MENA’s Digital News, Week #37

A weekly round up of the top headlines from the digital sector in MENA, covering startups, corporate and the public sector.

Investments (Local and Global)

Eksab, Cairo’s Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) platform, announced a “six-figure seed investment” from 500 Startups http://bit.ly/2FdZ4DP 

Urent, P2P care rental platform, raised undisclosed funding from Seed Group, The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, and will launch in Dubai this month. The startup has acquired RTA approval http://bit.ly/2XhEVH6 

Averos, Saudi tracking startup, Pre-Series A funding round from Saudi Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures (amount undisclosed) http://bit.ly/2ZsKTlO 

Zbooni, Dubai social commerce startup, raises $1.1M led by the Chalhoub Group and B&Y Venture Partners http://bit.ly/2WSdfsU

Swvl, Egypt’s mass transit startup, raises $42M from Vostok, BECO Capital, MSA and Endeavor Catalyst https://bloom.bg/2WVzwRE

Venturesouq joins $6M series A round, lead by Impulse VC, into GuestReady, UK based platform for real estate management http://bit.ly/2KrVt95

Arzooo, Indian retail tech startup, raises $1M in pre-series A lead by Jabbar Internet Group http://bit.ly/31D12a4 

Gympass, Brazilian fitness classes subscription service, raises $300M from Softbank Vision Fund and SoftBank Latin America Fund https://prn.to/2FoCtVd

Collective Health, US, raises $105M in funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund http://bit.ly/2FsM5OL

1 Acquisition

Mubawab, Morocco’s real-estate portal, acquire’s Jumia House operations in Morocco, Tunisia & Algeria (Mubawab owned by Dubai’s EPMG) http://bit.ly/2ZvA82b 

Sector News

World Bank grants $175M (two loans) to Tunisia, $100M for “digital transformation inside the Tunisian administration” and $75M “projects of emerging projects and SMEs” http://bit.ly/2MUNGCP

All mention of this article + posts suddenly disappeared, but we’re keeping it here for reference that they tried. > > Noon launches free delivery starting today across the UAE with no minimum spend (this is on the heels of Amazon launching Prime in the UAE last week) http://bit.ly/2IVmnTB

Microsoft to launch two new data centers in the UAE http://bit.ly/2XmyCBX

Long Reads

Report: Artificial Intelligence in Saudi Arabia, Report by Microsoft and EY (AR) http://bit.ly/2KrDobp

Further Readings

Etisalat to invest ~$1.2B for network upgrades in 2019 http://bit.ly/2x4oE9P

Emirates Investment Authority (sovereign) bought $630M stake into Du Holding (Telecom) from Mamoura Diversified Global Holding (previously Mubadala Development Co) and General Investments. The Emirates Investment Authority held 39.9% of Du, while Mamoura owned 19.92% https://bloom.bg/2FdDora 

Moroccan Govt looks to sell a further 8% of its shares in Maroc Telecom, cutting down its ownership from 30% to 22%. The sales comes as part of increased privatization move. (AR) http://bit.ly/31BD3s0

DAAL Investments, Saudi, signs MoU with Azerbijan’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies http://bit.ly/2wUvCOj

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MENA’s Digital News, Week #36

A weekly round up of the top headlines from the digital sector in MENA, covering startups, corporate and the public sector.

Hope you’re re-energized post Eid and back in full gear, also staying safe from the heat! A few of the email subscribers have mentioned that the auto-emails are arriving in a less than enticing manner, so bare with me this week and we’ll hopefully fix that for the next week 😉

It’s a long one. Go!

Investments & Acquisitions

The Stories Studio, Bahrain social gaming startup, has raised follow on funding from an Angel investor post graduation from Flat6Labs Bahrain http://bit.ly/2Zdw9ab 

Foloosi, UAE-based fintech startup, raises undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from angel investor http://bit.ly/2WyTUYV 

Orcas, Cairo-based online marketplace for babysitters & tutors, raises $500k in pre-series A from Khaled Ismail, Kamelizer, and Cairo Angels http://bit.ly/2XAzoIu

Maroc Numeric Fund, Moroccan Government fund, announces its exit from Ma-Navette.com to Glen Invest (FR) http://bit.ly/2XLuAAe

Tenderd, Dubai-based heavy equipment rental marketplace, raises $5.8M sees round lead by Y Combinator and BECO Capital, and also includes Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, VentureSouq, SOMA, Dynamo, and Global Founders Capital http://bit.ly/2WvtMxN 

Wadi.com app gets absorbed by Carrefour Saudi. Wadi was acquired by MAF earlier in May after it had pivoted to groceries delivery only in March. The shift to groceries may have been influenced by MAF as they had invested in Wadi during October 2018 http://bit.ly/2W2p8XT

Ivi, Russian VOD service, raises $40M lead by Mubadala and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) http://bit.ly/2QZA3Rl

FreshToHome, India’s fresh produce delivery startup, raises $11M in series A lead by CE Ventures, joined by Das Capital, Kortschak Investments, TTCER Partners, Al-Nasser Holdings, Abdul Azeez Al-Ghurair and M&S Partners http://bit.ly/2WsboWM 

Sector News

BeyondCapital raised $450K from Mercy Corps to invest in a pool of early-stage companies in Jordan http://bit.ly/2K0gTKs

Amazon Prime now available in the UAE for $4 http://bit.ly/2WquMmR 

Trolley, Kuwaiti e-grocery startup, partners with Jazeera airways, Kuwait’s low-cost carrier, to provide on-board convenience store http://bit.ly/2QQ1wEU

Swvl, Egypt shuttle service, expands to Nigeria and to launch in Lagos (they had launched in Kenya in January) http://bit.ly/2F1RHiz 

Oliv, Dubai-based career platform, announces expansion into Singapore http://bit.ly/2EYnEbs

Careem expands services to Basra, Iraq http://bit.ly/2Wuis5e 

XtreeE and Concreative, French concrete 3D printing companies, to set up 3D solutions production unit in UAE http://bit.ly/2WC7hwf 

Arabian Bourse (ABX), UAE crypto asset exchange and custodian, has received initial regulatory approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) http://bit.ly/2WHQ58G

Mastercard Partners with Bahrain FinTech Bay http://bit.ly/2wGquxs 

Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is working on a draft law for crypto-related activities which will oblige financial institutions to obtain licenses creating, advertising or operating platforms that issue or facilitate trading of cryptocurrencies http://bit.ly/2Wz7Q9R

Long Reads

NUMBER AND VALUE OF INVESTMENTS BY YEAR

ArabNet’s State of Digital Investments in MENA 2013-2018 Report http://bit.ly/2WFn3qc

Further Readings (Non-tech news that should be on your radar)

GEMS Education buys Saudi school group Ma’arif, through a joint venture with Hassana Investment http://bit.ly/2XgpdZv (GEMS schools network grew substantially over the past two years in the UAE and are known among tech circles for continuously engaging with coding and entrepreneurship ecosystems) 

Egyptian Ministry of Public Works announced a plan to merge three public land #transport government companies into one entity and offer it as an opportunity for foreign investment (the system transports 1.4B passengers a year) http://bit.ly/2wNq7Rv 

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) and SEERA (previously Al Tayyar Travel Group) signed a strategic partnership agreement to strengthen travel demand from Saudi to Dubai http://bit.ly/2MEVSHr

Network International stocks now listed on FSE 250 Index raising over $1B since IPO http://bit.ly/2WGAPIX

Dubai Islamic Bank to acquire Noor Bank http://bit.ly/2WC4gM9

Dubai issues “new insolvency law for companies operating in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)” http://bit.ly/2IDLqe3

To get your daily dose subscribe to MENA’s Digital News telegram channel here: https://t.me/technologyinmena

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Or you on whatsapp (admin posting only) right here

MENA’s Digital News, Week #35

A weekly round up of the top headlines from the digital sector in MENA, covering startups, corporate and the public sector.

Today’s round up is super short. I guess the region is ready for a good Eid break, may it be a blessed one for you and your loved ones!

Investments & Acquisitions

Mintrics, Egypt online video analytics, closing $500k investment round http://bit.ly/2WzMNTM

Trukkin, shippers and truckers marketplace, raises $3.5M from family groups: Al-Namlah Family Group, the Al-Madi Family Group, and the Abanumay Family Group http://bit.ly/30JGFYx 

Mawdoo3.com closed it’s series B round of $23.5M, and announced plans to launch Arabic Q&A platform http://bit.ly/2WpmU99 

Data Gumbo, US Based blockchain startup, raises $6M co-led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Equinor Technology Ventures http://bit.ly/2WrNFKp 

Careem acquires UAE-based bike-sharing startup Cyacle http://bit.ly/2W7evrL

Sector News

Swvl, Egypt’s on-demand minibus, partners with Ford “as preferred vehicle of choice” http://bit.ly/2W3GLeS

Vapulus, Egypt, launches payment gateway with 0% fees (important since the payment gateways in the region are still expensive and none competitive) http://bit.ly/2MeVxLl

Dubai Land Department (DLD) has signed a license agreement with Mashreq Bank for the development of a blockchain powered e-mortgage system http://bit.ly/2XoSLV3 

UAE-Jordan partnership in “government modernization”, initiated by the ‘One Million Jordanian Coders’ partnership http://bit.ly/2JNoj3y 

Hub71, Abu Dhabi, to host Techstars and Starburst accelerators http://bit.ly/2wlDDvC

Long Reads

The Who’s Who in Jordan’s Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Directory http://bit.ly/2MkWMIR

To get your daily dose subscribe to MENA’s Digital News telegram channel here: https://t.me/technologyinmena

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