Happy Friday! It’s been a whirlwind week for the Shorooq Partners comms team, with three deals announced in just the past few days — hopefully, they’re winding down for a well-deserved break over the weekend 🫡

When a major pre-Seed round drops, we’re all ears, and this week, Mala takes centre stage. Founded earlier this year by Musaab Hakami, former GP at VentureSouq’s fintech fund and one of the region’s most prolific angel investors (100+ investments, including Nearpay and Sarwa), raising $7 million with participation from eight investors is no small feat. Mala is definitely one we’ll be watching very closely.

Enjoy this week’s edition 👇

This week’s round-up is a 6 min read:

• 🇪🇬 Sawari Ventures plans new $200m fund to back Egyptian startups

• 🏠 Dubai proptech Prypco raises $10m Seed to scale its operations

• 💰 Saudi’s Mala raises $7 million pre-seed for its B2B buy now pay later platform

• 👗 UAE’s Best Kept Shared acquires Bazaara to expand P2P fashion rental marketplace

• 🔈 Catch-up on Episode 15 of the VC React Podcast

🚀 Startup funding round-up

Prypco (🇦🇪 UAE), a proptech that simplifies the real estate journey by facilitating mortgages, golden visas, investor visas and more, has raised $10 million in a Seed funding, led by Shorooq Partners, with participation from Apparel Group and other investors.

invygo (🇸🇦 KSA), a car subscription platform offering a "Subscribe to Own" model, has raised an $8 million Series A extension provided by STV’s newly launched NICE Fund, as well as existing investors including Al Rajhi Partners, Arab Bank Ventures, SPV, MEVP, and C5.

Mala (🇸🇦 KSA), a fintech providing SMEs with procure-now-pay-later solutions, has closed a $7 million pre-Seed round, led by VentureSouq and Shorooq Partners, as well as M Capital, BECO Capital, Access Bridge Ventures, Waad Investment, Palm Ventures, and Silicon Valley-based fund D Global Ventures.

Colis.ma (🇲🇦 Morocco), a cross-border logistics startup connecting African individuals and SMEs with Europe, has closed a $300k pre-Seed round led by Witamax.

VC

💸 Sawari Ventures plans new $200m fund to back Egyptian startups

🇪🇬 Egypt-based VC firm Sawari Ventures is preparing to launch its second fund, “Sawari Ventures II,” in early 2025, with a target of raising $200 million.

• Of the total $200 million, approximately 70%, or $140 million, will be allocated to Egyptian startups over the next four to five years.

• The firm will focus most of the fund on startups in their Series A and B stages, with a portion reserved for seed-stage investments.

💰 Investor low-down: Founded in 2010 by Ahmed Alfi, Hany Al Sonbaty, and Wael Amin, Sawari Ventures currently manages a $69 million Egypt-focused fund it closed in 2021, and another $71 million fund that is focused on North Africa.

⚙️ Breaking it down

The firm has directly backed over 30 companies, including Swvl, MoneyFellows and Instabug.

• Roughly 35% of its portfolio is dedicated to fintech, with a focus on digitising Egypt's economy and enhancing financial inclusivity.

Flat6Labs, a leading accelerator in MENA, was also founded by Sawari Ventures in 2011.

It has supported over 500 startups across the region through various Flat6Labs accelerators.

🔮 Flashforward

The new fund will consist of two components — an Egypt-focused fund to mobilise local capital and an international fund targeting foreign investors and development finance institutions to support startups across Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya, and West Africa,

The new fund will focus on sustainable growth in Egypt in sectors like fintech, edtech, healthtech, cleantech, and deeptech.

💰 VC round-up

🇯🇴🇸🇦 Riyadh-based RUA Growth Fund I LP has received a $5 million investment from Jordan’s ISSF (Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund) to support local startups. Managing Partner Turki Aljoaib highlighted that the fund targets sectors such as marketplaces, fintech, enterprise solutions, and SaaS. The investment strengthens RUA’s strategy of investing in early-stage and growth-stage companies, and will look to further bridge opportunities between Jordan and Saudi Arabia. This marks ISSF’s sixth investment this year, following backing for MSA Novo’s MENA Fund, Propeller Ventures II, and Global Ventures' Fund III.

💰 Global investments roundup

🇵🇰 Colabs, a Pakistani workspace platform, has raised $2 million in pre-Series A funding led by Shorooq Partners, with Waad Investment also participating. This brings the company’s total funding to over $5 million. Colabs plans to use the funds to expand into Saudi Arabia, where it has already completed its registration. Founded in 2019 by Omar and Ali Shah, Colabs operates 10 locations with 5,000+ seats, serving clients like EY, Coca-Cola, and Endeavour. The company has also partnered with the Pakistan Air Force to support tech companies in the aerospace sector.

🇬🇧 Salica Investments’ Oryx Fund has invested in Neuphonic’s $3M pre-seed round, alongside Moonfire, Tiny VC, and Cur8 Capital. Neuphonic is building a ultra low latency text-to-speech system to create the most natural, responsive conversations with AI possible. The investment will support Neuphonic’s expansion into the GCC, where its technology will address the region’s diverse linguistic needs. The startup was founded by Sohaib A. and Jiameng Gao, earlier this year.

 🤝 Acquisitions round-up

👗 Dubai-based fashion startup Best Kept Shared, which runs the UAE’s leading peer-to-peer designer rental marketplace, has acquired fashion resale platform Bazaara. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Founded by Kelly Power and Sophie Kjøller in 2023, Best Kept Shared aims to become the "Airbnb of luxury fashion." Bazaara, founded by Alyssa Mariano in 2021, previously raised $230k in a pre-seed round led by Flat6Labs UAE. The acquisition will transfer Bazaara's 40,000 users to Best Kept Shared, expanding its user base and inventory. Mariano will join Best Kept Shared as an advisor.

 🤖 AI round-up

🌍 Google for Startups has selected 15 startups from the MENAT for its AI First accelerator program. These startups are using AI to address challenges in sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and sustainability. The program will provide them with technical training and mentorship to help them grow. Notable participants include Lucidya, an AI-powered platform for customer experience management, Biliki.AI, which offers AI-driven green travel recommendations, and Smart Bricks, developing an AI co-pilot for real estate purchases. Other startups like FortyGuard and VAIS focus on urban cooling and climate resilience in farming.

⌨️ Tech round-up

🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi-based G42 has expanded its US computing capacity to four times that of its UAE operations, overcoming challenges with Nvidia’s H100 chips due to US export restrictions. In 2021, G42 acquired a 1% stake in California chipmaker Cerebras for $40 million, valuing the company at $4 billion. Since then, G42 has become a major customer, accounting for 83% of Cerebras' 2023 revenue and 87% in the first half of 2024.

🇦🇪 HRH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has launched Ignyte, a digital platform aimed at accelerating the growth of 100,000 startups. Curated by DIFC, it connects entrepreneurs with 5,000 investors, mentors, and corporate partners, aligning with Dubai’s Digital Economy Strategy. Ignyte focuses on AI, Web3, and fintech, offering perks and opportunities for startups across free zones, reinforcing Dubai’s role as a global hub for entrepreneurship.

💰 VC React Podcast: Episode 15

🎧 In this week's episode, we delved into strategies for deploying large seed funds in the MENA region, sparked by SVC's $15M investment into Vision Ventures' Saqr Fund II, targeting $90M for early-stage startups. We also discussed gaps in the MENA ecosystem and how regional funds of funds can help.

Next, we highlighted Ejari's $14.65M seed round led by PFG and BECO Capital, focusing on their "rent now, pay later" solution in Saudi Arabia and the rise of BNPL solutions.

Lastly, we covered OCTA's $2.25M pre-seed round, featuring insights from Asher Siddiqui of Sukna Ventures.

📰 Recommended Reads

• Tambi Jalouqa. Building a startup in the Middle East

• STV. AI AGENTS: A REGIONAL OPPORTUNITY WITH GLOBAL POTENTIAL

• Ahmad Takatkah. Beyond the Obvious: How Data Can Generate Pre-Seed Deal Flow Without Venture Studios or Accelerators