Bahrain-Based Malaeb Raises Seed Funding
By Sindhu Hariharan / Entrepreneur Middle East - Image Credit : Malaeb
SOURCE : Entrepreneur Middle East - Bahrain-Based Football Community App Malaeb Raises Seed Funding
Are you a football fan and love to play a quality game ? You do but can't make a team or don't have enough player ? here’s help at hand. Bahrain-based Malaeb app, an app that helps you find and book fields and also join matches in your area, is keen to solve challenges the region's football enthusiasts face. Positioning itself as sort of an Airbnb for sporting venues, the app enables users to search for and book venues/stadiums near their location, create teams, challenge other users, and more. While the app only deals with football currently, they may consider adding other sports fields soon.
In its endeavor to promote football (and other sports) in the region, Malaeb has got a shot in its arm recently, raising an undisclosed amount of seed funds from investors including Raed Ventures, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Inspire Ventures, and other angels. This is Malaeb’s second external fundraising round after a small pre-seed round (also of undisclosed value) the app raised from Bahrain’s business angels network Tenmou last year. While Malaeb is active in Bahrain, Kuwait, and a few areas of Saudi Arabia, the startup expects to launch in four more countries by the end of the year. “Expansion in Saudi market is our main focus,” says Ahmed AlRawi, CEO, Malaeb. “We are working on adding as many sport venues as possible for our users to choose from, as well as continuing work on the main social part of the app, where players can join matches happening in their area, organized by sport enthusiasts like them.”
Not surprisingly, Malaeb co-founders AlRawi and Yasser Abdulaziz are football aficionados themselves, and connected through common friends, they decided to turn co-founders for the app business.
Source: entrepreneur.com