MAGNiTT’s H1 Report: MENA’s most active investors and accelerators
If you’re wondering how the current crisis has impacted investments in the MENA region (especially against the back-drop of COVID-19), you’re not the only one.
MAGNiTT recently released the H1 2020 MENA Venture Snapshot, which gives a high-level overview of the venture capital and startup funding landscape in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), including summaries of funding evolution, countries, industries, top investors, exits, and more!
Over the last six months, one of the questions we were asked most frequently by our community of founders, investors, enablers, etc was: Are investors still investing? We worked hard to answer that question based on responses from investors at the time. We also worked to calculate how much Dry Powder there was available for MENA’s investors to deploy in new and follow-on investments.
Now we actually have accurate, accessible, and comprehensive, data to dive into for H1 2020. Comparing our H1 report with the other articles we put together, we’re glad to say that we were almost right on the money. The past six months saw a total of $659M invested in 251 deals in MENA-based startups.
These investments came from a total of 144 institutions - 33% of which had never previously invested in the region before, and 31% of which came from outside of the MENA region.
The report includes the list of investors ranked by disclosed investments in MENA-based startups. We have included all the investors & accelerators who have made MORE than 5 disclosed investments in the last 6 months.
We’ve split it by most active funds and most active accelerators by the number of disclosed deals:
• Most active funds in MENA in H1
• H1's most active funds - 10 deals+
• H1's active funds - 5 - 9 deals
• Most active accelerators in MENA in H1
• H1's most active accelerators - 10 deals+
• H1's active accelerators - 5 - 9 deals
Most active funds in MENA in H1
10 deals or more:
500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems.
Regional HQ: Bahrain
You can apply for funding HERE
With the aim of becoming the innovation hub in the region and positioning Oman as the preferred destination for national and international entrepreneurs, the Oman Tech Fund (OTF) has a total committed capital of up to $150 million to invest in related incubator, accelerator, and global VC programs.
HQ: Oman
You can apply for funding HERE
OQAL Angel Investors was established in 2011 as an NGO and is the first angel investor community in Saudi Arabia concerned with the growth of the SME sector in the region.
HQ: Saudi Arabia
You can apply for funding HERE
5-9 deals:
Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO)
Their AED 535 million fund is helping to increase access to funding for startups in two unique and complementary ways. The Startup Matching programme is working to amplify the funding activity already taking place in the Emirate. The New Fund Manager programme is helping to increase the sources of funding available by growing the number of venture capitalists (VCs) in Abu Dhabi.
HQ: UAE
B&Y is a MENA-based VC firm that invests globally in visionary and high-impact founders aiming to create new markets or transform existing ones. Through their unique access and the strong global network of their team, they act as a bridge between MENA and the more mature Western markets with the goal of helping MENA startups go global and the best international companies expand to the MENA region.
HQ: Lebanon
You can apply for funding HERE
Global Ventures is a Dubai-based, seasoned venture capital fund deploying into, and working with, global-mindset, growth stage companies, in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region
HQ: UAE
You can apply for funding HERE
Impact46 is a CMA authorized assets management and advisory focused on alternative investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia. They invest in theme-specific PE/VC opportunities across different stages of development from early stage startups to mature profitable businesses.
HQ: Saudi Arabia
You can apply for funding HERE
KAUST Innovation Fund is a venture capital firm that aims to grow an innovation and technology investment community and to attract investors and venture capital firms to the emerging Saudi technology ecosystem. The firm makes venture capital investments in high-tech startups from seed to early-stage and becomes a long-term strategic partner of these ventures.
HQ: Saudi Arabia
You can apply for funding HERE
Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) is a government Venture Capital established in 2018 as a part of the Private Sector Stimulus (PSS). SVC aims to develop the Venture Capital ecosystem in Saudi Arabia to support startups by co-investing along with angel investors, venture capitals, and sophisticated investors in startups as well as investing in funds.
HQ: Saudi Arabia
Shorooq aspires to help entrepreneurs in their journey to bring world-changing ideas to market – we are Founders' Partners, Company Builders and Value Investors. They focus on early-stage, founder led tech companies (Series Seed to Series A). Their principal sub-sectors of focus are Fintech, Software, Platform businesses in the GCC, Egypt, Jordan region.
HQ: UAE
You can apply for funding HERE
Vision Ventures (VV) is a venture capital firm established "By Entrepreneurs, For Entrepreneurs." They invest across the MENA region in the Seed and Series A stages and are sector agnostic.
HQ: Saudi Arabia
Investing in transformational businesses & creating meaningful partnerships with entrepreneurs. Their experience in launching and growing MENA businesses, together with a community of experts and mentors at the Wamda Platform, mean their entrepreneur partners are uniquely placed to realize their vision.
HQ: UAE
You can apply for funding HERE
Most active accelerators in MENA in H1
10 deals or more:
Flat6Labs Cairo fosters and invests in bright and passionate Egyptian entrepreneurs with cutting-edge ideas. Launched in 2011 as the first Flat6Labs office in the MENA region, Flat6Labs Cairo supports and encourages entrepreneurs throughout the critical first steps of development.
Flat6Labs Bahrain, in partnership with Tamkeen, is an accelerator program aiming to help accelerate the growth of local and international startups in Bahrain and provide a steady pipeline to the rapidly growing Bahraini venture capital industry.
Flat6Labs Tunis in partnership with Le15 is a startup seed program and an early-stage fund aiming to help accelerate the growth of Tunisian startups and provide a steady pipeline to the rapidly growing Tunisian venture capital industry.
Misk Innovation and 500 Startups will together help accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship by bringing Silicon Valley growth techniques to a batch of young MENA-based companies, helping them scale and fundraise. The Misk 500 MENA Accelerator will be open to MENA-based pre-seed and seed technology startups.
HQ: Saudi Arabia
5-9 deals:
Innoventures invest in early-stage startups, and through our programs, we provide access to mentors, office space, and facilities.
HQ: Egypt
MINT Incubator, in partnership with EG Bank and Cairo Angels , is an intensive, highly competitive 3 month incubation program designed to accelerate growth of product-ready startups who want to take their business to the next level.
HQ: Egypt
Apply to the programme HERE
Oasis500 is a leading early-stage and seed investment company. Our program includes entrepreneurship training, mentorship guidance, business incubation, acceleration, and additional follow-on investment and funding. We help turn ideas into startups, and help entrepreneurs grow their companies with our angel and mentor networks.
HQ: Jordan
Apply for funding HERE
If you have any questions about how we can help you, email us on [email protected]
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Despite the current crisis, H1 2020 has seen $659M invested in MENA-based startups, which is already 95% of total funding full-year 2019. Discover more data on this trend and many others in our H1 2020 MENA Venture Snapshot.