1. Rize.gg (🇸🇦 KSA), an e-gaming startup that provides gamers with comprehensive tools for team building, live streaming, and tournament organisation, has raised a $430,000 pre-Seed funding round led by angel investors.

2. Nawel (🇸🇦 KSA), a logistics solutions startup that transforms unused spaces within warehouses into storage points, has raised a seed round of $1 million led by Nomad Holdings, with participation from angel investors.

3. Cargoz (🇦🇪UAE), a logistics tech start-up that connects SMEs looking for warehousing space with companies that have extra capacity, has closed a seed round for an undisclosed amount, led by Nama Ventures with the participation of RAZ HOLDINGS, Innovest Properties, and other regional family offices and angels.

4. FriendyM (🇪🇬Egypt), an autotech app that streamlines car management services has raised $2 million to extend its services to all governorates across Egypt.

5. Clinicy (🇸🇦 KSA), a healthtech startup offering customised patient experience platforms, has raised a significant seven-figure (USD) Series A funding round, led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), with participation from existing shareholders including Kafou Group and Fadeed Investment.

6. Lahint (🇸🇦 KSA), a start-up that simplifies procedures for obtaining government and public services, has closed a pre-seed round for $268,000 led by angel investors.

🏨 Meet Lokalee! This Dubai-based travel tech start-up offers an AI-powered B2B content platform tailored for hotels and holiday homes, focusing on enhancing guest interactions, simplifying operations, and boosting revenue.

Did we mention they just secured $5.6 million in pre-Series A funding?

• Founded by Samir Abi Frem in 2019, Lokalee has partnered with over 200 brands in 20 countries, and has been used by top hotel groups like Movenpick, Sheraton and Hilton.

💰Investor lowdown: Crown Private Fund led the investment round, with a trio of strategic investors from the hotel and tech sectors also joining the round.

✋ Taking things personally

Receiving family-fun themed activities for a one-night business stay? That's a disconnect in personalisation that just won’t cut the mustard with consumers anymore.

Enter Lokalee. The company offers a customisable, white-label, AI-enhanced guest interaction platform designed to elevate and personalise the guest experience at hotels and holiday homes.

⚙️ Break it down

What it does for guests? It streamlines the booking process for various property amenities and local, authentic experiences based on your geo-location, purpose of visit, preferences, and available time, all curated by Lokalee's expert team and global partners.

What it does for hotels? Lokalee enables hosts to promote their services, boost visitor traffic, and create additional income opportunities through in-app purchases, enhancing guest satisfaction and loyalty and boosting revenue.

• In September, Lokalee partnered with Primestar Group, becoming their global digital concierge platform.

🔮 Flash-forward

The new funding will accelerate Lokalee's product development and expansion into European markets, with upcoming plans to launch an AI and human-curated data integrated trip planner for an enriched travel experience.

Say hello to Maalexi! The UAE-based fintech platform that’s helping small agri-businesses streamline the cross-border trade of agriculture products, using AI-driven risk management tools to address payment and performance risks in regional and global supply chains.

And, they just raised $3 million in a pre-series A funding round.

• Established in 2021 by Dr. Azam Pasha and Rohit Majhi, the start-up has attracted hundreds of users and helped SME buyers procure millions of kilograms of food supplies across 70 products and 27 countries since launching.

💰 Investor lowdown: The funding round was led exclusively by Global Ventures, which joins existing investors Rockstart and Ankurit Capital.

• Maalexi is also a graduate of Abu Dhabi-based Hub71’s second cohort.

🌍 Savings crisis

Despite SME agri-businesses constituting 90% of the global sector, they only control 30% of the $3 trillion global cross-border food trade market!

• The global cross-border food trading market grew at a 6% CAGR from 2018 to 2023, reaching a value of $3 trillion.

None-the-less small sellers and buyers face significant challenges to participate in mainstream international trade, being forced to sit on the sidelines due to complex processes and documentation, high transaction risks and limited or no access to funding.

📉 Reducing risk 

So, who’s going to stand up for the little guy? You guessed it, by leveraging advanced technology and expertise to reduce risks and break down barriers like trust and complexity, Maalexi enables SMEs to trade food and agricultural products internationally.

• The platform offers various risk management tools, including digital contracts, AI-enhanced inspections, and blockchain-authenticated documentation.

The platform connects small sellers with credible buyers for end-to-end transactions, offering transparent data and mitigating cross-border risks through partnerships.

Additionally, it facilitates continuous supply flow for buyers and competitive terms for sellers, and provides a digital dispute resolution process for any issues between parties.

🔮 Flash-forward

With a focus on attracting buyers from the region and engaging sellers from over 50 countries, the startup is aiming to strengthen the food supply chain, improve UAE's food security, and expand across the GCC region.

1. 🇰🇼 Kuwait-based edtech Baims has acquired Egyptian counterpart Orcas, in a deal that will see Baims incorporate Orcas’ personalised tutoring services into its own platform that provides online pre-recorded courses to university and high school students across MENA.

2. 🇯🇴 Jordanian mobile network operator, Umniah, has partnered with Intella to integrate advanced Arabic speech-to-text AI technology into customer service centres, aiming to enhance customer experiences and operational efficiency.

3.  🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia - Tamara has partnered with Paymob to integrate its Buy Now Pay Later service into Paymob's secure payment gateway in the MENA-P region.

4. 🇮🇶 Iraq - Pure Platform, an e-commerce and fintech company that offers a one-stop shop for vendors and customers from Iraq to purchase a wide range of products sold in Turkey, the Gulf, and the USA markets, has secured an operational licence in Iraq.

5. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia - Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have obtained approvals to open their regional headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ahead of the kingdom's January 1 deadline for businesses to establish regional bases.

• The future? 9 more of the bizarre and wonderful things we’ve seen at CES 2024

• Out of this world memes. “Such signal, much wow”: Starlink’s first texts via “cellphone towers in space”

• Invincible. Apple sets new 16,000-foot iPhone drop test after 737 fuselage fail

• Deep connection. Google to help build the first subsea cable directly connecting South America with Asia-Pacific

👋 Message from the team

Thanks for reading! Have a terrific weekend and we’ll see you all again next Friday.

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