GCC Ecosystem News Roundup by Dtec Ventures | August 2018

September 10, 2018

Dtec Ventures brings you a roundup of the startup news from the GCC Ecosystem for August 2018.

HIGHLIGHTS

Dubai Smart City Accelerator selects the 10 startups to join its 2nd cohort. Program is slated to begin 17th September.
Dtec hosts the Dubai edition of AngelHack’s Global Hackathon Series 2018 held on 03-04 August with the theme “Seamless Technology”
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) launches $700 (AED 2,570) commercial license for tech startups to operate their business and access to ADGM’s Professional Services Support Program.
Bayut’s parent company, Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) raises $50 million from undisclosed investors. Half of the funds will be deployed in the UAE.
UAE family conglomerates Al Futtaim and Al Zarooni have acquired “significant” minority stakes in lifestyle app The Entertainer and will partner with majority shareholder GFH Financial Group to expand its reach
Saudi Arabia’s Hajj Hackathon enters Guinness Book of World Records with the largest number of participants in the world at 2,950
KSA’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) partners with KPMG Al Fozan & Partners to develop The Insights Centre, a center for AI and advanced analytics

INVESTMENTS

Mawdoo3 (online Arabic content publisher, Jordan) – $13.5 million, Series B, from Kingsway & Endure Capital
Sarwa (investment advisory platform, UAE) – $1.3 million, Pre-Series A, from Shorooq Investments & others
Crowd Analyzer (social media monitoring tool, UAE) – $1.1 million, Pre-Series A, led by Wamda Capital
Fergus James (diamond jewelry e-commerce, UAE) – $400K from angel investors
Seez (automotive marketplace, UAE) – $1 million, Seed Round (extended), from B&Y Venture Partners

INVESTMENTS INSIGHTS

Startup directory and investment data platform, Magnitt.com released their H1 2018 MENA Venture Investment Report.

H1 2018 shows 12% increase in the number of deals for the same 6 month period in 2017. However, total disclosed funding value is down 43% at $112 million compared to the same period in 2017 when stripping out Careem’s $150 million investment that year.
Geographically, UAE remains the most active and largest recipient of funding, followed by Egypt and KSA.
E-commerce remains the most active industry accounting for 12% of all transactions and 16% of disclosed funding

Source: H1 2018 MENA Venture Investment Report

STARTUP NEWS

Saudi Prince and billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal invests $266.7M in Deezer (France-based music streaming service). Earlier in May, he acquired $250M in Snapchat for 2.3% stake in the company
Noon.com launches grocery delivery service
KSA’s Public Investment Fund builds 3-5% stake in electric car marker, Tesla
Careem to test bus-booking service in 4 cities in Egypt

CO-WORKING

Duplays Founders Ravi Bushari & Derv Rao open Nook (https://duplays.com/nook) , the region’s first co-working space for sports/ fitness/health entrepreneurs to set up their business

ACCELERATOR / INCUBATOR

Museum of the Future, part of the Dubai Future Foundation program, started its 4 week acceleration program for 15 shortlisted companies
Fintech (banking) software provider Temenos partners with accelerator The Venture Lab (Cairo) to provide sandbox service and connection to 11 major financial institutions in Egypt during the program
Accelerators / Incubators Applications Deadline:
- My Startup Bootcamp by YoStartups – 02 Sep

EVENTS BY DTEC

UPCOMING EVENTS

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