256 funding institutions were active in MENA's startup ecosystem last year, contributing to MENA's record high of over $1BN in funding
What's inside: The report identifies trends in capital allocation across the top 5 countries, top 7 industries, and funding stage brackets in MENA's startup venture space. It also deep dives into the most active investors of the most active industries by deal activity in 2020. The appendix of the report provides an overview of each of the 30 most active investors in MENA last year.
• Number of active investors reaches a record high in MENA: Despite the drop in the number of investment deals taking place last year, the number of funding institutions involved increased by a CAGR of 19% to 256 in 2020.
• Venture Capitals saw the lion's share of deal activity: This report deep dives into the most active investors by investor type starting with Venture Capitals, which accounted for 48% of deal activity last year, along with Corporate and Corporate Venture Capitals, Accelerators, Angel Groups, Family Offices, and Government Initiatives.
• Top 5 Innovation Hubs: 5-year comparison of the number of active investors per top 5 performing MENA countries by deal activity
• Successful Investments: Ranking of funding institutions by the number of their investments in startups that eventually exited
• Industry and Funding Stage Focus: Investors Top 5 investors in each of the top 7 performing industries and across all funding stage brackets last year
• Both MENA-based and international investors were cherry-picking their deals: While E-Commerce was the top sector in terms of capital invested in 2020, FinTech attracted the largest number of active investors and was almost the only industry that saw the number of investors increase YoY. International investors showed an increased interest in F&B, Healthcare, and FinTech
• Appendix includes profiles of the top 30 most active funding institutions, along with the 10 latest investments they have made
*This report aggregates and analyses tech startup investments in 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa - listed alphabetically: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA), Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Yemen.
Investor activity has significantly evolved in the region over the past few years. The focus has shifted towards later-stage investments in more opportunistic industries, such as E-Commerce, Fintech, and Healthcare, which were positively impacted by COVID-19, seeing increases in funding and deal activity last year. The chart below displays the evolution of the number of investors over the last 5 years, broken down by investor HQ.
Below you can find a presentation of a sample from the report to see what is included:
Access previous Venture Capital Funding Reports:
• MENA Industry Venture Report 2021
• MENA Venture Investment Report 2021
• MENA Investor Report Q3 2020
• MENA Venture Investment Report Q3 2020
• Turkey Venture Investment Report H1 2020
• Pakistan Venture Investment Report H1 2020
This report was created with data from MAGNiTT, which is a comprehensive directory of emerging tech and new business strategies through tools like:
• Investment directories, a comprehensive list of all startup venture funding across the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey
• Market Sizing Tools to visualize investment growth and trends across industries, geographies, and stage
• Startup Resources including a deal flow tool for applications to leading Venture Capitalists for investment
• Exit comparisons, looking at Mergers & Acquisitions from across the region
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