SiFi - Simplified Financial Solutions Company (🇸🇦 KSA), a B2B spend management platform that helps organisations manage all their spending, including vendor and bill payments, has raised a $10 million Seed round, led by Sanabil Investments and RAED Ventures, with participation from prominent investors such as anb seed, Rua Ventures, Byld and KBW Ventures.

qeen.ai (🇦🇪 UAE), a start-up providing accessible and autonomous AI solutions tailored to e-commerce businesses, has raised a $2.2 million pre-Seed funding round, led by Wamda Capital, with participation from international and regional investors, including 10x Founders, Aditum and Dara Holdings, along with Jabbar Group, Phaze Ventures and Eureka 460.

💸 Say hello to Elevate, a Dubai-based fintech offering financial solutions for remote workers and freelancers in emerging markets to enable global USD banking.

And they just raised a $5 million pre-Series A funding round!

• Founded in 2021 by Faris Keenan, Khalid Keenan and Youcef Oudjidane, Elevate has already attracted over 150,000 users from Asia and North Africa since its launch earlier this year.

💰 Investor lowdown: This round was led by Dubai-based investment fund Negma Group.

• Between late 2021 and mid-2022, Elevate (then known as Bloom) secured $6.5 million in seed funding from YC, Visa, Global Founders Capital, and notable angels like Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi and ex-N26 CEO Nicolas Kopp.

⏪ Background

Targeting East and North Africa, especially Sudan, Elevate initially created a product to hedge against currency devaluation. It offered "high-yield" savings accounts, free FX, and digital banking services based on the US dollar to combat inflation and devaluation.

The aim was to build a pan-African neobank, but the startup faced challenges due to Sudan's political instability and eventual civil war.

Elevate's co-founders, Youcef Oudjidane and Khalid Keenan, recognised the need to change course.

🔄 The pivot

The founders identified a key user demographic for their USD vision: the rapidly growing freelancer and remote work sector.

• Pakistan has over 3m freelancers and growing

• Bangladesh has over 1m freelancers and growing

• The Philippines has over 2m freelancers and growing

• Egypt has the largest growing number of freelancers in the MENA region

Younger workers in emerging markets across the world, skilled in tech and languages, were using platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.

And their main issue wasn't opening local USD accounts, but managing payments from international employers cost-effectively, as local products had high fees that ate into earnings.

• The solution? U.S.-based USD accounts that facilitate ACH payments and provide FDIC security.

⚙️ Break it down

The Elevate platform allows users to effortlessly receive payments from U.S. and international employers, as well as major freelancing platforms like Upwork, Maqsam, PayPal, Deel, and Toptal.

Elevate offers debit cards for online spending and market-leading FX rates for sending money home. Users can transfer funds to local USD accounts for a $10 flat fee. Deposits are held with Bangor Savings Bank in Maine, USA, ensuring FDIC insurance up to $250,000, providing security for residents in Egypt, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

• The start-up currently generates revenue from net interest income, FX and card interchange.

🔮 Flashforward

Elevate will use the fresh funds to expand to five markets this year: Indonesia, South Africa, Vietnam, and Turkey. It also plans to launch savings and investment products soon.

📊 There was a surge in MENA investments last month, with 40 startups raising $282 million—a 413% increase from April's $55 million, driven mainly by $140 million in debt financing. MENA's proptech sector led with $167.2 million, followed by fintech with $32.7 million across 12 startups, and logistics startups raising $25.3 million. Venture capital focused on later-stage rounds, with Series A and pre-Series A raising $59.3 million and $44 million, respectively. Seed stage saw seven deals worth $11 million.

🚀 The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) has announced the selection of startups for Cohort 8 of its Innovation Accelerator programme. Launched in 2018, this programme supports innovation in the UAE by providing resources, coaching, mentorship, and investment access. From over 200 applicants from 35 countries, 20 diverse companies have been selected, representing various sectors and developmental stages.

🤖 The Qatar Free Zones Authority and Quantiphi, a Google Cloud partner, have agreed to establish a global technology centre in Qatar's free zones to meet the rising demand for AI solutions and drive digital transformation. This partnership, signed at the Google Cloud Summit in Doha, aims to enhance Qatar's AI and tech capabilities, aligning with the Qatar National Vision 2030 to build a knowledge-based economy.

🏍️ The MENA region's food delivery market is booming, driven by a growing appetite for convenience and a strong mobile culture. In the first quarter of 2024, delivery orders increased by 10% year-over-year, following a 6% rise in 2023. Over 70% of orders are placed via smartphones.

📊 Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), in collaboration with Petuum and LLM360, has launched K2-65B, an open-source 65-billion parameter large language model (LLM). This model sets new standards in AI transparency and performance, and is competitive with larger models like GPT-4 in areas like mathematical and logical reasoning.

💳 Visa and the Central Bank of Jordan announced the winners of the first Levant edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative, held in Amman on June 2, 2024. Jordan-based GamerG won the People’s Favorite Award and $10,000, while eDamana from Jordan and Simma from Iraq took first and second runner-up, winning $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. Finalists from Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine competed for prizes, mentorship, and access to Visa’s network, presenting their solutions to a panel of industry experts.

• Transforming Startup Financing: The Rise of Venture Debt and Alternative Finance in MENA

• Crashing the VC glass ceiling by building ecosystems 

• Why a Private Secondary Marketplace Will Never Work

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