Noor Al-Bahar’s appointment puts an executive with banking and online retail experience at the helm of Talabat Kuwait as the company expands beyond takeaway orders and deepens its work with local businesses.
Talabat has appointed Noor Mohamed Al-Bahar as managing director of its Kuwait operations, bringing the former Dabdoob Kuwait general manager into the leadership of the market where the delivery business began.
Announced on 12 October, the appointment gives Al-Bahar responsibility for the company’s next phase of growth in Kuwait, with an emphasis on technology, data and operational efficiency. She succeeds Bader Al-Ghanim, who has moved into the company’s international leadership.
Her arrival connects two parts of Kuwait’s commercial economy: the financial institutions where she built much of her career and the digital businesses increasingly involved in how people shop. It also comes as Talabat invests in a broader business encompassing groceries, retail and subscriptions alongside restaurant delivery.
A career spanning finance and online retail
Al-Bahar brings more than 13 years of experience in executive management and business development. Before joining Talabat, she led Dabdoob Kuwait and held roles at NBK Wealth, NBK Capital and HSBC, working across investment portfolios, wealth management and digital product development.
According to the appointment announcement carried by Fintech Gate, she holds an MBA from Cambridge Judge Business School and a bachelor’s degree in industrial and management systems engineering from Kuwait University.
Her stated priority is the application of technology and data to the local market, alongside support for entrepreneurs and national businesses.
The role carries particular significance within Talabat’s history. The company began in Kuwait in 2004 before expanding across the region. By its 2024 initial public offering, it operated in eight markets, with the offering raising approximately $2 billion.
Kuwait therefore represents both an operating market and the starting point of a business that has moved from a local ordering service into the public markets.
A business expanding beyond takeaway orders
The scale of the organisation Al-Bahar joins is evident in Talabat’s second-quarter 2026 results. Across the group, gross merchandise value reached approximately $2.9 billion, while revenue was about $1.1 billion.
The company also outlined a $120 million investment programme for 2026, covering its own grocery operations, subscription benefits and additional retail and service offerings. These are group-wide investments; the disclosure does not identify a Kuwait allocation.
That distinction matters when assessing the new managing director’s remit. Regional growth provides context, but it does not establish how individual markets or their merchants are performing.
The results nevertheless show how the business is changing. Grocery and retail partners represented nearly a quarter of approximately 97,000 active partners across the group. Customers ordering from more than one category accounted for 75% of gross merchandise value.
Al-Bahar is consequently taking charge of a Kuwait operation within a platform whose commercial relationships now extend well beyond restaurants.
Kuwait’s shoppers move between digital and physical retail
Independent research offers useful context for that expansion. In its June 2026 report on shopper behaviour in Kuwait, Ipsos said 58% of the population had shopped online during the preceding six months, while the vast majority still preferred the physical shopping experience.
The findings describe a market in which online purchasing and traditional shopping coexist. They do not measure Talabat’s performance or isolate food delivery, but they help explain the broader environment facing businesses expanding into online retail.
Ipsos also found that three in five shoppers bought from brands they already knew. Social media and word of mouth were the most commonly used sources of brand information, with word of mouth attracting the greatest trust among sources influencing purchases.
For local retailers, this points to a relationship between established reputation and digital discovery. Joining an online marketplace takes place within that existing pattern of customer familiarity, recommendations and shopping preferences.
Local restaurants already have a place in the agenda
Al-Bahar’s emphasis on local businesses follows an existing Kuwait initiative. In May, Talabat and the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprise Development launched Talabat Grow, a programme intended to support more than 1,000 SME restaurants.
The six-month structure begins with six weeks of intensive training, followed by continuing support tailored to participating businesses. Announced areas of work include restaurant management, menu development, kitchen efficiency and the use of data and digital tools.
The programme also proposed reduced commissions and commercial support for participants. Its recruitment ambition should be distinguished from a verified count of restaurants that have completed the programme or achieved improved results.
For the incoming managing director, the initiative provides a concrete connection between the promise to support entrepreneurs and work already under way. It also broadens the relationship between a delivery platform and its restaurant partners to include the operations behind an order, from menu decisions to kitchen capacity.
Riders remain part of the operational picture
The Kuwait operation’s responsibilities also extend to the people completing deliveries. In May 2025, Talabat participated in a rider safety workshop with the National Diwan for Human Rights, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior.
The programme included health screenings, guidance on heat exposure and multilingual training. Talabat stated that riders were contracted through logistics partners, while describing their wellbeing as a shared responsibility.
That arrangement adds another dimension to the operational agenda Al-Bahar inherits. Changes affecting customers and merchants also depend on coordination with the businesses supplying delivery services.
Her appointment establishes who will lead that work in Kuwait. The next developments to watch are the specific local investments and operational changes that follow, together with results from initiatives such as Talabat Grow. Those will give substance to the priorities outlined at the start of her tenure.
