Top News
There were 11 investments in the MENA between 7 – 13 October:
Investments:
5 Egypt, 4 United Arab Emirates (UAE), 1 Jordan, 1 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
Acquisitions:
1 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), 1 Oman
Sectors Received Investments:
4 Fintech
2 Blockchain
2 Healthtech
1 Energy
1 Machine Learning
1 Supply Chain
News of the Week
🟥StartupCentrum 2022 Third Quarter Turkey Startup Ecosystem Investment Report has been published.
In the Third Quarter of 2022, 74 startups in the Turkish start-up ecosystem received 97 Million Dollars of investment from 202 investors. With this quarter, 232 domestic startups have collected 1.49 Billion Dollars of investment so far in 2022.
If you want to review the report details.
🥳 StartupCentrum Accredited Angel Investment Network has been established!
A great development took place in the third quarter of 2022! StartupCentrum Angel Investment Network has been approved by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance! We established our Istanbul and Ankara branches with the approval and started recruiting members. We aim to operate in 15 cities in Turkey and abroad, besides Istanbul and Ankara.
So what awaits the investors who are members? Regular monthly startup recognition meetings Unlimited participation in Deep Dive meetings Access to 2000+ startups and more than 15,000 users who are members of the platform Access to more than 200,000 global startups analyses Corporate membership options and much more.
You can contact [email protected] to get more information, to open a branch in your city or to become a member of the network!
🎯 Rewards platform Wafii, raised funding.
Jordan-based crypto rewards platform Wafii, led by GMS Ventures & Investments and angel investors, has increased its seed funding round, the value of which has not been disclosed. Wafii usually offers its users rewards that can earn cryptocurrencies at a certain rate as they make purchases.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investors: GMS Ventures & Investments, Angel Investors
Co-founders: Nassib Barakat
Country: Jordan
🎯 Healthtech platform Vezeeta, raised funding.
Egypt-based digital outpatient services platform Vezeeta has stepped up a growth funding round led by Gulf Capital. Physicians Consultations, Vezeeta offers its users a combination of pharmacy and Diagnostics, Laboratory Sample Collection services.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investors: Gulf Capital, VNV Global
Co-founders: Ahmed Badr, Amir Barsoum
Country: Egypt
🎯 UAE-based financial services benchmarking platform Five FS, raised funding.
Five FS, a UAE-based financial service benchmarking platform for services such as insurance and loans, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding at a $30 million valuation led by Zeyshare Ventures.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $3.500.000
Valuation: $30.000.000
Investors: Zeyshare Ventures
Co-founders: Bogdan Atanasiu
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🎯 Healthtech iSupply, raised funding.
Pharmaceutical startup iSupply, which combines Egypt-based small and medium pharmacies with wholesalers and pharmaceutical companies, has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding from Disruptech Ventures.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $1.500.000
Investors: Disruptech Ventures
Co-founders: Amir Barsoum, Ahmed Badr
Country: Egypt
🎯 UAE-based fintech Cashee, raised funding.
Cashee, a UAE-based digital banking service for youth, has raised $3 million in a Series A round led by Arab National Bank (ANB) ANB Capital.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $3.000.000
Investors: Arab National Bank (ANB)’s ANB Capital
Co-founders: Brad Whittfield, Gups Jutla, Smeetha Ghosh Jorgensen
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🎯 Digital bank Telda, raised funding.
Egypt-based digital bank and payments app Telda has raised $20 million in seed funding led by Global Founders Capital and with participation from Sequoia Capital and Block.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $20.000.000
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Sequoia Capital, Block
Co-founders: Ahmed Sabbah, Youssef Sholqamy
Country: Egypt
🎯 Financing platform FlapKap, raised funding.
Egypt-based startup FlapKap, which provides business finance for e-commerce and SaaS businesses in the Middle East and North Africa, has secured $3.6 million in seed funding from Bolt by QED Investors, Nclude, Outliers and A15.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $3.600.000
Investors: Bolt by QED Investors, Nclude, Outliers, A15
Co-founders: Ahmad Coucha, Khaled Nassef, Sherif Bichara, Adel Hodroj
Country: Egypt
🎯 Distribution management platform Roboost, raised funding.
Egypt-based distribution management and delivery management solution Roboost has closed a six-figure investment round from Falak Startups, AUC Angels and Flat6Labs, value not disclosed.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investors: Falak Startups, AUC Angels, Flat6Labs
Co-founders: Hassan Kamel, Mohamed Gessraha, Mohamed Hassan
Country: Egypt
🎯 UAE-based solar developer Yellow Door Energy, raised funding.
Renewable energy developer Yellow Door Energy has raised $400 million in a new funding round led by British private equity firm Actis, which is its largest shareholder. The company plans to expand into new markets.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $400.000.000
Investors: Actis, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Mitsui, APICORP
Co-founders: Jeremy Crane
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🎯 UAE-based metaverse startup VUZ, raised funding.
VUZ, the social app that enables users to experience digital in augmented reality (XR) and metaverse, has announced the close of its $20 million Series B round.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investment Amount: $20.000.000
Investors: Caruso Ventures, Vision VC Fund, e& capital, DFDF (Dubai Future District Fund), WIN (Webit Investment Network), SRMG, Elbert Capital, Yasta Partners, Faith Capital, Panthera Capital, Existing Investors
Co-founders: Khaled Zaatarah
Country: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🎯 Saudi-based Brexm, which focuses supply chain industry, raised funding.
Saudi-based supply chain-focused startup Brexm has secured pre-seed funding from undisclosed angel investors. For the supply of spare parts for the energy sector, Brexm focuses on the most suitable offer by using artificial intelligence in the field of suppliers’ supply chains and analytics.
Transaction Type: Investment
Investors: Angel Investors
Co-founders: Awad Al-Qufaili, Basil Al-Hanbali, Nasser Al-Harthy
Country: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
🛒 Turkey-based Sestek, acquired by Unifonic.
Turkey-based Sestek, which offers solutions focused on Voice and artificial intelligence, was acquired by the Saudi-based communications technology company Unifonic.
Transaction Type: Acquisition
Investors: Unifonic
Co-founders: Prof. Levent Arslan(Sestek)
Country: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
🛒 Mexico-based Kavak is merging with Carzaty.
Mexico-based used-car platform Kavak is merging with Carzaty, an Oman-based startup offering online purchases of new and used cars. Carzaty was founded in 2018 by Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar.
Transaction Type: Merge
Investment Amount: $130.000.000
Investors: Kavak
Co-founders: Marwan Chaar, Hassan Jaffar (Carzaty)
Country: Oman
✏️A Slice of Entrepreneurship 🍰
“When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say ‘wow, that was an adventure, not ‘wow, I sure felt safe.”
- Tom Preston Werner
Other News:
📌Mastercard announced that it has invested in Nclude, the VC investment platform launched in partnership with Banque Misr, the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Du Caire. The partnership will support early and growth-stage startups in Egypt’s fintech ecosystem.
📌Taylor Wessing law firm has released the MENA Venture Law Guide, which includes investment capital trends, early-stage investment finance due diligence.
📌 The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published the ‘Global Innovation Index 2022’, a report that examines the most innovative economies in the world and their strengths and weaknesses in innovation focus. The performance of countries in economic development and innovation was shown.
📌 Wamda and TiE Dubai have released the ‘Gender Gap in Startup Investing’, a report that examines the state of venture capital financing for women-led ventures across MENA.
📌 Telecom and technology group e& (Etisalat Group) have announced e& Capital, a $250 million VC fund to invest in growing startups.
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