Last week, there were 9 investments and 3 secondary transactions in the MENA between 2 – 12 January:
Investments:
2 United Arab Emirates (UAE), 2 Saudi Arabia, 1 Tunisia, 1 Qatar, 1 Egypt, 1 Bahrain.
Acquisitions:
1 United Arab Emirates (UAE), 1 Saudi Arabia, 1 Tunisia.
Bonus:
1 Saudi Arabia-based investor financed Mexico-based startup.
Sectors Received Investments:
2 Foodtech
1 Healthtech
1 Fintech
1 Cleantech
1 Proptech
1 Software
1 e-Commerce / Q-Commerce
1 Social Network
News of the Week
🎯 Foodtech startup Nourish raised funding.
Inflight meal booking platform Nourish received an investment of 400 thousand dollars. The investment round led by investors from the US, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $400.000
Investors: Strategic investors from the US, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
Co-founders: Tom Eliopoulos
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🎯 Bahrain-based foodtech Order Jet raised funding.
Order Jet, which digitizes restaurant operations, has raised $125,000 from Hope Ventures and angel investor Dr Abdulelah Algosaibi.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $125.000
Investors: Hope Ventures, Dr Abdulelah Algosaibi
Co-founders: Ali Haji, Yusuf Almahmood
Country: Bahrain
🎯 Healthtech platform At Home Doc raised funding.
At Home Doc, which provides on-demand at-home medical services, has raised $1.9 million in pre Series A round. The investment round led by Elaj Group’s investment arm Tawasol Holdings, supported by Qatar Development Bank and other angel investors.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $1.900.000
Investors: Tawasol Holdings
Co-founders: Hatem Elfieshawy, Hesham Elfeshawy
Country: Qatar
🎯 Fintech startup Investsky, raised funding.
InvestSky, a social investing platform for retail investors across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), received $3.4 million in pre-seed funding round led by Emkan Capital. S3 Ventures, the Al-Romaizan Family office, Mishal Al-Mishari, the Deputy CEO of Jahez, and angel investors also participated in the investment round.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $3.400.000
Investors: Emkan Capital, S3 Ventures, the Al-Romaizan Family office, Mishal Al-Mishari, the Deputy CEO of Jahez, Angel Investors
Co-founders: Nitish Mittal, Turki Alshaikh
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🎯 Cleantech startup KarmSolar raised funding.
Karmsolar, a clean technology startup that provides renewable energy to various sectors in Egypt, received an investment of $3 million from HSBC.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $3.000.000
Investors: HSBC
Co-founders: Ahmed Zahran, Xavier Auclair, Yumna Madi, Randa Fahmy
Country: Egypt
🎯 Mexico-based proptech Pulppo raised funding.
Proptech startup Pulppo, which provides real estate agents with tools to increase their sales, received an investment from Saudi Arabia-based VC DAAL, along with Y Combinator, 1984VC, Boost Capital and other investors.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: –
Investors: DAAL Ventures, Y Combinator, 1984VC, Boost Capital, etc.
Co-founders: Matias Gath, Agustin Iglesias
Country: Mexico
🎯 Millesima Technologies raised funding.
Millesime Technologies, a startup focused on video technologies and data analytics, received an investment of 480 thousand dollars from BH BANK’s venture capital investment fund, named BH Equity.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $480.000 (DT1.5 million)
Investors: BH Equity
Co-founders: Haythem Dridi
Country: Tunisia
🎯 Saudi Arabia-based startup Ninja raised funding.
Q-Commerce platform Ninja has raised a pre-Seed round led by Bunat Ventures, along with multiple VCs from the region, the US, and family offices in Saudi.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: –
Investors: Bunat Ventures, multiple VC’s, investors from the US, family offices in Saudi Arabia
Co-founders: Saud Al Qahtani, Canberk Donmez
Country: Saudi Arabia
🎯 Social app ASKWHO raised funding.
ASKWHO, allows its users to meet new people and discover the cities they live in, has raised $1 million in a crowdfunding campaign.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $1.000.000
Investors: 57 Investors
Co-founders: Mike Askew, Matt Gaziano
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🛒 UAE-based Astra Tech acquires Botim.
Tech company Astra Tech has acquired the voice-calling app Botim, with the aim of creating a super app.
Transaction Type: Acquisition
Investment Amount: –
Investors: Astra Tech
Co-founders: Lei Guo, Renjian Zhou
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🛒 Growth Avenue Company acquires stake in SororApp.
Growth Avenue Company has acquired a 20 per cent stake in Saudi Arabia-based on-demand delivery app SororApp.
Transaction Type: Acquisition
Investment Amount: –
Investors: Growth Avenue Company
Co-founders: Musfer Alyami, Abbas Safadieh
Country: Saudi Arabia
🛒 Tunisian AI startup InstaDeep acquired by BioNTech.
BioNTech, a biotechnology company based in Germany, has acquired InstaDeep, which works on artificial intelligence, for $680 million. As a result of the acquisition, the company plans to use InstaDeep’s technology to analyze diseases.
Transaction Type: Acquisition
Investment Amount: $680.000.000
Investors: BioNTech
Co-founders: Karim Beguir, Zohra Slim
Country: Tunisia
Other News:
📌 Venom Foundation, a layer-1 blockchain licensed and regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Market, and Iceberg Capital have partnered to launch a $1 billion venture fund called Venom Ventures Fund.
📌 Standart Chartered ve Falak Investment Hub became partners to launch first cohort of the “SC Women in Tech program” in Saudi Arabia.
📌 The AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is launching the Shorooq Partners Venture Capital Case Competition in collaboration with Shorooq Partners, a leading early-stage venture capital fund in the Middle East.
📌 Startups Without Borders (SWB), a global platform that supports migrants and refugee entrepreneurs, will host the 4th edition of its summit on February 10th and February 11th at Cairo Business Park, East Cairo’s Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship hub.
📌 Microsoft for Startups Middle East and The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), has announced the graduation of the latest cohort of tech startups from GrowthX Accelerator program. The startups in this cohort are Fortyguard, Ilmversity, Klickit, MonSpark, Pisano, Poilabs, Raabtaa, Supercommerce, Vita Virtues, Xina AI, Edraak Systems, and Pay Caps.
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