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A week of big bets: Etisalat (now e&) bets on subscription video-on-demand, Dubai is doubling down on blockchain, PIF on gaming, and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on fintech startups. Acquisitions activity is high this week, 4 deals bring the total this year to 18 deals in less than 3 months! Ramadan is around the corner and reports about the month are starting to be shared.
💰 Startup Investments: More than $23.3M was invested across 18 startups this week, bringing the total in March to $125.7M invested across 32 startups. We also see the first batch of startups graduate from Flat6Labs Jordan.
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 INVESTMENTS
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- Qarar (manufacturing optimization IoT)
- Wasm (weather technology)
- Coach You (professional development Platform),
- Flims (wellness app for chronic conditions),
- Bloom (eCommerce enablement solution).
Each startup received up to $112k in equity funding from the program.
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JustClean, Kuwait-HQ cleaning marketplace, raised $6M in funding led by Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) with participation from undisclosed regional investors. The startup was founded in 2016 and now provides management solutions and POS systems for laundry outlets, as well as Saas for logistics services.
AZOM, Saudi-based smartphone and hardware development company, raised a Pre-Series B funding round from National Capital and Khalab Company, value undisclosed. The company plans to launch 6 new devices in 2022. (AR)
Soum, Saudi-based marketplace, raised $4M in seed funding led by Outliers VC and Mazen Aljubeir, and joined by Khwarizmi Ventures, and strategic angel investors. The startup was founded in 2021 and announced its launch as part of this announcement. It allows consumers to sell and buy second-hand electronics through a verified marketplace.
🚀 Quick Investments
- Qawafel, (Saudi) B2B marketplace, raised $3M in seed funding co-led by AlSayed Group and Khwarizmi Ventures, and joined by angel investors.
- Eikonikos, (UAE) metaverse startup, raised $2M in pre-seed funding by angel investors.
- Malaa Technologies, Saudi-based fintech, raised $1.7M in seed funding from Impact46, Khawarizmi ventures, VentureSouq, WealthWell, and angel investors.
- Encore Pay, UAE-based fintech, raised $1.5M in seed funding from GreenHouse Capital (GHC).
- QFIL Solutions, UAE-based investment app, raised $1M in pre-seed funding from undisclosed investors.
- Kamel Pay, UAE-based fintech, raised $1M in pre-seed financing from strategic angel investors. https://b.link/8rb3su
- Guichet.com, Morocco-based digital ticketing platform, raised $308k (3M MAD) from 212 Founders program via CDG Invest.
- Welness, Egypt-based fitness app, raised $300k in seed funding led by Flat6labs with participation from Samurai Incubate, UI Investments and angel investors.
- Nakhla, (Iraq) agritech startup, raised a six-figure investment round from Euphrates Ventures, facilitated by the Iraqi Angel Investors Network (IAIN).
- Atarec, Morocco-based renewable energy startup, raised funding from UM6P Ventures, the investment arm of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, value undisclosed. UM6P Ventures had just announced a specialized “deeptech” track that offers startups both financial and development support with their business. (FR)
The Giving Movement, UAE-based fashion D2C, raised $15M in Series A funding led by Knuru Capital and other undisclosed investors. The company was founded in 2020, it produces sustainable clothing that is sold directly through their online platforms and says their products are manufactured entirely in the UAE.
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ACQUISITIONS
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🎬 Starz Play Action!
A consortium of companies led by E& (Etisalat Group) will acquire 57% of Starz Play at a $420M valuation. The consortium includes ADQ, and E-Vision (owned by E&). The deal will reduce Lionsgate’s stake from 30% to 13%. It is still subject to regulatory approval.
The platform has ~2M subscribers in 19 countries across the MENAP, it had raised $150M to date, and had recently signed a deal with Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) to build a private cloud in Abu Dhabi offer its private cloud to other media companies as a fully managed and turnkey over-the-top (OTT) solution. |
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Cofe, Kuwait-founded UAE-HQ online coffee marketplace, acquired Kaffeen, Saudi-based competitor, value undisclosed. Cofe had relocated HQ from Kuwait to the UAE after receiving support from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) in February, and had acquired Sippy Beans in January 2022.
AlGooru, Saudi Arabia-based edtech, acquired ChillLearn, Saudi-based tutoring platform, for an undisclosed value. AlGooru was founded in 2019 and recently graduated from Riyadh Techstars Accelerator, as well as raising $600k in funding. ChillLearn was founded in 2020 and says it has over 5k students using its platform.
DilenyTech, Egypt-based AI medical imaging solution, get acquired by Astute Imaging, US-based AI-powered imaging solutions company, for an undisclosed value. DilenyTech was founded in 2018 and had received a $160k grant from Egypt’s Information Technology Academia Collaboration (ITAC) program, as well as a US patent for a novel AI-enabled image analysis technology.
The Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, increased its equity ownership in TPConnects, UAE-based Travel-focused Saas platform, from 22% to 70% (majority stake) for an undisclosed value. TPConnects had raised funding from FCTG in 2020.
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INVESTMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL STARTUPS
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Getir, Turkey-HQ on-demand delivery startup, raised $768M in Series E funding at an $11.8B valuation led by Mubadala Investment Company (which is estimated to have invested $250M in the round). The company has 1,100 dark stores across EU/US and ~40M app downloads across 9 countries and delivers almost 1M orders daily.
Roofstock, US-based proptech management startup, raised $240M in Series E funding at a $1.9B valuation led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The startup was founded in 2015 and says it has facilitated more than $5B in transaction volume to date, more than half of which came from the last year.
Bazaar, Pakistan-HQ B2B ecommerce startup, raised $70M in series B funding co-led by Tiger Global and joined by existing investors including B&Y Venture Partners. The startup had just announced a $30M series A financing round in August 2021. It has a suite of services for SME retailers including the Easy Khata app for bookkeeping, Bazaar Credit for short-term working capital financing, among others.
100ms, India-US-based live video infrastructure startup, raised $20M in Series A funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation. The startup was established in 2020 and has 2,200 businesses using their technology since last August across edtech, events and community apps.
Metric, Pakistan-based online accounting app, raised $900k in pre-seed funding led by i2i Ventures and joined by Outliers VC and other global investors. The startup was launched in August 2021 and has reached $20M in annualized recorded transactions within five months during closed alpha.
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SECTOR NEWS
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Binance was awarded a crypto-asset service provider license from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). The company had received in-principle approval from the CBB in December 2021 and had signed a cooperation agreement with the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DWTC) to help set up the virtual assets ecosystem in the UAE.
FTX, Bahamas-registered crypto exchange and trading platform, granted virtual asset exchange (VAX) license in Dubai, UAE. The license is granted under a new cryptocurrency law adopted last week.
Loolia and SohatiCare, Lebanon-based ecommerce platforms for beauty and pharma respectively, expand services to Egypt.
Bosta, Egypt-based last-mile delivery startup, expand to Saudi Arabia with a new office in Riyadh.
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) says that 72 branches of local banks and over 1750 ATM machines have been shut down in the Kingdom in the past year as banks shift focus to digital services
TIER Mobility, German-HQ micro-mobility startup, launches in Bahrain. The company partnered with Diyar Al Muharraq, Bahrain-based real-estate developer, in January, and has raised $200M in funding led by Softbank Vision Fund II in October 2021.
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PUBLIC MARKETS
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Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has acquired an additional 563,566 share in NCSOFT Corp., a South Korean online and mobile game developer, for $240M. Making PIF the second biggest shareholder with 9.26% equity in the company.
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POLICY
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🇦🇪 UAE
Dubai’s Executive Council approves a new policy ‘Services 360’ that aims to redesign government services to become a fully integrated set of solutions to improve efficiency and decrease costs.
🇸🇦 Saudi
Saudi’s Ministery of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing (MOMRA) approved the requirements for dark (cloud) stores in the kingdom, including (cloud or dark or ghost) stores and kitchens. This will require all existing cloud kitchen and store providers to update their activity and comply with new guidelines within one year of the announcement.
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RESEARCH & STATS
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Adcolony published the “Mobile Gaming Set to Dominate Ramadan this 2022 – EMEA & APAC” report that looks at expected behavior changes in the upcoming Ramadan. The report shows that 50% of respondents in KSA spend 1-3 hours online on their smartphones and 48% of them state they spend 30 minutes to 2 hours playing mobile games daily during Ramadan. 77% of the participants in UAE state that they will use their smartphones while shopping for Ramadan, while 67% of them say that they will shop within the application. 47% of respondents state that they will do shopping after iftar time.
BrandFinance published “Global Soft Power Index 2022” a study that shows the perception of nation-states by the international community globally. According to the report, the UAE ranks 15th globally in Soft Power, while Saudi Arabia ranks 24th. Egypt is however more recognized globally for its rich heritage and has also improved in index score from 2021.
The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) published data that shows that cashless transactions grew by 28.9% YoY to nearly $721M last month. Out of 11.4M point-of-sale (PoS) and eCommerce transactions, 71.7% were contactless / digital transactions. Also that 98% of the private sector in Egypt is MSMEs; 3.4M micro-sized businesses, 217k small-sized businesses, and 2,200 medium-sized enterprises. These companies contribute 43% of the country’s GDP.
FinTech Egypt, an initiative powered by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), published “Egypt Fintech Landscape Report 2021” that surveys local startups and enablers about the state of the market, as well as maps the landscape. According to the report, 80% of surveyed startups have operations only in Cairo, while 22% of all startups have expanded outside Egypt already, while 38% are actively planning their regional expansions. Also, 46% of startups say that attracting qualified talent is their number one challenge for growth. From a different angle, 12% of startups say that females make up half or more of their customer base. [Report]
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FURTHER NEWS
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Saudi's Public Investment Fund (PIF) signs an agreement with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in the Arab Republic of Egypt to invest in the country. Details of the investment plans are not revealed yet.
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