Wize, a UAE-based logistics startup, has successfully raised $16 million in a pre-Seed funding round led by angel investors. This significant investment will fuel the growth and development of Wize's eco-friendly last-mile transportation solutions in the region.

Revolutionizing Last-Mile Delivery with Sustainable Solutions

Founded in 2022 by Alexander Lemzakov, Wize is dedicated to providing sustainable last-mile delivery solutions. The startup offers two core services: a marketplace for electric motorcycles and a subscription platform for businesses to manage their own fleets. Additionally, Wize provides battery-as-a-service and swapping stations, along with a Battery Swap App that allows drivers to reserve batteries in advance and stay informed about charge levels.

Funding for Expansion and Partnership Opportunities

The newly secured funds will be allocated towards product development, strengthening Wize's presence in the UAE market, and exploring new partnership opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa. Wize aims to enhance its offerings and expand its reach, ensuring that more businesses can benefit from their comprehensive ecosystem of sustainable delivery solutions.

A Comprehensive Ecosystem for Sustainable Delivery

Unlike its competitors, Wize has developed a comprehensive ecosystem that aligns with the UAE's net-zero requirements and the UAE Green Agenda. The startup's services include electric motorcycles tailored to meet courier transport regulations, a rental and subscription platform for business owners to manage their fleets, battery-swapping stations, and software components for efficient battery management.

Wize's subscription-based electric motorcycles not only contribute to environmental sustainability but also help businesses reduce transportation costs by up to 30% per month. The Wize Rental and Subscription Online Platform enables clients to manage their fleets 24/7, gathering valuable data on driver behavior, location, speed, and charge levels. Additionally, Wize's battery-swapping stations, known as Wize Power, provide drivers with a convenient way to exchange batteries, ensuring uninterrupted delivery operations.

With a focus on software, Wize has developed its own platform to manage battery swapping stations and monitor the condition of all batteries. This software is fully compliant with local laws, and all data is stored within the UAE, ensuring data security and compliance.

Wize is actively pursuing partnerships with renowned delivery companies in the region. The startup has already established a long-term partnership with Motoboy, the UAE's first sustainable logistics firm, with the shared goal of achieving zero-carbon emissions through the exclusive use of electric bikes. By collaborating with industry leaders, Wize aims to drive real change towards a more sustainable last-mile delivery ecosystem.

In conclusion, Wize's successful $16 million pre-Seed funding round marks a significant milestone for the UAE-based startup. With a focus on sustainability and innovation, Wize is poised to revolutionize last-mile delivery in the region. The investment will support the company's expansion, product development, and exploration of new partnership opportunities, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and efficient delivery landscape in the UAE and beyond.

• UAE-based fintech myZoi has raised $14 million from SC Ventures and SBI Holdings.
• Founded in 2022 by Christian Buchholz and Syed Muhammad Ali, myZoi is a fintech focused on financial inclusion and financial literacy for the underbanked. It recently obtained two regulatory licences from the Central Bank of the UAE.
• myZoi aims to use the funds to expand its presence in the UAE.

Press release:

myZoi, an innovative fintech focused on financial inclusion and financial literacy for the underbanked, has raised $14 million from SC Ventures and SBI Holdings, as it obtains two regulatory licenses from the Central Bank of the UAE. These achievements mark a significant milestone in myZoi’s mission to enable, digitise and simplify access to essential financial services for over 5 million low-income migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and beyond.

“At the heart of myZoi lies the transformative potential of fintech to innovate with solutions that foster financial inclusion. myZoi will strive towards reducing the transaction cost of migrant remittances to less than 3%, in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (10c), while providing corporates a digitised, safe and efficient way to process payroll,” said Syed Muhammad Ali, Co-Founder and CEO of myZoi. “As a tech-led, digital-native company, our drive is to make a meaningful difference not just in the lives of the underbanked, but their lifeline, which is their support network of families as well.” 

Headquartered in the UAE, myZoi brings global financial expertise and high standards of compliance. myZoi has secured two licenses from the Central Bank of the UAE: the Stored Value Facilities (SVF) and the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) Category II. The licenses enable myZoi to empower the underbanked and support their essential transactional needs through a single platform.

The concept was originally developed by the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Christian Buchholz, and incubated under SC Ventures. Buchholz, who led SC Ventures’ design and innovation initiatives across multiple geographies over the last five years, spent extensive time within the communities myZoi will benefit the most. He was deeply inspired by their commitment to remitting up to 80%2  of their income home, leaving little for personal use. The offering, aptly named myZoi, where Zoi means 'life' in Greek, extends beyond the underbanked in the UAE and seeks to also positively impact the families back home. 

“There are over 1.4 billion unbanked individuals globally. At SC Ventures, we invest in innovative business models like myZoi so we can better serve the communities we operate in. We believe that fintech innovations such as myZoi are emerging as the catalyst for change. They are building an ecosystem that delivers simple yet meaningful solutions to low-income migrant workers while offering a commercially viable and socially impactful proposition,” said Gautam Jain, Member, SC Ventures.

myZoi aims to use the funds raised to expand its inclusive and differentiated proposition for the underbanked and their families. myZoi places equal commitment to financial inclusion and financial literacy. myZoi is preparing for its full commercial launch by the end of 2023. 

“We wholeheartedly believe in myZoi’s vision to enable financial inclusion and secure an equitable future for every individual, regardless of their background or social status. Therefore, we are happy to invest in this impactful fintech. Our partnership with myZoi goes beyond mere financial investment and extends to support a more empowered future for all,” said Yoshitaka Kitao, SBI Holdilngs, Inc. Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO.

Source: Wamda

Thrift for Good wins $50,000 grant from She’s Next UAE-based charity platform Thrift for Good has won a $50,000 grant from She’s Next programme, organised by Visa and First Bank of Abu Dhabi (FAB).

Founded in 2020 by Jennifer Sault, Thrift for Good is a charity shop that rehomes preloved clothes and items to raise funds for children’s charities around the world.

Sault has also won one year of business coaching from ITC SheTrades as well as $3,000 of AWS credits and a 1:1 deep dive consultation to help jump-start the winner’s cloud journey on AWS.

The Founder of The Bookshelf startup Nada Alawadhi was granted the $10,000 People’s Favourite award.

Press release:

Visa (NYSE: V), the world's leader in digital payments, together with First Abu Dhabi Bank today announced Jennifer Sault, the Founder of Thrift for Good, a charity shop in Dubai that rehomes preloved clothes and items to raise funds for children’s charities around the world, as the much-anticipated winner of its second She's Next grant programme for UAE. The winner was selected at an award ceremony held at the Museum of the Future in Dubai.

Handpicked from a pool of over 880 applicants from across the GCC, the winning woman-owned small business received a $50,000 grant along with a year of business coaching from the International Trade Centre (ITC), a United Nations and World Trade Organisation, and $3.000 of Amazon Web Services credits.

The business coaching will be provided by the ITC SheTrades Initiative, ITC’s flagship women and trade programme. The winner was selected from a pool of applicants representing a range of sectors including but not limited to textiles, education, food and beverage, professional services, beauty and wellness.

A jury evaluated entries based on the following criteria: the progression of applicant’s entrepreneurial journey; robustness of their business metrics; digital presence; and demonstrated ability to problem-solve confidently.

The members of the jury included: Shaikha Ali AlNaqbi, Head of Contracting Segment – Corporate Banking, First Abu Dhabi Bank; Khuloud Al Omian, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Middle East; Carl Manlan, VP, Inclusion Impact & Sustainability, Visa, CEMEA; Houda Buhumaid, Chief Impact Officer, Dubai Holding; Wendy Paratian, Programme Officer, She Trades; and Hadi Aloh, Head of Sales, Commercial Segment, UAE, AWS.

For the first time, She’s Next included a People’s Favourite award, voted for online by members of the general public. This award with a cash prize of $10,000 went to Nada Alawadhi, the Founder of The Bookshelf, a bilingual book subscription for kids.

Further highlighting the increasing focus on sustainability in today’s local business landscape, most of the She’s Next applicants showcased sustainable business practices. In fact, based on the SMB Digitisation Index commissioned by Visa to support the She’s Next programme, all the women entrepreneurs surveyed in the GCC (100%) acknowledged the increasing importance of sustainability in the current business landscape, indicating their commitment to reduce waste, recycle products (45%), and minimise plastic usage (51%).

Through their participation in the She's Next programme, these women entrepreneurs have already gained access to practical insights from women leaders, valuable tools, educational resources, and facilitated training. This includes access to AWS Connected Community and ITC SheTrades Initiative's "Elevate Your Business" training programme.

Visa and ITC will also provide one-to-one advisory support for 30 finalists – equipping these individuals with the guidance and insights to boost their business and financial strategies.

"In a world where women-owned small businesses consistently demonstrate their resilience and future-forward optimism, Visa is proud to acknowledge and support these trailblazing female entrepreneurs in UAE.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations once again to the winners of She’s Next in UAE and look forward to supporting them in their business journey," said Dr. Saeeda Jaffar, Visa’s SVP and Group Country Manager for GCC.

Sara Al Binali, Group Head of Corporate, Commercial, and International Banking at FAB, said: “The She's Next winners exemplify the strength and depth of women-owned businesses in the UAE.

FAB is proud to be part of a programme that is proving to be so effective at empowering and elevating women entrepreneurs in their journey to success. As we celebrate these exceptional winners, we eagerly anticipate their businesses reaching new heights and making a lasting impact on the UAE's entrepreneurial landscape.”

Source: By Nesma Abdel Azim- Wamda

Nesma Abdel Azim

UAE-based HRtech startup alfii has raised a pre-Seed funding round of $2.5 million, led by US-based venture capital firm, Preface Ventures, Kayan Ventures, UAE-based Aditum Ventures and Wayfinders, along with a collection of local and regional angel investors.

Founded in 2022 by Yousef Albarqawi, Becky Jefferies and Dina Mohammad-Laity, alfii aims to help growing businesses manage their HR workload and reduce time-consuming administrative work.

The recent funding round will support alfii’s plans to expand its team and continue building out its fintech-powered HR automation platform.

Press release:

Dubai-based tech startup alfii announces pre-seed funding of $2.5 million to expand its team and continue building out its fintech-powered HR automation platform. The round was led by Preface Ventures, a U.S.-based venture capital firm that focuses on infrastructure enterprise companies. Kayan Ventures, UAE-based Aditum Ventures and Wayfinders, along with a collection of local and regional angel investors also participated in the round.

Launched in Dubai in November 2022 by Yousef Albarqawi, Becky Jefferies and Dina Mohammad-Laity, alfii was created to help growing businesses manage their HR workload and break free from time-consuming administrative work—ultimately helping them create and deliver a better employee experience.

With sights set on creating the region’s most robust and comprehensive solution for HR and payroll, the team will use the funding to continue developing and enhancing its fintech-powered software platform.

The near-term focus is continuing to build out an innovative suite of payroll features that provide clients with smarter, faster ways to manage payroll and salary disbursements, drastically simplifying a process that is typically tedious and time-consuming for HR owners.

The startup will also invest heavily in engineering and product talent, building out a best-in-class team as it looks to expand the product feature set and optimize the user experience. With a strong focus on product-led growth, alfii will gradually roll out a pipeline of new features to address more core HR processes—like onboarding, time tracking, time off and leave management, and much more—ultimately covering the full employee lifecycle.‍

“We’re looking to build the next generation of this product class, and we’re building it entirely in-house—which means we need to bring on world-class talent to grow our business and better serve our customers,” said Yousef Albarqawi, alfii’s CEO and Co-founder.

Alfii’s progression is part of a bigger trend in the SaaS world towards adapting tools originally available to enterprises and making them accessible and suitable for small- to medium-sized businesses and startups. Yet when it comes to HR software in particular, many pain points have yet to be solved by existing solutions in the MENA region. ‍

“Data interoperability is an industry-wide challenge in the HR stack, but in developing regions like MENA, those challenges are further exacerbated by local and regulatory infrastructure,” said Farooq Abbasi, General Partner of Preface Ventures.

“With alfii's all-in-one software suite, companies will be able to better understand and manage their human capital resources while improving the user experience for employees with features like digital-to-cash remittances, benefits selection, and more. We’re thrilled to invest in a solution built by successful, mission-driven tech alumni.”

HR systems are more relevant and crucial than ever in the wake of major shifts in workforce dynamics, and that especially goes for growing teams with limited HR resources. Meanwhile, the MENA region is at an inflection point in terms of digitizing and automating business processes. "To date, many HR pain points have yet to be solved by existing solutions.

Based on feedback from some of alfii's early customers, it's clear that this platform is effectively addressing those pain points—and doing so with an easy-to-use interface in a wildly scalable format," said Yousef Nassar, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Kayan Ventures. “We are thrilled to be supporting the all-star team at alfii through this funding round.”

source: Wamda