#24 This Week In MENA🚀
Dive into the latest Startup News, Trends & Opportunities shaping the MENA region
Hola awesome entrepreneurs! It’s time again to explore what’s new and exciting in the MENA startup ecosystem
Are you ready to dive in?
Here’s What’s Trending This Week:
Weekly Funding Roundup
In The News
Ecosystem Updates
Startups Highlights
Upcoming Programs
Cool Events
Interesting Stuff
Techy Bytes
Weekly Funding Roundup
44.01 (Oman/ClimateTech) raised $37M to enhance carbon capture technologies
MNT-Halan (Egypt/Fintech) raised $157.5M to expand their digital financial services beyond Egypt
Dopay (Egypt/Fintech) secured $13.5M to expand its digital payment platform
Mubadala and Qatar Investment Authority invested $600M in North America's TEN
Ades (KSA) raised $3bn backed by PIF for global expansion plans
Wa’ed Ventures (KSA) led a $6.5M pre-Series A funding round for aiXplain
Ogram (UAE/HR) closed an expansion funding round to enter the Saudi market
EQ2 Ventures (UAE) invested in Uncover Skincare (Kenya)
Majarra (UAE/Digital Content) acquired Lableb, Arabic AI NLP pioneer
Power League Gaming (UAE/Esports) was fully acquired by Muller & Phipps
TechMal (KSA/PropTech) announced the completion of a $1 million seed funding round
Okhtbout (KSA/Car Service) secured 1M SAR to expand its car care services
In The News
Abu Dhabi signed an MOU with Hong Kong to enhance investment promotion efforts
Saudia agreed to purchase 50 air taxis from Germany's Lilium to modernize air transport
Masdar (UAE) secured USD 1 billion through a second green bond to expand global renewable projects
Abu Dhabi’s ADGM announced a significant license fee reduction for multiple sectors
UAE and Indonesia to trade in local currencies
Jordan launched a national blockchain network to boost government transparency
Dubai businessmen initiated Air Kerala, a new low-cost airline
Mubasher launched Sharikat Mubasher to bolster the Saudi startup ecosystem
Bahrain decided to implement mandatory skill assessments for 25 trades
Norwegian companies are investing heavily in Egyptian green economy projects
Ecosystem Updates
JOIN Fincubator (Jordan) hosted Jordan’s first university fintech hackathon
Seven teams won the MASA Fintech hackathon in collaboration with the Jordan Kuwait Bank
Hub71 (UAE) and Princeville Capital partnered to support ClimateTech startups globally
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank launched a ClimateTech business accelerator
e& UAE revealed the winners of SMB Awards 2024
Algeria Startup Challenge programs led to 34,000 direct and indirect jobs over its past editions
Bahrain Research Institute launched the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Competition
Core Istanbul (Turkey) launched the Software Product Sales Training program
Palestinian Businessmen’s Association hosted a workshop on utilizing French grants to support Palestinian companies
Brinc accelerator launched Brinc Academy to guide entrepreneurs from idea to launch
Egyptian startups dominated the awards at the North African startup competition
Startup Highlights
Mawarid (UAE) formed a $680 million joint venture with Plenty, expanding their vertical farming innovations
myZoi (UAE/Fintech) launched UAE’s first inclusive digital wallet
MyAlice (UAE/AI) expanded its AI-driven customer engagement solutions to Saudi Arabia
5dVR (Egypt/VR) expanded to Saudi Arabia to enhance the VR and AR sectors
Mozn (KSA/Fintech) recognized as one of the top 250 global Fintech companies by Statista and CNBC
4Sale (Kuwait/Marketplace) expanded its online platform into the automotive sector through new dealership partnerships
Takka (Egypt/Fintech) celebrated its first anniversary with over one million app downloads
Upcoming Programs & Opportunities
Mustaqbali Entrepreneurship Bootcamp by Sandooq Al Watan | UAE
The Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator by Flat6Labs | Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan
Makers ConTech Innovation Program by Flat6Labs | Egypt
Fintech Accelerator Program Fall'24 by AUC Venture Lab | Egypt
Fintech for a Future Accelerator by Changelabs | Egypt
Bootcamp for Accelerator Managers by 500 Global | Egypt
IF Social Impact Prize | Global
Future of Capitalism Competition | Global
THRIVE Global Impact Challenge | Global
Must Attend Events This Week
Use AI for Business: Where to start and how to use it? - 23 July | Virtual
Women Spark's Demo Day - 24 July | Virtual
Hub71 Info Session - 24 July | Virtual
Throwback Thursday Episode #2 - 25 July | DIFC, Dubai
Building in Public: Transparency, Community, and Innovation - 25 July | Dubai
PR Strategies for a Successful Product Launch - 25 July | In5 Tech, Dubai
1trepreneur Founders Meetup - 25 July | Dtec, Dubai
Unlocking UAE: How European Startups Can Leverage the UAE Market - 24 July | Virtual
Game on: The Rise of Gaming in UAE - 24 July | Dubai
Interesting Stuff
Falcons (KSA) won the Esports World Cup
PIF (KSA) increased its stake in Newcastle United to 85%
The UAE is set to introduce self-driving vehicles
Report on H1 2024 Saudi Arabia Venture Capital
Report on the Bahrain Startup Ecosystem
Article: What exactly is an AI agent?
Article: The impact of Gaza crisis on the Palestinian tech ecosystem
Techy Bytes
Massive IT outage rocked the globe, putting major tech firms like Microsoft and CrowdStrike under scrutiny
Google agreed to acquire cloud security company Wiz for $23B
Google created self-replicating digital life forms, pushing the boundaries of AI and biological science
OpenAI unveiled GPT-4o mini, a smaller AI model that powers ChatGPT
UAE’s TelecomGPT could be a game-changer not just in telecom, but in the AI space globally.
Abu Dhabi launched an AI tender to predict epidemic threats
What is Apple Intelligence? Explore this upcoming technology, its release timeline, and potential users.
Apple, NVIDIA, and others face backlash over scraping data from YouTube content for AI training
And that’s everything for this week! Thanks for tuning in! We hope you found this edition insightful. We’ll be back next week with more news, opportunities, and stories from the MENA startup world.
Until next time,
The Startup3lMashi ستارتب على الماشي Team
Want to say hi or share a cool story? --> contact@startup3lmashi.com