INVESTMENTS

 ACQUISITIONS

Dammam Valley, Saudi-HQ biotech holding company, acquires a majority stake in Arcensus, Germany-HQ biotechnology startup, with other investment partners for an undisclosed value. Arcensus was founded in 2021 and works on Whole Genome Sequencing that is valuable for medical research and development efforts.

 INVESTMENTS IN INT'L STARTUPS

NowNow, Nigeria-based fintech solution, raised $13M in seed funding led by NeoVision Ventures (UAE), and joined by regional angel investors. The startup was founded in 2016 and says it built an end-to-end ecosystem of financial products for agents, consumers and SME.

Kemet Trading, US-based provider of infrastructure for digital asset derivatives trading, raised a seed funding round from BECO Capital and other global investors, value undisclosed. The startup was founded in 2022 and focuses on optimizing access to intelligence, liquidity, DeFi, trade execution, and post-trade operations. (via LinkedIn). 

Niftify, US-based NFT marketplace, raised a seed funding round co-led by Audacia Capital (UAE), and joined by other global investors, value undisclosed. The startup was founded in 2021 and will use the funding to pivot into a tech platform that will provide tools to help others build stores for non-fungible tokens.

De Novo Dairy, South Africa-based biotech startup, raised funding from UM6P Ventures (Morocco), value undisclosed. The startup was founded in 2021 and uses bioactive proteins to produce animal-free dairy products.

 SECTOR NEWS

Ziina, UAE-based mobile wallet app, expanded its services to Jordan.

Tabby, UAE-HQ BNPL player, expanded operations to Egypt.

21.co, Switzerland-based crypto investment platform, expands operations to Dubai, UAE after raising $25M in funding.

 PUBLIC MARKETS

Jahez filed its preliminary results for H1’2022. According to the filing profit increased by 1.85x YoY to $14.2M, and revenue increased to $207M. Orders made through the app went up by 46% to 31.5M in the first half of 2022, and restaurants registered increased to 7,879 (1.6x the same time last year).

 REPORTS

Cars24 published ‘Used Car Market Insights UAE H1 2022’ report that breaks down the market based on the platform’s data and external sources. According to the report, 70% of pre-owned car buyers in the UAE are male, and 65% of used-car buyers are looking for financing options for their purchase. 62% of consumers indicated that they would still prefer to buy their pre-used vehicles offline from a dealership or individual, although 28% indicated they would prefer online platforms. [report]

Twitter MENA published ‘Twitter Trends 2022 Report for Saudi Arabia’, which analyzes conversations on the platform and corresponding trends. According to the report, the Saudi twitter space witnessed a 595% increase in conversations about cryptocurrencies YoY, and a 153% increase in conversations around Vision 2030. Users have also increased their mentions of electric vehicles (55%) and smart cities (180%). [report] 

McKinsey published the 'Middle East Consumer Sentiment Survey' findings, which surveyed consumers in the UAE and Saudi about their current spending behavior (conducted in November 2021). According to the survey, 50%+ of consumers in both countries say they will be cutting back on spending due to uncertainty and job insecurity, and the growth in price sensitivity grew across all income brackets. Even though more than 52% of consumers reported that they are willing to pay for products that are healthier and purpose-driven, higher than the global average.

 POLICY