FY2022 UAE Venture Investment Report

The FY2022 United Arab Emirates (UAE) Venture Investment Report is one of MAGNiTT's flagship reports that provides a yearly update on the venture capital and startup ecosystem in the country. To learn more about this report and access the underlying data, contact our sales team.

The UAE was the only country in the MENA region to cross the $1Bn mark in 2022, maintaining its MENA lead in funding.The Venture Capital market aggregated $1,190M, falling below the 2021 value by 20%, across 153 deals, which registered an 11% decline across transactions closed. The ecosystem mirrored the global performance as markets absorbed the impact of geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges.

5Yr evolution by ($M) and (#) deals

The decline in funding was mainly due to a decrease in the value of MEGA deals. The country closed two MEGA deals in 2022, $200M by Real Estate startup EMPG and $181M by Agriculture startup Pure Harvest. MEGA deals captured 32% of total funding in the UAE in 2022. It is noteworthy that, stripping the impact of MEGA deals, funding expanded by an annual 4%.

In a look at round sizes, all round sizes of less than $20M reported declines in the number of deals. While round size $20M+ posted a 22% rise in number of deals, value of funding decreased by 27%. Round size $1M-$5M was the only round to post an increase of 4% in funding. On a similar level, round share evolution in deals shows a comparative performance between 2021 and 2022 as the market started overcoming the impact of the pandemic and early stage deals shifted toward bigger sizes. The concentration of deals in the less than $1M round size that was prevailing prior to 2021 was cut in half with the share of round size $0K-$1M dropping from 61% in 2020 to 31% in 2022. This came in favor of larger round sizes especially the $1M-$5M which saw its share of deals double from 18% in 2020 to 42% in 2022.

Investor participation in the UAE saw another year of increase with active investors standing at a record high of 213, rising by 11% from its 2021 number. In a look at the investor breakdown using our proprietary analytics tool, UAE-based investors were on top, capturing one third of the total investors, followed by investors from the USA which captured 22% of the total. Venture Capital firms dominated the scene of funding institutions with a share of 54%, while investment companies followed capturing 15%. In a look at the investor breakdown evolution, the share of international investors has been on the rise since 2020, with those capturing nearly half the total number of investors in 2022, highlighting the increased international appetite towards investing in the UAE.

International vs UAE investors by (%) of total investors in UAE-based startups

What’s In The Report?

This yearly report provides a comprehensive overview and a deep dive into the UAE venture capital and funding investment space and includes the following:

• Top 20 investor ranking, together with the investor type and HQ analysis of all investment firms in the region

• Top 20 startup funding rounds that were closed during the analyzed period, as well as the ticket size split of the entire deal flow

• A 5-year UAE exit evolution with country benchmark breakdown

• Top 10 last exits recorded by UAE-based startups

Who will benefit from the report?

This report is ideal for investors tracking startup activity, consultants looking to identify technology innovation trends, as well as government entities searching for investments.

This report was created with data from MAGNiTT, a comprehensive directory of technology innovation trends. The platform provides the following analytics tools:

• Investment directories, a comprehensive list of all startup venture funding across the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey

• Market Sizing Tools to visualize investment growth and trends across industries, geographies, and stage

• Comparison Tools to benchmark geographies, industries and investor performance

• Exit comparisons, looking at Mergers & Acquisitions from across the region

Learn how MAGNiTT's proprietary data can help your business. Contact us now!

*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.

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