#37 This Week In MENA's Startup Scene🚀
Dive into the latest Startup News, Trends & Opportunities shaping the MENA region
Welcome back! It’s been an action-packed week in the MENA startup world. From exciting funding rounds to major events taking place in Dubai, there’s a lot happening. Let’s get started!
Topics 3l Mashi This Week:
Fundraising Roulette
Main Headlines
Ecosystem Updates
Startups Highlights
Programs & Opportunities
Cool Events
Techy Bytes
Fundraising Roulette
Perfect Vision (KSA/IoT) raised $20M convertible note
Abhi (UAE/Fintech) raised $15M in debt financing
Mala (KSA/Fintech) raised $7M pre-seed
UMX Studio (KSA/Gaming) raised $4.5M Series F
Rabbit (Egypt/Mobility) raised $1.3M round
DHARMA (UAE/Traveltech) raised $750K convertible note
JARAS (KSA/Hospitality) raised $666k pre-seed
Agenz (Morocco/Proptech) raised undisclosed round
WellPal (Egypt/Healthtech) raised undisclosed round and relocated to Saudi Arabia
3 Startups raised EGP97.5M in the first episode of Shark Tank Egypt
Main Headlines
GITEX concluded the world’s largest tech event with over 6,500 exhibitors, 1,800 startups, and 1,200 investors from more than 180 countries
Expand North Star concluded featuring +2000 startups from over 100 countries, including 350 European ones and 65 unicorns with a combined market value +US$400B
SVC Invested $15M in Vision Ventures fund
Moonbase Capital launched $15M emerging markets fund
Hope Ventures went public on the Bahrain bourse
SAMA issued updated rules debt-based crowdfunding
Ecosystem Updates
Dubai Chamber launched Dubai Startup Guide
SPARK launched Maharat for Tourism program in Saudi Arabia
SBWC showcased women entrepreneurs at Expand North Star
in5 Dubai start-up funding reached AED 8 billion
Edafa VC to expand in Egypt and the Gulf
Flat6Lab concluded 2nd edition of Women’s Health Accelerator
Presight launched accelerator for early-stage AI startups
Startup Highlights
Six teams won Fintech Rally 2024 in Jordan
EZRA3LY (Egypt) won first place in the Arab FinTech Challenge at GITEX
Swvl (Egypt/Mobility) launched regional HQ in Riyadh and removed its B2C services
Takalam (UAE) partnered with Inception
Hayat (Bahrain) won Mastercard Challenge in Jordan
Sarwa (UAE/Fintech) to launch options trading
Open For Application
Abu Dhabi Youth Challenge+ | UAE
TradeTech Accelerator | UAE
Intilaaqah Incubation Program | Egypt
InvestIT Program | Egypt
Green & Sustainability Hackathon | Jordan
Peleset Angels Start-Up Accelerator | Virtual
Must Attend Events This Week
Global Health Exhibition | 21-10 Riyadh
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Effective Deal-Making | 22-10 Virtual
GenAI in Finance | 23-10 Dubai
Driving Growth for Women-Led SMEs | 24-10 Dubai
Saudi Cybersecurity Essentials | 24-10 Virtual
Digital Marketing Workshop | 24-10 Manama
Viaka MENA Startups Pitch US VCs | 24-10 Virtual
Builders Summit 2024 | 24-10 Riyadh
Endeavor Fintech Forward 2024 | 26-10 Riyadh
Al Sharq Youth 8th International Conference | 26-10 Gaziantep
Techy Bytes
First UAE-Dirham backed Stablecoin launched
Amazon AWS invested $1 billion into the UAE to accelerate cloud adoption
Microsoft revealed UAE AI National Skills initiative
Presight launched Intelli platform
Tarjama& launched Pronoia LLM for business Arabic translation
Bahrain FinTech Bay launched MENA Innovation Academy
DOO unveiled Bahrain’s first AI-powered customer service
That’s a wrap!
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 time,