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Investments in MENA startups are slow this week, but regional investors seed up their international investments significantly. Hotdesk acquired YADO. Algeria launched an $80M investment fund for startups. Central banks of Kuwait, Saudi, and Qatar license new services and startups. SpaceX eyes Tunisia.
💰 Startup Investments: At least $6.2M across just 4 startups, bringing the total to $248.9M across 21 startups this January. A significant drop in the number of funding rounds at the beginning of the year.
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 INVESTMENTS
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Wafeq, UAE-based B2B fintech, raised $3M in seed funding led by Raed Ventures and joined by Wamda Capital. The startup was founded in 2019 and provides SMEs with an accounting platform for eInvoicing, taxation and employee payroll management. It will also use the funding to expand to Egypt.
Matbakhi, Saudi-based cloud kitchen, raised $2.3M in pre-seed funding led by Bugshan Investment Company and angel investors. The startup was founded in late 2022 and provides a Hotel Cloud Kitchen model that optimizes existing underutilized spaces in hospitality.
🚀 Quick Investments:
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ACQUISITIONS
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Hotdesk, UAE-based workspace booking platform, acquired YADO, Spain-based counterpart, for an undisclosed value. Hotdesk was founded in 2019 and says it manages over 10k bookings monthly. YADO was also founded in 2019 and has over 100 co-working spaces on its platform across 7 major cities in Spain.
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INVESTMENTS IN INTL STARTUPS
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Pasqal, France-based quantum computing startup, raised $108M in series B funding from Wa’ed Ventures and other global investors. The startup was founded in 2019 and has a research collaboration with the University of Chicago. It names Siemens, Airbus, LG Electronics, Johnson & Johnson and Thales as some of its clients.
Terra Drone, Japan-based drone startup, raised $14M in Series C funding from Wa’ed Ventures. The startup was founded in 2016 and it builds drone software, hardware and uncrewed aircraft traffic management software. It will use the funding to set up a new subsidiary, Terra Drone Arabia, wholly owned by Terra Drone.
🚀 Quick Investments:
- Monument Bank, (UK) digital bank, raised an investment from Dubai Investments Company (DIC) in return for a 9% equity stake, value undisclosed.
Zuri Health, (Kenya) telemedicine platform, raised funding from UM6P Ventures, the investment arm of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco, value undisclosed.
- The Tiny Digital Factory (TDF), (France) racing and motorsport games developer, raised $3.2M in funding from Sandsoft Games, Saudi-based game developer, and investment company.
- Space Solar, (UK) space-solar energy startup, secured funding commitments from NEOM (Saudi), value undisclosed.
- Suraasa, (India) upskilling startup, raised $1.2M in seed funding from NB Ventures (UAE) and other global investors.
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LyRise, Egypt-founded and US-HQ HR tech startup, raised a pre-seed funding round from Launch Africa, Plus Venture Capital (+VC), First Check Ventures, Techstars, and angel investors. The startup was founded in 2019 and provided MENA-based talent access to potential employers via an AI-powered platform.
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SECTOR NEWS
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💰 Funds
Algeria-Venture and the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF) signed an agreement to establish ‘Algeria Innovation Funds’, an $80M fund to invest in Algerian startups. $60M will be allocated for national startup funding and $20M to support global expansion.
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Saudi's General Authority of Competition (GAC) approved Noon’s acquisition of Namshi.com from Emaar.
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced the licensing of two Saudi-based debt-based crowdfunding companies, namely: Forus and Tameed.
The Central Bank of Kuwait has granted 3 banks licenses to activate the “Google Wallet” application. The banks include Kuwait Finance House, the other two banks were not disclosed.
The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) grants a license to Noqoody Payment Service Company, Qatar-based online payment services provider.
SpaceX requested authorization from the Tunisian Ministry of Communication Technologies to use its Starlink satellite internet system in Tunisia.
Egypt to be the host of the African Space Agency headquarters.
FuelBuddy, India-based On-demand fuel delivery service, announced plans to expand to the UAE after raising $20M in funding from multiple investors including UAE-based angels.
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PUBLIC MARKETS
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Swvl announced it will unwind its acquisition of Volt Lines, Turkey-HQ subscription urban mobility service, according to its latest SEC filing. The company has also received its second delisting warning from Nasdaq.
As of the writing of this newsletter, Jan 26, 10:30PM GST, Swvl's stock is trading at $3.8, up from the previous weeks after a Reverse Share Split approved by the board took effect on January 25.
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REPORTS
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AppsFlyer published the ‘App uninstall report – 2023 edition’ that shows android-based app uninstall rates per vertical, country, and type in 2022. According to the report, Android-based app uninstall rates in MENA countries are: 38.9% in Saudi, 40.1% in the UAE, 40.9% in Egypt, 48.5% in Algeria, 49.5% in Morocco and 51.5% in Iraq. Across app categories, on average non-organic installs lead to a higher percentage of uninstalls (at least 2%).
The Arab Center of Washington DC published the ‘Arab Opinion Index 2022’ which surveys 33k+ individual respondents in 14 Arab countries on their general opinions about living conditions, government performance, public opinion and other focus areas. According to the report, 89% of respondents in the Gulf (Saudi, Kuwait, and Qatar) believe that their countries are heading in the ‘right’ direction economically, while 84% of respondents in the Levant (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq) believe their countries are heading in the ‘wrong’ one. 28% of respondents said they wish to immigrate to another country, the highest number in all 8 previous editions of the report. While 73% of the respondents believe that there is an extent of corruption in their home countries.
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