Happy Friday, friends 👋 

Between a tsunami of funding announcements and 500 Global’s launch of a much-needed new fund for early-growth stage startups across the MENA region, this week has really had it all.

We also hope you enjoyed the first edition of our "Lessons Learned" series, featuring an interview with Khalid Baareh on how an $80M Series B led to a strategic acquisition and his journey as a second-time founder. To read the full piece, become a premium member here.

Now, without further ado, enjoy this week’s edition 👇

This week’s round-up is a 6 min read:

• 💰 500 Global launches new early growth-stage MENA fund

• 🏠 Saudi rent now, pay later firm Rize closes $35m in equity and debt funding

• 💸 Egyptian payment orchestration platform MoneyHash secures $5.2 million pre-Series A for MEA expansion

• 🔈 Catch-up on Episode 21 of the VC React Podcast

🚀 Startup funding round-up

Rize (🇸🇦 KSA), a proptech offering a "Rent Now, Pay Later" service for tenants, has closed a $35 million Series A round led by RAED Ventures, with participation from SEEDRA Ventures, Aqar Platform, JOA Capital, NAMA Ventures, and HALA Ventures.

MoneyHash (🇪🇬 Egypt), a fintech specialising in payment orchestration, has closed a $5.2 million pre-Series A round led by Flourish Ventures, with participation from Vision Ventures, Xelerate, Emurgo Kepple Ventures, and investors including Jason Gardner (founder of Marqeta), Tom Preston-Werner (GitHub founder), and COTU Ventures.

Pluto (🇦🇪 UAE), a fintech that enables businesses to streamline their spending management using virtual and physical cards, has raised a $4.1 million pre-Series A funding round led by Rhino Ventures, Born Capital, Goanna Capital, Evolution VC, Freesearch VC and Tiferes VC.

Ogram (🇦🇪 UAE), an HRtech providing a digital staffing marketplace that enables businesses to book and manage staff on-demand, has raised $3 million from Tanami Capital.

Ebana (🇸🇦 KSA), a platform designed to streamline corporate governance processes, has raised $2.66 million in its Pre-Series A funding round, led by Esnad Legal Consultancy and Business Governance.

Arable (🇸🇦 KSA), which creates hydroponic farming systems locally adjusted to desert climates, has closed a $2.55 million Seed round led by undisclosed investors.

Sampo AI (🇴🇲 Oman), a SaaS platform that helps e-commerce businesses optimise their pricing strategies, has raised $750k in a pre-Seed round co-led by Omantel Innovation Labs and Waad VC, with participation from Hexnture and Saudi angel investors.

Thanawi (🇸🇦 KSA), a company specialising in managing exit processes and share transfers for unlisted companies in Saudi Arabia, has closed its $500k pre-Seed funding round, with participation from several angel investors.

DataQueue (🇳🇱 Netherlands, 🇵🇸 Palestine), an AI data training firm that allows organisations to have access to a broad range of annotated and labelled data for training their AI models, has raised an undisclosed funding round from Ibtikar Fund and Flat6Labs Jordan Seed Fund.

Wilow (🇸🇦 KSA), an e-services startup offering a mobile laundry booking app, has raised an undisclosed pre-Seed round from a group of angel investors.

Talent 360 (🇪🇬 Egypt), an HRtech startup offering talent management and business training solutions, has raised a six-figure investment round led by Saudi-based C.STAR.

RetailHub (🇦🇪 UAE), a SaaS platform that automatically updates stocks from POS to aggregators, getting all the orders into one application, has raised an investment from Angelspark for an undisclosed amount.

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VC Fund

500 Global launches new early growth-stage MENA fund

💰 500 Global has announced the launch of a new fund dedicated to investing in early-growth stage startups across the MENA region both from outside and inside the current 500 Global portfolio.

• 500 MENA, L.P., will be led by Amjad Ahmad, and supported on the investment committee by Courtney Powell.

• The fund will support startups beyond the seed stage, providing up to $10M per check for Series A and later-stage startups across the region.

• The Fund is backed by Jada Fund of Funds, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) company, and Saudi Venture Capital Investment Company (SVC), as well as supported by Sanabil Investments.

⏮️ Background

500 Global has been active in MENA since 2012, investing in over 270 companies in the region, including eyewa, Floward, Foodics, Gathern | جاذر إن, Lean Technologies, Lendo | ليندو, and TruKKer, as well as training 400+ VCs, accelerator managers, and angel investors focused on deploying capital in the region and beyond.

Key milestones include the launch of 500 Falcons, L.P. in 2017, one of the first MENA-dedicated funds by a U.S. venture capital firm, and Sanabil 500 MENA Accelerator Fund I, L.P. and Sanabil 500 MENA Accelerator Fund II, L.P.

🤔 The why?

With this new fund, 500 Global hopes to help address the critical funding gap MENA founders face when securing expansion capital beyond the seed stage. This remains a challenge, with Series B funding at a 5-year low, accounting for only 2% of deals (MAGNiTT).

Premium deep-dive

Scaling and exiting MENA's top cloud kitchen ↗

How an $80M Series B led to a strategic acquisition, the realities of navigating an exit, and starting fresh as a second-time founder.

💰 VC

🇦🇪 Oraseya Capital, the investment arm of DIEZ, was the UAE’s most active investor in 2024, completing 24 deals, including 16 early-stage investments through its Sandbox programme. Notable deals included leading Podeo’s $5.4M Series-A round and backing AI startup Camb.ai. AI accounted for 21% of its portfolio, with investments also in proptech (12.5%), fintech (12.5%), and cleantech (12.5%). Deals were split across stages: Pre-Seed (6 investments, 25%), Seed (10 investments, 41.7%), and Pre-Series A & Series A (8 investments, 33.3%). While no Series B investments closed, a few are currently in progress.

💸 Key Capital has analysed two years of investment transactions across LinkedIn, MAGNiTT, Wamda, and other media outlets, revealing that secondary transactions are now a significant part of the MENA venture capital landscape. Of the 14 largest funding rounds analysed, totaling $1.4 billion, $680 million (49%) came from secondary transactions, meaning nearly half of the capital raised went to existing investors. These secondaries were driven by early investors, employees, and founders seeking liquidity, often with discounts of 20%-40%. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the main markets for these transactions.

🌍 Global investments

🇪🇬🇺🇸 Hamilton has closed a $1.7 million pre-seed round, led by Egypt’s DisrupTech Ventures. Founded in 2024 by Mohamed El Kastawy and Ehab Zaghloul, Hamilton specialises in tokenising real assets on the Bitcoin network to bridge traditional finance with Bitcoin. Hamilton is aiming to make financial products accessible globally, focusing on emerging markets facing economic instability.

🇦🇪 GRVT, the world’s first regulated DEX, has secured a $5 million investment from Abu Dhabi-based Further Ventures, bringing its total funding to $14.3 million. The investment will support GRVT's expansion in the Middle East, product development, and regulatory efforts, including securing an Abu Dhabi Global Market license. GRVT's Mainnet Alpha launched last month, reaching $1.3 billion in 30-day trading volume.

🇦🇪 Qora71, a new venture syndicate launched in partnership with Hub71, has participated in an $11.5 million Series A investment in Hub71-based Basetwo AI. Basetwo’s AI platform optimises pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, improving cycle times and raw material usage by 40%, and product quality by 25%. Basetwo AI marks the 50th technology company in which Qora71 syndicate members are involved. Other recent investments include autone, BioSapien, zypl.ai, and AlGooru.

 🧳 New entrants

💰 Paymob has secured the Retail Payment Services (RPS) License from the Central Bank of the UAE, enabling it to offer merchant acquiring, payment aggregation, and domestic fund transfer services in the UAE. Paymob has supported over 390,000 merchants across MENA-P since 2018, and recently raised a $22 million Series B extension, bringing the total funding in the round to $72 million.

💸 Daleel, a personalised financial marketplace, is expanding into the UAE. The platform simplifies financial decision-making by connecting consumers with financial institutions. Backed by investors like Flat6Labs and Salica, the platform uses data-driven technology to match consumers with the best financial products. Daleel plans to secure an open finance license in 2025 to enhance its services.

 🤝 Acquisitions

🇸🇦 Saudi digital security firm Elm Company has agreed to acquire Thiqah, a business services firm owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), for 3.4 billion riyals ($906 million). The cash-based share purchase agreement follows discussions that began in 2023. Thiqah provides services in information security, consulting, credit information exchange, and data center operations. Elm's shares rose 5% on the Tadawul stock exchange following the announcement.

⚙️ Tech

☁️ Salesforce has opened a new regional headquarters in Riyadh as part of its expansion in Saudi Arabia. The company also committed to training 30,000 Saudi citizens in AI by 2030, with a focus on increasing women’s participation in the workforce. Over 500 companies have set up their headquarters in Riyadh, surpassing Saudi Arabia’s target of 540 by the end of October 2024. This includes companies like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, which recently received licenses to operate in the Kingdom.

🗓️ Opportunities

📢 Exel by Merak, backed by Merak Capital’s $80 million gaming fund, is now accepting applications for its first cohort. The accelerator aims to support gaming startups with mentorship, funding, and resources to enhance the global gaming industry. The program includes a 2-week virtual bootcamp, followed by a 16-week acceleration phase and a Demo Day to pitch to investors. Apply now!

💰 VC React Podcast: Episode 21

🎧 In this week's episode of the VC React Podcast we returned from our New Year’s break with a packed agenda: two major IPOs, three headline-grabbing funding rounds, and a number of newly launched VC funds and accelerators. We also reviewed MAGNiTT’s 2024 VC activity report, exploring key takeaways and predictions for MENA’s startup ecosystem for the year ahead.

📰 Recommended Reads

• Ahmad Sufian Bayram. RISING FROM THE RUBBLE: ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SYRIA POST-ASSAD

• Hasan Haider. Good vs. Great

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