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Digital media companies are ramping up for FIFA 2022; Footballco acquired Kooora.com, and Anghami partnered with TOD.tv exclusive streaming partner for BeIn. Investcorp launches a fund for blockchain. ADQ launches a SPAC on ADX, and iMENA Group considers an IPO.
💰 Startup Investments: $24.8M+ was invested in 7 startups across the MENA region, led by Pylon's seed round of $19M in Egypt. This brings the total funding this April to $44.4M across 14 deals, with Egypt-based startups attracting 72.8% of the funding value.
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 INVESTMENTS
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Pylon, Egypt-based infrastructure management Saas, raised $19M in seed funding from Endure Capital, Cathexis Ventures, Loftyinc Ventures, Khawarizmi Ventures, and angel investors. The startup was founded in 2017 and was part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 cohort. It already operates in Egypt and the Philippines and will use the funding to expand to new markets.
🚀 Quick Investments
- Right Farm, (UAE) B2B platform, raised $2.8M in seed funding led by DisruptAD and Enhance Ventures. https://b.link/uxbez9
- Sprints, (Egypt) edtech startup, raised $1.2M in Series A funding led by the Alexandria Business Angels Network and joined by MED Angels members, AUC Angels, Cubit Ventures, “Challenge Fund,” EdVentures, Falak Startups, and Cairo Angels.
- Spoilz Games, (Saudi) game development studio, raised $693k (2.6M SAR) in pre-seed funding from angel investors.
- Rology, (Egypt) AI-powered teleradiology healthtech startup, raised a pre-series A funding round from Egypt Ventures, Sequence Ventures, Waseel, Tawaref, Viktoria Ventures, HIM Angels, AAIC, Dubai Angel Investors (DAI), and Cubit Ventures.
- WakeCap, (Saudi) construction tech startup, raised funding from Wa’ed Ventures, value undisclosed.
- Lune, (UAE) banking customer analysis app, raised $68k (250k AED) in funding from Sandooq Al Watan.
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ACQUISITIONS
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Footballco, London-HQ football digital content network, acquires Kooora.com, Dubai-HQ sports content platform, for $25M. Kooora.com was founded in 2022 in Brahin and relocated to UAE later in its journey, and it says they have over 25M monthly visitors to its platform. Kooora.com operations will be relocated to Footballco’s regional HQ in Saudi Arabia.
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INVESTMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL STARTUPS
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Lenskart, India-HQ D2C eyewear platform, raised $100M at an estimated $4.3B valuation from Alpha Wave Incubation (UAE). The platform was founded in 2010 and has raised $900M to date from investors including Softbank. Last month it announced a partnership with Monshaat to expand to Saudi Arabia.
Ansa Biotechnologies, US-based biotech company, raised $68M in series A funding from multiple global investors including Mubadala Capital. The company was founded in 2018 and is building a fast and reliable DNA synthesis service to accelerate synthetic biology research.
Re:cap, Germany-based digital funding platform, raised $15M in seed funding from Mubadala Capital; an extension to a $100M round closed in December. The platform was founded in 2021 and allows institutional investors the opportunity to invest directly in the recurring revenues of software companies.
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SECTOR NEWS
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Rabeh, Saudi-based crowd-equity platform and virtual accelerator, joined the FinTech|X Accelerator 2022 program by Tampa Bay Wave and the University of South Florida Muma College of Business. The startup was founded in 2020 and is currently still in pre-launch.
Penny, Saudi-based procurement SaaS startup, launches a B2B marketplace for the Saudi market. The startup has also partnered with Monshaat (SME Authority in Saudi) to enlist and support local merchants. (AR)
Kemitt, Egypt-based furniture eCommerce platform, launches a B2B marketplace for interior designers and contractors in Egypt. The startup says it has over 400 suppliers and 30k products on its platform.
Paymob, Egypt-based digital payments provider, expands services to Pakistan. It already operates in Egypt, Jordan, and Kenya and has strategic partnerships with Visa and Mastercard.
Sulfah, Saudi-based personal micro-financing platform, received approval from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to provide microfinance services post the successful completion of its regulator sandbox requirements. (AR)
Binance received In-Principle Approval (IPA) for a Financial Services Permission (FSP) from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), to operate as a broker-dealer in virtual assets.
Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) launched “NOOR”, an Arabic natural language processing (NLP) that can carry out varied, cross-domain tasks from natural language instructions. The model was developed in collaboration with LightOn, France-based developer of Large Language (VLM-4) and NLP models.
Anghami partnered with TOD.tv, a subscription over-the-top (OTT) platform by the beIN Media Group. As part of the partnership, a curated selection of TOD’s sports & entertainment programming will be available on Anghami starting this Ramadan. TOD.tv was launched in March 2022, and exclusively houses all beIN SPORTS content, and gives viewers the option to opt-in for pay-per-view subscriptions to some of the sporting events at FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
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PUBLIC MARKETS
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ADQ established ADC Acquisition Corporation PJSC (ADC) through its Alpha Oryx special purpose vehicle, and Chimera Investments. The blank-cheque vehicle (also known as SPAC) plans to list on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and raise $1B (367M AED).
Also, ADQ acquires shares in multiple publicly traded Egyptian companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) including an 11.8% stake in Fawry for $54.9M.
iMENA Group, MENA-based VC group part-owned by e& (Etisalat Group), is in initial talks for an IPO on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). The firm has hired First Abu Dhabi Bank, Morgan Stanley, and EFG Hermes to advise on the IPO. All firms declined to comment on the news according to Reuters.
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POLICY
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🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) ordered banks to halt some online services for an interim period as online fraud increased in the kingdom on April 9th. These services include: opening bankings accounts online and allowing non-Saudi customers to add beneficiaries. It also mandates that banks add multi-factor authentication standards, and improve KYC standards.
Some of these limitations were reversed by April 12th with the introduction of new requirements and procedures.
🇪🇬 Egypt
Egypt’s Ministery of Finance will begin the trial run for the new e-invoice on April 15th (today), in preparation for mandatory rollout in July of this year. The e-invoice system will enable the tax authority to better follow up on all commercial transactions of companies selling goods and providing services directly with consumers (B2C), which will be verified through integration with point-of-sale (POS) devices.
🇰🇼 Kuwait
Kuwait’s Directorate-General of Civil Aviation has stopped issuing permits for the use of unmanned aircraft (drones) until further notice.
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FURTHER NEWS
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E1 Series (Electric Marine Racing Co), London-HQ electric powerboat series, and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), launched RaceBird, the first electric racing boat successfully completing a series of tests and performance runs. The two companies had partnered in July 2021 with the aim of developing an electric-boat racing sport.
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