1. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: NEOM has launched its investment subsidiary, the NEOM Investment Fund (NIF), with initial investments including companies like Regent (electric seagliders) and Pony.ai (autonomous driving tech).

2.  🇪🇬 Egypt: OBM Education, an ed-tech startup aiding pre-university students in major selection, has secured six-figure funding to expand in Saudi Arabia. Launched in 2020, its Taleb Super App offers content and assessments to MENA students.

3. 🇦🇪 UAE: Keyper, a proptech startup, has raised $6.5 million in Seed funding led by Access Bridge Ventures and Vivium Holdings. Founded in 2022, Keyper offers property management and rent tracking. The funding will boost its Rent Now Pay Later feature and overall platform growth.

4. 🇦🇪 UAE: Insurtech firm Democrance, secured funding from Wa’ed, Saudi Aramco's VC arm. It offers a SaaS for insurance sales automation and is active in 15 markets. The investment supports its Saudi expansion in line with Vision 2030.

5. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: Proptech Ejari has raised $1 million in a pre-Seed round led by Sanabil 500 MENA and Hambro Perks' Oryx Fund. Ejari offers a rent-now-pay-later solution, addressing rigid payment structures in the Saudi rental scene. The funds will further develop this service and expand into other proptech areas.

Introducing Neo Mobility! This UAE-based start-up is reshaping the UAE's last-mile delivery and mobility sector with its unique EV infrastructure.

Oh, and did we mention their cool $10 million in seed funding? 💸

• Launched in 2020 by Abhishek Shah and Anish Garg, Neo Mobility is introducing the nation's first long-range electric motorcycle and a fleet of EV cars powered by a rapid DC charging network.

💰 Investor low-down: The round was led by Delta Corp Holdings, Pyse Sustainability Fund, and several angel investors.

🔌 Plugging into sustainable logistics

Ever considered the environmental cost of all those motorbikes zipping around?

In the UAE alone, 90,000 motorbikes result in a whopping 480,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

That’s akin to charging 53 billion smartphones or guzzling down 49 million gallons of gasoline.

🏍 Zero emissions, max impact

Neo Mobility’s all-electric fleet of GSO-certified motorbikes will support food delivery platforms, e-commerce giants, and logistics companies to hit their net-zero goals too.

Makes mental note to order eco-friendly takeout in the future 🥡 

They’ll also equip riders with smart helmets, telematics, crash detection warnings and even critical illness and injury insurance coverage 👏

🔄 Lightning pit-stops

Forget hour-long charging – Neo’s smart charging infrastructure will allow for battery swapping stations across the UAE where switch outs will happen in just 60 seconds!

• Speaking of rapid, Neo’s dashboard offers real-time insights into CO2 emission savings.

• Drivers will also be able to recharge in less than 30 minutes.

🚗 A greener tomorrow, today

Neo plans to tap into the ride-hailing sector, and with the capital injection will scale its fleet to 5,000 two-wheeler and four-wheeler Tesla EVs by 2025.

• Neo also plans to enable drivers to go from leasing to owning, turning them into green entrepreneurs.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Nomad Homes, a platform dedicated to streamlining residential real estate transactions and enhancing the property buying experience across Europe and the Middle East.

And, they just secured an additional $20 million in their Series A extension round.

• Co-founded by Damien Drap, Dan Piehler and Helen Chen in 2019, the company is active in France, Spain, Portugal, and the UAE.

💰Investor low-down: The round was led by California-based Acrew Capital, a multi-stage venture fund.

• Joining the round were existing and new investors 01 Advisors, HighSage Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Partech, Precursor Ventures, Potluck Ventures, Knollwood and various undisclosed hedge funds.

• This comes two years after securing a $20 million Series A.

🌵 Wild west

Unlike the U.S., regions where Nomad Homes operate lack a unified real estate system, complicating property transactions for both buyers and sellers.

The lack of an efficient transaction process means:

❌ Buyers = often unrepresented, resulting in potential mismatches / less optimal deals.

❌ Agents = rarely collaborate with each other, resulting in reduced transaction transparency.

• Another issue? The massive potential conflict of interest when one agent represents both the buyer and seller in a transaction. Now that you mention it…

🏠 Nomad no longer

Nomad Homes 🤝 eliminating inefficiencies and biases against buyers.

But how?

Well, they've rolled out a B2B platform, Nomad Agent, that allows real estate agents to collaborate and share commissions. Plus, they assign dedicated agents to buyers to guarantee unbiased advice, separate from sellers' interests.

The outcome:

✅ Improved workflow for agents and increased trust and transparency for homebuyers.

And the cherry on top? 🍒 This service doesn’t cost buyers a penny extra; it's covered by sharing the usual buying commission with the selling agent.

🔮Flashforward

The new funding will fuel growth, supercharge their AI co-pilot for buyers, and roll out the elite Nomad Homes Private Client. 

• Catering to those eyeing properties above 10 million AED, think of it as real estate's answer to elite banking, offering expert advice, smart negotiations, privacy, and VIP access to off-market gems.

👋 Message from the team

Thanks for reading our fourth edition! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you again on Tuesday. Have a question or any feedback? Just hit reply, or provide a rating below.

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