The Middle East's start-up ecosystem is on track for a record year of funding thanks to a fintech-fuelled third quarter, with the number of funding deals for the first nine months of the year now exceeding the total number of deals struck in 2016, a according to new research from new report from online start-up community Magnitt.
According to Magnitt's analysis, the three months to the end of September saw 62 new deals and over US$76 million of investment in Mena startups, with the total deal tally of 169 for the year's first nine months now higher than the 164 recorded last year.
The total investment in regional start-ups for the year to date now sits at $404m, a figure that includes the $150m invested in Careem earlier this year by regional VCs including Kingdom Holdings.
Philip Bahoshy, Magnitt's founder and chief executive, said it was "extremely positive to see continued investment in Mena startups".
“The summer is generally perceived as a quieter period in the region. However, we saw a flurry of announcements in September and we expect this trend to continue through to year end,” he said.
The Magnitt data is a measure of the inflow of venture capital funding into the region's start-ups, hence why Amazon’s acquisition of Souq.com in March this year is not included in the figures.
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Significant UAE funding rounds in the third quarter included a $10m injection into Souqalmal.com, announced on Tuesday, in a Series B round led by Saudi-based Riyad Taqnia Fund and shared with UAE Exchange Group and the UK financial comparison site GoCompare.
Another significant funding announcement of the quarter also came from Saudi investor RTF a week ago when it was announced as the lead investor in a $5m funding round for Dubai-based peer-to-peer lending platform Beehive.
“The increase in activity so far this year highlights the growing appetite in the startup space from existing as well as new regional and international investors,” said Mr Bahoshy.
GoCompare’s interest in Souqalmal.com, for example, was the company’s first overseas investment with Matthew Crummack, the company’s chief executive saying the potential for growth in the region “is huge” thanks to its “youthful and tech-savvy population”.
Not surprinsingly, Fintech remains the hottest industry for the region for VC activity, according to Magnitt, gaining 2 per cent quarter on quarter and the sector making up three of the five largest investments.
Promoth Manghat, the chief executive of UAE Exchange, which also took part in the Souqalmal.com funding round, said the UAE has “emerged as a hub for start-up innovation in the MENA region”. He told The National the exchange house is “constantly looking out for the right investment opportunities” and supports and partners various fintech incubation and accelerator programmes.
“We are also leveraging these programmes as avenues to identify and collaborate with the right innovators and start-ups, where we can add value to one another either via commercial partnerships or through strategic investment,” he added.
The UAE continues to be the dominant market for VC funding, receiving half of all the disclosed deals for the quarter. The most active VCs by number of deals was 500 Startups following the launch of their Falcon Fund with 16 disclosed deals. Next in line was Middle East Venture Partners with 10 deals and Turn8 with eight deals.
Total funding deals in 2016 topped $907m, thanks largely to Souq.com’s funding round of $275m from investors such as New-York based Tiger Global Management and South Africa’s Naspers, and Careem’s $350m injection from Japenese e-commerce firm Rakuten and Saudi Telecom Company – a figure Mr Bahoshy conceded the region was unlikely to top in 2017.
"$625m of that investment went exclusively to Souq and Careem so we see them as outliers that skew the results," said Mr Bahoshy.
"Exclude Careem and Souq from the figures and total investment in the region in 2017 stands at $254m, only $28m short of the $282m figure achieved in 2016 with three months still left to go."
However, Mr Bahoshy also noted that 20 per cent of 2017 deals have remained undisclosed, which could close that figure more.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
HOSTS
T20 WORLD CUP
2024: US and West Indies; 2026: India and Sri Lanka; 2028: Australia and New Zealand; 2030: England, Ireland and Scotland
ODI WORLD CUP
2027: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia; 2031: India and
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CHAMPIONS TROPHY
2025: Pakistan; 2029: India
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Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Results
United States beat UAE by three wickets
United States beat Scotland by 35 runs
UAE v Scotland – no result
United States beat UAE by 98 runs
Scotland beat United States by four wickets
Fixtures
Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland
Admission is free
Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
The years Ramadan fell in May
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Company Profile
Company name: Yeepeey
Started: Soft launch in November, 2020
Founders: Sagar Chandiramani, Jatin Sharma and Monish Chandiramani
Based: Dubai
Industry: E-grocery
Initial investment: $150,000
Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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