isqan.com, an Egypt-based property-listing platform, has raised a six-figure seed funding round from the CEO of EGYGAB HOLDING, Mohamed Gaballah.

Founded four months ago, isqan.com has onboarded more than 50 companies, with property listings reaching over ten thousand. The startup plans to use the funds to hire more talent, invest in its marketing channels and develop its product.

“We are thrilled to be working with engineer Mohamed Gaballah. His investment in isqan.com is a testament to his belief in our team, product and growth strategy,” said Karim Kazem, co-founder of isqan.com.

The startup, according to its briefing, plans to close another financing round towards the final quarter of 2021 to bolster its growth plans.

“We aim to digitise the entire real estate industry in Egypt by providing users with the easiest, fastest and most powerful real estate search experience possible,” said Ali Ezzat, co-founder at isqan.com.

According to Omar Mohamed, the chief technical officer (CTO), tech lead at Isqan.com the investment will also support isqan.com in providing a valuable service and offering real value to its users by guiding them to make their next real estate purchase, helping usher the Egyptian real estate market into the modern age.

“isqan.com is a very unique product to the real estate market, not only that it provides a much-improved user experience and incredibly powerful features, but it is also powered by a very advanced and modern tech stack which enables us to provide these unprecedented offerings to the market,” said Omar Doma.

The startup also aims to close a further funding round in the final quarter of 2021 in order to boost its development plans.

According to Afrikan Heroes, Mohamed Gaballah’s faith in isqan was strengthened by the fact that Isqan.com’s team is a very strong one, with both co-founders of the startup having previous experience in the real estate industry.

As a real estate brokerage owner based in Dubai, Karim Kazem, CEO and Co-Founder of Isqan.com was able to realize the unquestionable importance of how real estate portals contribute to the digital economy. It was not long until he started working towards launching a real estate listing portal in Egypt.

In September 2020, iqan.com raised a six-figure seed round from an undisclosed angel.

Isqan.com is offering in the Egyptian property market, a completely free of charge service, giving end-users three free listings, to help them rent or sell a property. Isqan.com has partnered with a number of market leaders to offer users a wide range of trusted and legitimized options.

“We created Isqan.com to simplify the home buying, selling, and renting process.

Isqan.com is an easy way for today’s clientele to search for commercial and residential properties. We aim to tap in to local and international property markets, ultimately revolutionizing the Middle Eastern digital real estate landscape,” Karim Kazem.

Companies listed on the platform include Egypt Best Properties, New Avenue, Byotat, Insider, B2B, Ultimate Real Estate, Remax, Irtkaz, Era, Daddy Estate Investment, Abrag, Proper Move, among several others.

source: africaincmag

Peer-to-peer vehicle-sharing platform, Ejaro, has raised $850,000 in seed funding. The investment came from angel investors and BIM Ventures.

Mohammed Khashoggi founded Ejaro in 2019. The Saudi platform connects is local vehicle owners with individuals looking to rent cars and other vehicles. According to Khashoggi, the startup aims to tap into the regional car rental market, valued at over $4 billion, adding that the market is set to experience a large potential growth in the post-Covid19 economy.

The car owners make extra money from a car that they may not be using full-time, while renters enjoy the vehicles on the platform which are up to 40 percent cheaper than traditional car rental companies. Renters can search for vehicles by area to find the ones nearby.

All cars on Ejaro have been insured.To further incite owners and renters, the starup has introduced its own peer-to-peer vehicle insurance policy in partnership with Kingdom Brokerage and MedGulf; that is available for both hosts and renters.

Khashoggi said in a statement: “With millions out of jobs and rental companies struggling, our platform empowers owners to earn an additional income from their depreciating assets and share them with the masses. I truly believe that Ejaro will accelerate in the coming weeks.”

Mohamed Amine Merah, Ejaro’s Finance & Strategy Partner and Managing Partner of BIM Ventures, said, “During the downtime [due to Covid-19], we were able to develop and launch a new and improved app, build strategic partnerships, and solidified our internal processes.”

He also said that the startup is planning to expand regionally, starting with UAE in 2021.

The new funds will be used to accelerate the development of additional features on the platform, in order to increase the hosted cars and renters’ bases and to expand the team.

source: wayamedia

Saudi Arabia’s F&B and retail tech startup Foodics has launched Foodics Capital, its micro lending arm.

The company raised a $100m micro loan fund to support Saudi F&B merchants post Covid-19 through Shariah-compliant micro loans.

“With cash flow being a critical pain point for small business owners right now, we wanted to be able to offer them a one stop shop that also covers their finance needs and enables them to accelerate their growth rate,” said Ahmad Al-Zaini, co-founder and CEO.

Abdullah Tahboub, Foodics’ CFO, added: “This fund is set to revolutionise SME lending, as it will enable faster and more flexible lending than most of the lending facilities in the region.

Our application process is indeed straight forward, as all is completed online on our platform, with the initial approval to be granted within as little as 24 hours and final approval in seven days.

Foodics Capital is able to extend loans from $5,000 (SAR18,750), up to $133,000 (SAR500,000) as and when needed by small businesses.”

In order to launch the fund, Foodics Capital partnered with Saudi Arabia-based Maalem Finance.

The first phase will primarily benefit the company’s existing customers, who are pre-qualified, and will then be rolled out more widely across the kingdom before the end of the year.

“A finance offering was always part of our vision, in order to offer a true one stop platform for owners to manage their business. Foodics is indeed very proud to now allow merchants to finance their working capital by giving them access to Shariah-compliant micro loans through Foodics Capital,” the CEO added.

The company has so far serviced over five thousand customers and processed over a billion orders through the Foodics platform, totaling about $200m (SAR750m) monthly in GMV transactions in 2020 and catering to over 10,000 F&B outlets.

Having already established a strong presence in the kingdom and the UAE since its inception in 2014, Foodics entered Egypt last month, whilst also in the process of closing its series B funding round.

source: gulfbusiness

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has given UK blockchain startup Fasset, a first-of-its-kind authorisation to test its digital solutions inside the Kingdom’s regulatory sandbox.

Founded in 2019, the financial technology (fintech) startup is a blockchain-powered marketplace for the ethical financing of sustainable infrastructure. It looks to bridge the sustainable infrastructure funding gap which the World Economic Forum estimates will reach $15 trillion by 2040.

The company offers a tokenisation service for sustainable infrastructure assets and provides an exchange platform where these tokens can be traded.

“As disruptive technologies transform industries around the world, investment in innovation is a key enabler and driver of economic growth. Bahrain’s forward-thinking regulatory approach provides an attractive environment for fintech companies to reap the benefits of our agile economy, availability of the most skilled and diverse workforces and the best value operating costs in the region. We are delighted to welcome Fasset to Bahrain and we look forward to welcoming many more fintech companies,” said Dalal Buhejji, director of business development, financial services at Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).

The company has raised $4.7 million in pre-seed investment from strategic backers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Singapore.

“We thank the Central Bank of Bahrain and Bahrain Economic Development Board for their continued support,” said Aziz Zainuddin, chief product officer at Fasset. “The CBB has fostered a unique and supportive setting for startups in the region to flourish and to build impactful companies of the future.

The CBB granting us this authorisation is proof of the progress the Ethereum developer community has made to earn the trust of regulators worldwide. Moreover, it is testament to the pioneering and pro-innovation spirit of Bahrain, where ideas for tackling the world’s most pressing issues based on even the most cutting edge technologies are given the opportunity to take flight.”

source: wamda

Hikma Venture, the venture arm of Jordan-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals, has participated in Canada-based Seamless MD’s $4 million Series A investment round, led by MEDTEQ. Other investors participating in this round include Anges Québec, AIoT Health, and health IT entrepreneur Sanjay Malaviya.

Founded in 2012, SeamlessMD is a cloud-based digital patient engagement platform that connects patients with care providers to deliver better patient care in an efficient and timely manner. The platform provides patients with digital care plans, while enabling care providers to receive alerts and monitor them remotely.

“We have been incredibly impressed by SeamlessMD’s vision, category-leading clinical evidence, and best-in-class technology platform, and are excited to add them to the diverse portfolio of companies we have invested in that are utilising digital health technology to improve outcomes for patients,” said Hamzeh Abdul-Hadi, principal at Hikma Ventures.

“SeamlessMD has developed a proven model for health systems to improve patient outcomes at scale, and we are thrilled to support SeamlessMD in advancing their mission and expanding into new markets where Hikma operates to improve the quality of care.”

The startup will use the funds to fuel its geographical expansion and develop its digital services.

“Covid19 has accelerated the need for health systems to deliver digital care at scale. Since the pandemic started, we have been rapidly assisting health systems to adapt to the pandemic, including new solutions for COVID-19 digital screening, patient education, and digital pre-surgery monitoring to safely resume surgery,” said Joshua Liu, MD, co-founder and CEO of SeamlessMD. 

“This investment from Hikma Ventures will be critical in enabling us to meet growing customer demand, expand our library of digital care plans and further develop our machine learning platform for risk prediction and optimising patient outcomes. We are ecstatic to be supported by forward thinking, strategic healthcare investors such as Hikma Ventures who share our belief that the future of healthcare is digital,” Liu added.

source: wamda

The Annual Investment Meeting in partnership with their Sustainable Partner, Bedayat by Sustainable City presents the UAE Emirates Startup Roadshow to be held on 17^th and 20^th September, 2020.

Aligning with precautionary measures, smart solutions and a resilient environment, the UAE Emirates Startup Roadshow is all set to cover four emirates: Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah across an agile platform.

Two competitions will be hosted on one day beginning in Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah following with Sharjah and Abu Dhabi respectively. The chosen winners will receive numerous benefits such as access to all the features of Digital AIM 2020 -- a special digital edition of The Annual Investment Meeting, this year.

In addition, the winners from all emirates will also be provided with a virtual exhibition kiosk, a viable chance at potential meeting with investors and access to participating at the AIM Global National Champions League 2020, for a prize of USD 50,000 (USD10,000 per winner)

 
In collaboration with the Annual Investment Meeting’s Sustainable Partner, Bedayat at the Sustainable City, an active initiative has been taken to organize mentoring sessions prior to the pitch competition and provide 4 winners from each emirate a tour at Sustainable City along with a workshop.

Mr. Karim El-Jisr, Chief Sustainability Officer at Diamond Developers and Executive Director for SEE Institute said, “The UAE Emirates Startup Roadshow is a smart initiative that provides the necessary resources for businesses to move to the next stage of growth by encouraging diversification, determination and efficiency.

Our Sustainable Partner, Bedayat at the Sustainable City is going to add an exceptional touch by organizing a mentoring session prior to the competition. This is indeed very special as UAE is the home base for AIM.”

UAE is home to various futuristic, smart and resilient projects, with potential start-ups gaining recognition round the clock.

In 2020, investments in Middle East start-ups are set to exceed $1bn.

In addition, the UAE has accounted for 60% of total funding across the Middle East and North Africa. MENA's startups have seen a steady increase in funding in Q1 2020. $277M was invested in 108 startup investment deals in MENA, an increase of 2% in total funding from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020 as derived from data platforms, MAGNiTT and SME10x.

The Annual Investment Meeting cordially invites all keen investors looking to expand their business portfolio across the emirates to participate in a ground-breaking experience - the UAE Emirates Startup Roadshow.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz Foundation (Misk) has announced the graduation of the 3rd batch of companies from its Misk 500 Startup Accelerator Program.

The 14-week program has been implemented remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The graduation ceremony will also be held remotely on May 11.

The most recent batch of graduates came from 16 companies from countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan.

Sectors represented include physical fitness, employment agencies, and health tech.

source: arabnews

Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and Saudi Telecom Ventures (STV) have co-led an investment in KSA-based Nana, one of Saudi Arabia’s fastest growing technology start up.

Other investors in the round included existing investors Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Watar Partners and Wamda Capital. MEVP had earlier invested in Nana in 2019.

Nana is an online grocery platform that currently serves 14 cities across the Kingdom.

The marketplace platform powers hypermarkets and helps them showcase their inventory to millions of Nana users.

Buyers enjoy the luxury of sitting at home while a shopper prepares the basket and hands it to a delivery man to deliver the order.

The technology allows users to get a constant overview of the progress during the order and nana users love the brand for the flawless experience.

“We have spent the past year and a half to remove the bottlenecks in everyday grocery buying for our users.

There is a long way to go, and with investors such as MEVP and STV, we are confident of being Saudi’s leading consumer app.” said Sami Alhelwah, Founder & CEO of Nana.

“This round will enable us to expand in KSA and outside. It will allow us to focus on further improving our stellar customer experience and develop technology solutions to support our partner's growth and development.” Sami added.

Nana has tripled its turnover during the past year and partnerships with Carrefour, Panda, Spar, Farm Superstores, Manuel and many others has helped Nana offer the widest possible range of consumer packaged goods (CPG) all over Saudi. 

Commenting on the deal, Ankit Sarwahi from MEVP said “Nana keeps ticking all the boxes of a rapidly growing tech start-up.

We are delighted with the dynamism of the Founders and the frantic pace at which the Company is capturing market share.

We stay committed to and aligned with Nana’s mission of moving a substantial chunk of grocery from offline to an online environment and we are excited to see the Company walk into its next phase of expansion on the back of this fund raise.”

For Saudi Telecom Ventures (STV) this is yet another commitment to the Saudi tech ecosystem. Ahmad Alshammari, Principal at STV, added: “Online grocery penetration in Saudi Arabia has the potential to grow 18 times to reach global rates.

The opportunity to transform the second-highest consumer spending bucket is large and significant. We’re very excited to back the vision of Sami and the team at Nana; they have managed to build an intuitive product, a reliable operation, and developed valuable partnerships.

In a very short time span, Nana has emerged as the market leader in Saudi Arabia and is best-positioned to capture the greater MENA market.”

Nana is constantly adding hypermarkets partners as well as boutique food stores to its repertoire. The Company aims to deliver a hundred thousand orders every month to Saudi-based buyers and aims to reach this milestone by the end of 2020.

source: magnitt

The UAE is known to encourage entrepreneurs to unlock the potential that the nation has to offer them in fulfilling their business aspirations.

The recent reforms introduced by the wise leadership of the country to boost confidence among startups also proves that the ecosystem has matured, and is now expanding its reach in the region, with Egypt and Saudi Arabia complementing the growth.

The latest report from Magnitt indicates that the number of investments in Mena-based startups was up 31 per cent in 2019, with 564 investments and $704 million in total funding, up 13 per cent compared to 2018, excluding previous mega-deals in Souq and Careem.

"With exits at an all-time-high, including the Mena region's first unicorn exit, the region's founders, investors, and governments are seeing the returns on their efforts in the tech venture space," said Philip Bahoshy, founder and chief executive, Magnitt.

In 2019, Egypt, for the first time ever, accounted for the largest number of deals in Mena with a jump of 25 per cent, while the UAE accounted for the lion's share of total funding and a surge of 60 per cent.

Egypt is the largest and most promising startup hub of the Mena region. The government has been working very hard to open up opportunities for foreign investments. Rainmaking is working with Egyptian entrepreneurs and local ecosystem players since 2014 and has engaged more than 150 startups, provided support to almost 900 founders, and worked with nearly 70 local partners so far.

So how do Egypt and the UAE complement each other in the startup space? "Egypt provides an extensive pipeline of startups, entrepreneurs and talents, while the UAE offers significant availability of infrastructures and funding. Together, Egypt and the UAE could build an active alliance to drive innovation in the region and export innovation globally from the UAE," said Ahmed El Sherif, managing director at Rainmaking Innovation Egypt.

"We expect a big spurt of funds to support startups over the next three to four years.

In terms of industries, we are recording the greatest interest from local corporations into innovation investments in the fintech, insurtech, tourism, healthcare, industrial sectors, and impact industries."

Similarly, Saudi and the UAE complement each other a lot in the startup space. "The UAE has leapfrogged in innovations, bringing in international investors, and taking away the lead, but Saudi is already catching up," says Taha Sajid, chief technical consultant, Limar Global Tech.

"I have not come across any one business startup, who have started in either of these countries but not have their eyes on the other; Saudi for the investment perspective and the UAE for getting market exposure. It is due to the fact that in order for startups to grow, they need to have a proper ecosystem, have market adoption, get the investment for liquidity, loyal customers, all of these things are possible if you are not only restricted to one jurisdiction. Apart from less travelling distance, they share the same cultural/religious/traditional aspect and even the resources ethnicity, like most people belong to Mena, India, and Pakistan, they understand each other well, which makes them complement each other," added Sajid.

Saudi Arabia will emerge as a popular startup hub in the Mena region; the main reason is the cultural change through the national transformation drive of Vision 2030 and the ease of doing business with the direct involvement of the Saudi government through its proper structure.

"Any startups, whether local or international, if the idea is appealing and suits the local market, will get the proper guidance through different bodies. If there is a fintech startup, regulations have clarity in terms of business activities that need to be regulated or not and how SAMA and CMA are interrelated. Secondly, there is a separate framework for local and international entrepreneurs with the proper step and process flow. All this process is being driven by the Ministry of Commerce and Investment, supported by incubators like Badir and facilitators like Fintech Saudi. On the other hand, if you are an IT startup, there is digital transformation hub driven by the Ministry of communication and IT, so all the bases are covered when it comes to supporting startups," said Sajid.

Innovation remains top of the agenda for many governments from across the region.

According to Magnitt, Hub71 in Abu Dhabi was created to spur innovation in the capital with $250 million in funds to support regional and international startups scale in the region.

Moreover, also Saudi Arabia has seen a shift in policy. Multiple initiatives have eased the ability of startups to enter the country, access education and scale within the Kingdom. Only recently, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced a $1billion Fund of Funds (FoF) to spur venture investments.

Egypt, given its scale and educational system, remains a key hotbed of innovation, with many early- stage companies and founders solving big market issues that are local to them. "Dubai, with a first-mover advantage, continues to assess how best to encourage and foster the startup ecosystem with new legislation and support, including golden visas for founders to help develop its ever-evolving ecosystem," added Bahoshy.
source: menafn

The World Bank Group announced two new initiatives to improve access to start-up financing and e-commerce markets for women entrepreneurs, at the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Summit.

“Starting and growing a business is one of the most powerful tools for women to overcome poverty and build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities,” said David Malpass, World Bank Group President. “Removing regulatory barriers along with obstacles to access to finance and markets can give women-led businesses the opportunity to succeed.”

We-Fi, housed at the World Bank, has so far allocated close to US$250 million to tackle challenges women entrepreneurs face in developing countries. The allocations aim to reach 114,000 women entrepreneurs. We-Fi is a powerful catalyst for additional investment, helping mobilize more than US$2.6 billion in additional public and private sector funds.

At the We-Fi MENA Regional Summit, held during the Global Women’s Forum Dubai 2020, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and We-Fi launched the ScaleX program to incentivize accelerators to support start-up businesses led by women. IFC research shows that women entrepreneurs in emerging markets face a daunting gender finance gap with only 11% of enterprises that actually attain seed funding being female-led.  New research shows that despite women leading half the start-ups that participate in accelerators—entities designed to train and support the development of start-ups to become investment ready—they continue to face greatly unequal access to capital.

The program will incentivize emerging markets accelerators to work with women-led businesses by providing performance-based payments of US$25,000 for every woman entrepreneur that raises US$1 million from investors in start-up funding. 

"We are launching the ScaleX program to help women entrepreneurs in emerging markets to access funding at a crucial stage to grow their businesses,” said Sérgio Pimenta, IFC Regional Vice President for the Middle East and Africa. “This is a win-win for accelerators, investors, and women entrepreneurs.”

The World Bank and UPS also announced today a new partnership to help women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa region to grow their businesses by assisting them in successfully leveraging e-commerce platforms.

“By making e-commerce platforms more accessible, this partnership addresses a key constraint faced by women business leaders in reaching new markets,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank MENA Vice President. “E-commerce platforms create opportunities, and we must ensure these opportunities are open to women-owned businesses across the region.”

UPS will provide e-learning modules on different e-commerce topics to help women-owned and women-led small and medium enterprises seeking to expand their businesses across borders.

The project will support an estimated 750 women entrepreneurs and will train a cadre of e-commerce advisors in each country who can provide tailored assistance and coaching to businesses. The partnership will work with entrepreneurs in Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia.

We-Fi has made allocations to programs being implemented by the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank.

the Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank Group. The World Bank and IFC We-Fi programs (US$75 million in allocations) are working with private and public partners in 24 countries via 27 investment and advisory projects to enable women entrepreneurs to access finance and markets and amplify those efforts with global research, partnerships, and policy advocacy.

The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is a groundbreaking partnership that aims to unlock financing for women-led businesses in developing countries.

We-Fi’s partners include 14 donor governments, six multilateral development banks as implementing partners, and numerous other stakeholders in the public and private sector around the world.

We-Fi takes an ecosystem approach to removing barriers to women’s economic empowerment, addressing constraints and opportunities related to finance, market access, capacity and the enabling environment.

source: worldbank