2026 looked like for Salla.

Salla acquires PayLink: The next step in payments

We start with one of Salla’s biggest announcements at LEAP 2026: the acquisition of PayLink.

The move strengthens Salla’s financial services ecosystem and expands its ability to offer merchants more integrated payment solutions across both digital and physical sales channels.

But the acquisition is about more than adding another payment option.

As a merchant grows, the way they sell and get paid evolves too: from an online store to physical points of sale, and from one local market to multiple markets, currencies, and payment methods.

That is where PayLink fits into Salla’s broader direction: building a more connected payments experience, enabling merchants to accept payments locally and internationally, and creating financial solutions that give them greater flexibility as their businesses grow.

Salla began more than ten years ago by making it easier to create and manage an online store. Bringing PayLink into the ecosystem takes that journey deeper into another critical part of the merchant experience: how payments are managed as the business and its sales channels expand.

Read more about Salla’s acquisition of PayLink →

Ten years transformed commerce. What will the next ten bring?

Salla’s presence at LEAP was about more than announcements and agreements.

On the CODE stage, Nawaf Hariri, Founder and CEO of Salla, shared Salla’s perspective on more than a decade of ecommerce transformation, alongside the experience of building a technology company from Saudi Arabia with ambitions to compete globally.

Over that decade, ecommerce itself changed.

What once required technical expertise and more complex processes has become far more accessible to thousands of merchants, while the tools and opportunities available to build and grow a business have expanded with it.

But looking back at the last ten years opens up a bigger question: What will the next ten look like?

Nawaf spoke about the trends that will shape the future of commerce, and the role technology will play in building experiences that are faster, more trusted, and more personalized.

And that vision did not stay on stage.

You could see it reflected in several of Salla’s announcements at LEAP, from expanding capabilities in payments and logistics to opening the Salla ecosystem to the next generation of AI products.

If one of the challenges of the previous era was making ecommerce easier to enter, the next challenge is different: How can the ecosystem itself become better at supporting merchants as their businesses grow and their needs become more complex?

Sabbaq: Who will build the next generation of commerce?

Another part of that future came to life at LEAP with the launch of Sabbaq, Salla’s smart commerce accelerator for founders building AI products.

The idea starts with a simple belief: the future of commerce will not be built by one company or one product.

That is why Sabbaq opens Salla’s ecosystem to founders with AI products that can be tested and developed, giving them the opportunity to work on real commerce problems and test their solutions with real users.

Over eight weeks, founders move from understanding the problem and the market to testing their product and improving it based on results, with potential access to an ecosystem of more than 68,000 merchants and 17 million customers, alongside possible paths to integration, partnership, and investment depending on the product and its stage.

The launch comes at a time when AI is rapidly reshaping commerce, from product discovery and marketing to customer service, store management, and the shopping experience.

So the question is no longer only:

How will commerce platforms use AI?

It is also: Who will build the next generation of AI-powered commerce products, and which commerce problems will they solve?

Sawt: Bringing AI into the customer conversation

As part of its LEAP 2026 participation, Salla announced a strategic partnership with Sawt to introduce an AI-powered communication channel that helps Salla merchants recover abandoned carts and engage with customers naturally, at the right moment.

The partnership enters at one of the most important points in the conversion journey: when a customer has already moved far into the purchase process, but leaves before completing the order.

For merchants, it adds another way to recover those opportunities and make customer communication more effective.

Together, Sabbaq and Sawt represent two complementary directions.

Sabbaq creates space to build new products around the challenges commerce will face next.

Sawt applies AI to a challenge merchants are already facing today.

One looks ahead to what commerce will need next. The other uses technology to solve a problem merchants are dealing with now.

From order to fulfilment: Expanding the logistics ecosystem

The future of commerce is not only about what happens on the storefront or the technology customers can see.

Behind every order is a chain of operations that becomes more complex as a business grows.

Inventory needs to be managed. Orders need to be prepared. Different products come with different transportation requirements. Shipping and delivery need to be coordinated and tracked.

That is why shipping and operations were among the most prominent areas in Salla’s LEAP 2026 agreements, with a series of partnerships designed to expand the range of needs the ecosystem can support.

Aramex: From shipping to fulfilment

Salla signed an agreement with Aramex to provide fulfilment services to Salla merchants, including receiving products, warehousing, inventory management, order preparation, picking and packing, and shipping.

The partnership focuses on a part of operations that becomes increasingly demanding as merchants grow and begin serving more orders across different cities and markets.

Instead of outsourcing only the final shipping step, support can extend into the stages that come before it: warehousing, inventory management, and order preparation.

That gives merchants more room to focus on growing their businesses.

Mr Mandoob: When faster delivery matters

Not every order is the same.

For some businesses, delivery speed becomes part of the customer experience itself.

That is where Salla’s partnership with Mr Mandoob comes in, providing an express delivery option for merchants with delivery in as little as 30 minutes within a city, depending on the service and coverage.

It adds an alternative to traditional shipping, particularly for merchants and products where the experience depends on how quickly the order reaches the customer.

DRB: Cold-chain solutions for temperature-sensitive products

Some products simply cannot go into the same box and follow the same delivery journey as everything else.

That is why Salla’s logistics expansion also includes DRB, providing cold-chain shipping solutions for products that need to remain within the right temperature conditions during delivery.

Here, shipping options expand based on the nature of the product itself, not only the city it needs to reach.

Flow: Shipping solutions for large and heavy products

The options also extend to large and heavy products, where transportation and handling requirements can be very different from standard parcels.

Through Flow, merchants gain access to solutions designed specifically for this type of shipping.

The importance of this addition comes from how broad ecommerce itself has become.

As merchants operate across more categories and sell a wider variety of products, the infrastructure supporting them needs to become more diverse too.

SAAML: Managing delivery and the last mile

The expansion is not limited to companies that physically transport the shipment.

Salla also partnered with SAAML, which provides technology for managing express delivery, last-mile operations, and delivery operators.

The last mile is the stage where the order finally moves from the delivery network to the customer.

It is where fulfilment speed, driver management, order tracking, and customer experience all come together.

Adding technology to manage this stage expands the story from simply offering more shipping options to improving the infrastructure that manages delivery itself.

AJEX: Another option for standard shipping

AJEX has joined Salla’s shipping options, expanding the number of standard shipping providers available to merchants.

Adding another carrier gives merchants more flexibility to choose based on coverage, service, pricing, and the needs of their orders and customers, within a network of options available from one place.

Naqel: Expanding the standard shipping network

Naqel has also been added to the shipping companies available through Salla, giving merchants another option for standard shipping.

As businesses grow and orders reach more destinations, having more carrier options helps merchants choose the service that best fits the nature of their orders and where they need to go.

Logistiq: A new addition to the shipping network

Logistiq has joined Salla’s network of shipping providers, adding another standard shipping option for merchants.

The addition forms part of the wider expansion of carriers available to merchants, giving them more flexibility to choose the provider that best fits their business and order requirements.

RedBox Home Delivery: Another home delivery option

RedBox Home Delivery has joined Salla’s shipping network, adding another delivery option for merchants.

The partnership continues to expand the number of shipping providers available through Salla, giving merchants more choice when selecting the carrier that best fits their needs.

Fastlo: Expanding shipping choice

Fastlo has also joined Salla’s shipping network, further expanding the delivery options available to merchants.

It gives merchants another provider to compare against the rest based on the needs of their orders, within a shipping network that brings multiple choices together in one place.

What do all these logistics expansions add up to?

From standard shipping and delivery in as little as 30 minutes to cold-chain logistics, heavy shipping, fulfilment, and last-mile management, these partnerships expand the range of logistics needs Salla’s ecosystem can support.

And the direction reflects the diversity of commerce itself.

Different products. Different sizes. Different delivery speeds. Different operational requirements as businesses grow.

As commerce becomes more varied and operations become more complex, merchants need a wider range of options they can access from one place.

Salla invests in Nml

Salla announced an investment in NmlApp, a platform focused on connecting brands and online stores with traditional markets and physical retail locations.

The investment is designed to help Salla merchants expand the distribution of their products and reach physical points of sale through Nml’s distribution network, without needing to build an entirely new operational network from scratch.

The move reflects Salla’s broader direction to extend its role beyond e-commerce alone and toward a more connected model of commerce, opening new sales channels for merchants so brand growth is not tied to a single way of reaching customers.

Raff: Expanding brand presence in physical retail

During LEAP, Salla signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Raff, a platform specializing in connecting brands with physical retail locations.

The collaboration is designed to help Salla merchants expand the presence of their products and reach new customer segments through additional sales channels.

For merchants, it creates another path for brand growth beyond the digital storefront, increasing the number of places where customers can discover and buy their products.

Rabbah: From online stores to self-service retail

Salla also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rabbah to expand growth opportunities for Salla merchants and help them reach customers through self-service retail points alongside their digital channels.

Self-service retail adds another route for merchant products to reach customers, as part of a broader direction toward commerce that works across multiple channels and gives merchants more room to expand.

Together with Salla’s investment in Nml, these initiatives point in one clear direction: expanding the channels through which merchant products can reach the market, from online stores to physical retail and self-service locations.

Salla x stc Qitaf

On the customer experience side, Salla announced a partnership with stc’s Qitaf program, enabling customers to earn and redeem Qitaf points at participating stores on Salla.

For participating merchants, the partnership creates an opportunity to add more value to the shopping experience by connecting their stores to an established loyalty program.

That can strengthen the relationship with customers and give them another reason to return and shop again.

Memorandum of Understanding with the Social Development Bank

Salla’s partnerships at LEAP also extended to people at the beginning of their commerce journey.

Salla signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Social Development Bank to support productive families and freelancers as they move into e-commerce.

The collaboration aims to help beneficiaries establish and develop their online stores, expand their access to markets, strengthen the growth and sustainability of their businesses, and open new opportunities through digital channels.

These initiatives may differ in nature, but together they broaden the opportunities around the merchant: from new channels for products to reach customers, to added value in the shopping experience, to enabling more people to create stores and access new markets.

At the heart of it all: The merchant

Behind the acquisition, announcements, sessions, and agreements was another part of Salla’s LEAP experience that mattered just as much.

The merchant.

Throughout the event, Salla’s booth H1A.E20 saw a strong flow of merchants, entrepreneurs, business owners, and people interested in commerce and technology.

It became a space for direct conversations with Salla’s team, leadership, and different functions across the business: listening to business owners, learning from their experiences, discussing the challenges they face, and understanding what could help their businesses grow.

While the stages at LEAP explored the future of technology and commerce, these conversations brought the discussion back to its most real and practical form.

One merchant has a business they want to start.

Another is trying to solve an operational problem.

Another is looking for a way to grow or enter a new market.

And that brings every part of Salla’s participation back to the merchant.

Payments, AI, shipping, operations, sales channels, customer experience, and the products that will be built in the years ahead all connect to the same things:

the challenges merchants face, the opportunities they want to reach, and the new stages their businesses move through as they grow.

Four days. One direction.

Put all of Salla’s LEAP 2026 moments together, and a broader ecosystem begins to take shape around the merchant.

An acquisition that expands payment capabilities.

An investment that opens new routes to market.

An accelerator helping build the next generation of commerce products.

AI entering the conversion journey.

A wider logistics and operations network.

Partnerships extending into physical retail, self-service sales, customer experience, and enabling more people to enter commerce.

All of these moments connect to one journey that grows alongside the merchant.

From accepting payments and fulfilling and shipping an order, to reaching customers through more channels, building stronger customer relationships, and using new technology to solve evolving commerce challenges.

More than ten years ago, one of the biggest challenges was making it easier to start selling online.

Today, the market is more mature. Technology is changing. Merchant ambitions are growing.

And the question has become bigger:

How do we build an ecosystem that makes commerce itself easier at every stage of growth?

At LEAP 2026, Salla shared part of its answer.

Sources

1. ⁠LEAP 2026 — Official Website

2. ⁠Salla Acquires PayLink

3. ⁠Salla's Participation in LEAP 2026 and Nawaf Hariri's Session — Salla's Official LinkedIn Account

4. ⁠Sabbaq — Smart Commerce Accelerator from Salla

5. ⁠Salla and Aramex Agreement — Salla's Official LinkedIn Account

6. ⁠Salla Pavilion and Meeting Merchants and Entrepreneurs at LEAP 2026 — Salla's Official LinkedIn Account