Last year brought some great opportunities to startups in MENA, where emerging businesses from the region raised $475 million in funding, according to a new report by startups and technology website MENAbytes.
The report analyzed a total of 134 funding deals involving 123 companies across 12 countries. A significant proportion of the investment poured into the region —$275 million to be precise— went to Careem and Starz Play.
According to Zubair Naeem Paracha, Founder of MENAbytes, 2017 was a huge success for the startup ecosystem in the MENA region: “We saw Amazon completing its acquisition of eCommerce firm Souq, Kuwait’s Carriage getting acquired by DeliveryHero, Emaar buying 51 percent of Namshi, and the launch of big funds like STV, MEVP’s MEVF III, Crescent Ventures, and many new early-stage VCs making their first investments.”
The report also shed light on “visible trends” of eCommerce platforms which target the B2B sector and get more attention from the investors, for example, startups like Floranow, OfficeRock, and WaystoCap.
Amongst the most notable funders in the region were 500 Startups with nine deals closed, MEVP with seven, Beco Capital with seven, and Raed Ventures, Wamda Capital and Phoenician Funds all closing six deals each.
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