MENA | Pixr8 News

29Sep By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Lebanon Edtech platform Synkers raises $1.8M in Funding

MENA, 29TH Sept 2020: Lebanon-based Synkers, an educational technology platform that connects learners to highly qualified private teachers, has successfully raised a $1.8M Pre-Series A funding round, led by Dr. Lama and Dalia Al Sulaiman. 500 Startups, Phoenician Funds, ISME Kafalat, Mulcan Investment, Seeders, Crescent Capital, and Dubai Angel Investors also invested in the round. Synkers provide personalised and accessible education by matching every learner with the right tutor or mentor and offer a wide variety of courses, from school subjects and university courses to prep tests and professional skills. All tutors are pre-screened, background-checked, trained, and certified. The platform currently has more than 60,000 learners and 1,000 tutors and mentors. Founded by&...

Delivery Hero acquires MENA based Online Grocery Marketplace InstaShop

1Sep By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Delivery Hero acquires MENA based Online Grocery Marketplace InstaShop

Berlin, 1st Sept 2020 – Delivery Hero announced that it has acquired InstaShop, a leading online grocery marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa region for $360 million. The initial purchase price amounts to approximately USD 270 million and the size of the deferred component to the founding team is dependent on the growth and profitability of the business in the following years. The acquisition of InstaShop marks the next step in Delivery Hero’s quest to pioneer q-commerce, the next generation of e-commerce. InstaShop was launched in June 2015 and is based in Dubai. The company generates approximately USD 300 million GMV on a Q2 2020 annualized basis, up c. 330% year-on-year, and a positive EBITDA margin. With Delivery Hero’s support, the plan is to launch new markets an...

MENA $659 million investment boost for startups during COVID-19

27Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

MIDDLE EAST

MENA $659 million investment boost for startups during COVID-19

The Middle East startup ecosystem is set to uncover another startup unicorn, according to experts amid a $659 million investment boom during the COVID-19 crisis. The record-breaking regional funding surge comes despite global startup funding in the first quarter of this year seeing the biggest downturn since the 2008 financial crisis, according to research from Crunchbase. Across the Middle East there are ongoing efforts to build VC Communities and startup ecosystems from scratch, as part of region-wide economic diversification efforts. One woman at the forefront of driving this movement is Areije Al Shakar, Fund Director of Al Waha Fund of Funds, the Bahraini government fund established to kickstart a VC community across MENA. Now, experts like Al Shakar are predicting that conditio...

25May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

MIDDLE EAST

How Middle East Is Performing as a Digital Economy

Digital Technology and Internet of Things are deeply transforming businesses and governments in the Middle East and North Africa. Even the World Bank believes that Investment into digital transformation in the major Cities of the Middle East and North Africa region(MENA) can unlock huge potential for the service economy to drive growth and job creation across the region, as announced in its report that came in April 2018. There are a lot of factors that act in the favour of MENA making it particularly well-positioned to take advantage of digital opportunities. A young and tech-savvy population, advanced information and communication technologies, or ICT, infrastructure are some of the key ingredients that act as strong benchmarks for MENA countries such as such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, a...

19Feb By RishabhNo Comments

MIDDLE EAST

The Growth of Fintech Startups in MENA

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the home of oil and Arab princes, the fintech sector is penetrating its roots in the country. Over the past decade, fintech startups in MENA region have raised over $100 million total funding, which is expected to get double by the year 2020. The net funding raised by these fintech startups in the year 2017 is $24 million alone, an increase of 13percent on the $18 million in disclosed investments in 2016. Among these it PayTabs raised the highest funding of $20 million last year, a fintech startup that provides business solutions to online businesses across the globe. Adding to the sector, YallaComapare (former Comareit4Me) raised a funding of $3.5 million and $1.46 million investment received by Now Money. Among the latest happenings in the fi...

Dubai Based E-commerce Platform ‘Mumzworld’ Raises its Largest Ever Funding

12Feb By PriyankaNo Comments

MIDDLE EAST

Dubai Based E-commerce Platform ‘Mumzworld’ Raises its Largest Ever Funding

MENA (Middle East North Africa) based Mumzworld, an e-commerce platform dedicated to mothers, babies and children has recently raised its fifth and largest round of funding. The fresh funding will be utilized to implement its regional growth plans. The funding round was led by Swicorp, an investment banking firm that offers corporate finance advisory services focusing on MENA and Wamda, MENA's leading venture firm investing in startups. Apart from them, the round also saw participation from Tamer Group and FMCG company. Existing investors of Mumzworld include- Wamda, WSB Holding, Precinct Capital, Riverbank Technologies and Saned. The e-commerce startup has also seen some quick funds from prominent Saudi groups operating in adjacent segments. The mother and childcare e-commerce po...

Dubai “Worlds First City” Gets Its Own Typographic Font

2May By AdityaNo Comments

MIDDLE EAST

Dubai “Worlds First City” Gets Its Own Typographic Font

Dubai has teamed up with Microsoft to become the worlds first city to have a font named after the gleaming metropolis. Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum yesterday launched the Dubai Font in line with the UAEs vision to become a regional and global leader in innovation. The font, the first typeface developed by Microsoft for a city, comes in both Arabic and Latin script and will be available in 23 languages to 100 million Office 365 users around the world. "The launch of the Dubai Font to the world is a very important step for us as part of our continuous efforts to be ranked first in the digital world," Shaikh Hamdan was quoted as saying by media reports. He also directed government departments ...