#30 This Week In MENA's Startup Scene🚀
Dive into the latest Startup News, Trends & Opportunities shaping the MENA region
Welcome back to your weekly update on what’s happening in the MENA startup world!
September is here, and it’s kicking off with some serious momentum. Startups are raising, accelerators are accelerating, few mergers here and there, and of course lots of cool events to attend
Topics 3l Mashi This Week:
Weekly Fundraising Roundup
In The News
Ecosystem Updates
Startups Highlights
Handpicked Programs & Opportunities
Cool Events to attend
Interesting Stuff
Techy Bytes
Let’s get started!
Weekly Investment Roundup
myco (UAE/Web3 Streaming) closed a $10 million Series A round
Verofax (UAE/Web3 ) secured a $3 million round
Zenfuse (UAE/Crypto) secured $500,000 in an Initial Coin Offering
Powder Beauty (UAE/E-commerce) raised an undisclosed pre-Series A round
Hulexo (UAE/ERP) raised a seed round from Arzan VC (Kuwait)
Thakaa Med (KSA/Healthtech) secured an undisclosed seed round
Flat6Labs (Egypt/VC) invested in MoneyLoop (KSA/Fintech)
Sakan (Kuwait/Proptech) acquired hapondo (Qatar/PropTech)
In The News
Intersect closed a $5 million fund to extend the runway of Palestinian tech startups impacted by the ongoing war
Saudi Arabia launched the Digital Future Readiness Program
Gulf Investors launched a $200 million Waad Investment Fund
Hodler and GEWAN launched a $500 million Digital Energy Fund in UAE
Mubadala acquired UCB’s business in China
e& enterprise acquired GlassHouse (Turkey)
MaxAB (Egypt) merged with Wasoko (Kenya), creating one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Africa
Ecosystem Updates
Orange Corners Baghdad to launch its 9th cohort
Dubai AI Campus partnered with Google Cloud
Flat6Labs wrapped the Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) in Egypt
TDF celebrated the first Grow Accelerator cohort in Saudi Arabia
Emirates Development Bank launched a student entrepreneurship bootcamp
Jordan Start welcomed 21 new startups into its incubation program
Idealab Cycle 3 welcomed 53 Clean and AgriFood tech solutions from across Lebanon
Startup Highlights
ArabiQuest (Bahrain/Edtech) won first place at StartUp Bahrain’s Pitch series
CoinMENA (Bahrain/Crypto) partnered with Bitpanda
Talabat (UAE) preparing an IPO on Dubai Financial Market
Paymate (UAE/Fintech) partnered with NPCI Bharat BillPay
FlapKap (UAE/Fintech) partnered with Aramex
Menthum (Egypt/Fintech) launched a USD fixed-income fund
Upcoming Programs & Opportunities
REAF Ideathon Fourth Edition - 21-22 Sep | Baalbeck
Intersect Startups-in-Residence Program | Palestine
IPSAR Accelerator Program | Saudi Arabia
Web Summit Qatar ALPHA Startup Program | Qatar
Antler Residency Program | Middle East
Techstars Web3 Accelerator | Worldwide
Sber AI Journey Contest (Prize $90.000) | Worldwide
Must Attend Events in September
Seamless North Africa - 02/09 | Cairo
24 Fintech - 03/09 | Riyadh
Flat6Labs' Demo Day - 04/09 | Amman
Highway to 100 Unicorns - 04/09 | Virtual
Qima24 - 06/09 | Beirut
Future Banks Summit & Awards - 09/09 | Riyadh
Flat6Labs Demo Day - 10/09 | Riyadh
Dubai AI & Web3 Festival - 11/09 | Dubai
Saudi Event Show - 11/09 | Riyadh
Interesting Stuff
Discover the pioneering role of Emirati Women in shaping the future of AI
Learn more about the future of gaming careers in the MENA region
Explore a comprehensive guide on startup funding stages
From Local to Global: The Urgent Shift for MENA’s Startup Scene by Dana Labin
Explore a comprehensive guide on startup funding stages
Techy Bytes
Vodafone Qatar introduced 1st instant SIM in the world
Mohammed Bin Rashid Library exploring AI integration in virtual talk sessions
National Bank of Egypt launching a Touch Card for visually impaired individuals
Google working on AI that can hear signs of sickness
Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple to fund OpenAI’s next big thing
WhatsApp to replace phone numbers with usernames
Gmail users on Android can now chat with Gemini about their emails
France has released and formally charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov
Brazil's top court ordered a ban on Elon Musk’s X platform
Thanks for joining us on this week’s journey through the MENA startup ecosystem.
Stay tuned for more opportunities, trends, and insights next week.
Until next week,