Qatar is positioned to lead on both business-to-business distribution and AI-driven logistics tools, the head of a home-grown platform in the sector says — and those are precisely where his own company is heading next.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Thani, co-founder and CEO of WareOne, told Gulf Times the comparison to Airbnb, while flattering, undersells a business that runs the logistics chain from end to end.
He compared WareOne’s model to what Uber did for transport, describing it as taking existing capacity and making it bookable, visible, and priced according to use, a principle he said applies across storage, freight, fulfilment, and distribution from warehouses to retail stores.
Sheikh Khalifa said, “Our modelling on selected high-density routes indicates potential savings of up to 40%, depending on volume, route density and how well fleets are currently used.”
He said the goal is to lower distribution costs, free up capital for growth, and reduce the number of trucks on the road, though he declined to elaborate further at this stage. Sheikh Khalifa said WareOne is also building a second frontier around artificial intelligence, including bespoke solutions tailored to a customer’s operations, conversational tools and payments.
“The valuable work is no longer in recording what happened. It is in deciding what should happen next,” he said, adding that Qatar is well positioned to lead this shift.
On WareOne’s contribution to Qatar’s digital-first economy, Sheikh Khalifa said logistics represents the point where the digital economy meets the physical world, and is typically the last part of the economy to be digitised.
He noted that while Qatar has modernised payments, identity, and government services, the physical movement of goods after a purchase can still lag behind if that stage continues to rely on phone calls and paperwork.
Sheikh Khalifa explained that every delivery generates useful data, including where delays occur, the real cost of a route and how demand for certain product categories shifts during periods such as Ramadan.
As WareOne’s network expands, Sheikh Khalifa said the company is building an increasingly detailed picture of how goods move across different sectors, routes, and demand periods in Qatar.
He further stated that the platform is built by a Qatari-owned company based in Lusail and configured around how logistics operates in Qatar and the wider GCC, adding that demand from neighbouring markets has taken WareOne across the Gulf faster than expected.
Sheikh Khalifa said digital transformation makes operations smoother, while shared infrastructure makes them more affordable, noting that together they allow companies to operate at a scale that persuades foreign brands to base themselves in Qatar rather than only ship into the market.
Asked to describe WareOne in one sentence, as an SME enabler, global connector or logistics disruptor, Sheikh Khalifa said: “WareOne is an enabler: We make world-class logistics accessible, scalable, and accountable for businesses in Qatar and across the GCC.”
“I choose that word deliberately. This sector does not need disrupting. It needs organising, and then it needs somebody willing to run it well for a very long time,” he added.
