Investors are less woried about COVID-19's impact than startups, survey reveals
For a deeper insight into the COVID-19 impact on MENA startup ecosystem, MAGNiTT joined forces with leading international business school INSEAD to launch the first startup and VC sentiment survey in early June 2020. The report acts as a tool for policy makers to shape initiatives in this time of need for startups, by providing data-driven, objective insights into the views and thoughts of both startups and investors in the MENA region.
This is the first report in MENA that specifically looks at investors sentiment as well, with many recent reports focusing specifically on startup sentiment. Interestingly, the survey reveals that investors are more optimistic about COVID-19's impact than startups. When ranking their concern about the impact of COVID-19 on MENA's (portfolio) startups, with 1 signifying "Not worried at all" and 5 signifying "Very worried", investors rank an average of 3.0, while startups rank an average of 3.5. Hence, startups are significantly more worried about the impact than invetors in the MENA region.
In general, investors and startups are moderately to significantly worried about the impact, with the majority thinking that the healthcare crisis will lead to a recession. However, startups are much more likely than investors – 24% compared to just 2% – to think that it will lead to a depression. Nonetheless, the majority of startups and investors expect the crisis to be over by Q4 2020 or Q1 2021, with just 6% of startups and 3% of investors expecting that it will last beyond 2021.
For a further breakdown by country, industry, and funding stage, as well as more insights into the views of both investors and startups, download the free report.