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

Investments & Acquisitions

Dubai’s VVIP raises $2.5M from blockchain investment firm Pecunio to launch a blockchain powered social network https://goo.gl/3Dk6Eb

Gamiphy, gamification platform, raises investment from Ibtikar Fund https://goo.gl/WnQ8mJ (no numbers disclosed)

Buseet, Cairo based shuttle service, raises investment from Cairo Angels & 500 Startups https://goo.gl/wg6s1q (no numbers disclosed)

YallaPlay, game developers, raises investment round from IM Capital and Berytech https://goo.gl/8uzvjg

Trukker raises $2.7M led by OTF Jasoor Ventures and Shorooq Investments https://goo.gl/GBnVcB

Q8Car’s 4Sale app sells 56% of shares at $100M. News via twitter, no further details available yet https://goo.gl/E1X32P

Repzo, Jordanian CRM platform, raises seed funding from Jabbar Internet Group & Oasis Creative Industries https://goo.gl/dXDJDu

Careem acquires Commut, Indian bus-shuttle service. https://goo.gl/b84BKr 

Sector News

Sawari Ventures to launch a $55M VC growth fund (not fintech fund like the article mentions, this was clarified by Ahmed Alfi on social media) https://goo.gl/z1Qngx

Dubai’s Department of Finance and Smart Dubai launch a “Payment Reconciliation and Settlement” system to process payments in public entities with DEWA & KHDA already onboard with over 5M transactions processed https://goo.gl/rg5ztZ

Kuwait’s Electricity Ministry partners with SAP & Zain Telecom to instal smart meters https://goo.gl/aiBTNP

Further Readings

SoftBank plans on raising funds at the scale of the Softbank Vision Fund (~$100B) every 2-3years and to deploy $50B in investments annually https://goo.gl/pCZMsy

The ICAEW Economic Insight on Africa Q3’18 report shows promising growth in Egypt, Libya and Morocco https://goo.gl/74AFBZ

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