#15 This Week In MENA🚀
Dive into the latest Startup News, Trends & Opportunities shaping the MENA region
Welcome back to your go-to source for the latest in MENA's vibrant startup ecosystem! This week, we're covering exciting new funding rounds, major industry updates, and the latest tech innovations.
Here’s What’s Sparking Interest This Week:
Weekly Funding Roundup
In The News
Ecosystem Updates
Upcoming Programs
Cool Events
Interesting Stuff
Techy Bytes
Yalla, let’s dive in!
Weekly Funding Roundup
Property Finder (UAE) raises $90m, marking Beco Capital's second billion-dollar exit
Eyewa (UAE) raises funds from General Atlantic
Airwater (UAE) secures investment from Tau Capital
Plug and Play invests in Fincart (Egypt)
SVC (KSA) invests $30m in a General Atlantic fund
In The News
THA and Qatar Financial Centre launch a $50m Digital Assets Venture Studio
BRICS Investment Fund launches $100m AI fund in UAE
Golden Gate Ventures MENA Fund secures $100m From Qatar's Investors
Middle East investors invest in $920m Patron Capital Fund
Investcorp (Bahrain) closes a $570m ITP V fund
Wadi Jeddah launches a new fund
Riyad Capital introduces the 1957 Ventures Fund
Shorooq Partners launches a $100m fund and plans two Fintech investments
PIF exits Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks stakes cutting $15B in US stocks
Ecosystem Updates
58 startups join Injaz’s incubator (Jordan)
Orange Jordan AI Incubator starts its third cycle
5 Startups Qualify for the Race to Reach Challenge (Jordan)
9 startups graduate from CFA Accelerator via Flat6Labs
8 startups Selected for the Mega Green Accelerator (UAE)
Techstars Prepares to Launch Two Accelerators in Riyadh
Sanabel and 500 Global select 12 startups for their accelerator
Dubai FinTech Summit concludes with over 8,000 visitors from 118 countries
Upcoming Programs & Opportunities
PropteX Program by Paragon and Startup Factory
Startups AI Accelerator Africa by Google
Startupper of the Year Challenge by TotalEnergies
Women in Tech Program by Standard Chartered
Women in Tech Startup Competition by UN Tourism
Orange Social Venture Prize by Orange
The Tank Innovation Challenge by Umniah
More Programs & Opportunities —> here
Cool Events
Global Prompt Engineering Championship - 20 May, Dubai
Finnovex Saudi Arabia 2024 - 21 May, Riyadh
Soft Landing Mastery Masterclass by Orange Corners Palestine - 21 May, Zoom
Orange Corners Palestine Demo Day - 22 M Mayay, Zoom
Liquidity is king: IPOs, exits, and secondaries by Magnitt- 22 May, Zoom
Kickstart Bahrain EdTech Demo Day - 30 May, Zoom
Vodafone's AI Assistive Tools Hackathon - 30 May, Cairo
More events —> here
Interesting Stuff
UAE Introduces Blue Residency for Sustainability Experts
Nearly 60% of GCC’s fintech firms are based in Dubai
Are AI Agents the Next Big Thing in Tech?
Saudi Space Center to support the lunar mission
Top digital payments trends in MENA
Tamer Azer from Shorooq Partners on the alternative VC path in MENA
Techy Bytes
UAE unveils Falcon 2 AI model to compete with Meta and OpenAI
Abu Dhabi to launch the Global AI Healthcare Academy
Core42 (UAE) launches Jais Chat, an Arabic-English AI chatbot
OpenAI debuts GPT-4o model, plans to compete with Google search, and partners with Reddit to train AI
100 things Google announced at I/O 2024
That's a wrap!
Thank you for catching up with us. Stay tuned for next week’s roundup of new opportunities, trends, and insights from the MENA startup ecosystem
Until next time,
The Startup3lMashi ستارتب على الماشي Team
Got feedback or a story to share --> contact@startup3lmashi.com