Wamda

Regional

VentureSouq launches $50 million fund

GCC-based VC firm VentureSouq has launched the $50 million Mena FinTech Fund I, aiming to invest in early-stage fintech and SaaS...

VentureSouq Fintech

Regional

How open banking is changing the payments landscape in Mena

Abdulla Almoayed is the founder and CEO of open banking platform Tarabut Gateway, which recently closed a $12 million pre-Series A round...

Open banking Tarabut Gateway

Regional

Startups in Mena raised $150 million in October 2021

Startups in Mena raised more than $150 million in October across 42 deals, a 55.5 per cent month-on-month decline in terms of value, but a...

investments VC funding

Regional

The startup fighting for open finance in Mena

Mirna Sleiman is on a mission to revolutionise the Middle East’s banking and financial sector. Having spent more than eight years...

open finance Open banking Fintech Galaxy

Regional

Can direct-to-consumer commerce maintain its momentum in Mena?

“Swipe up”, an Instagram term that has become so synonymous with online shopping that it is hardly considered an instruction or...

direct-to-consumer D2C eyewa

Regional

Illegal data collection, financial data theft are major concerns for GCC consumers, GPI study shows

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have among the world’s largest prepaid markets according to Ding’s bi-annual Global Prepaid Index...

GPI Ding GCC

Regional

Organon, Flat6Labs launch accelerator to support female-focused healthtech in Mena

Flat6Labs has partnered with Organon to launch the Femtech Accelerator Programme to help healthtech startups focused on women’s...

Organon Flat6Labs

Regional

Shoutout platforms and the growing personalisation of celebrities

Social media platforms proved to be a powerful tool for celebrities across the world to engage directly with their fans, dictate their own...

Social Media

Regional

Gitex Future Stars: North Stars in the making

Gitex, the Middle East’s largest technology exhibition is one of the most important events for those in the technology sector. It is...

GITEX GITEX Future Stars

Regional

Azimut, GELLIFY launch joint $50 million VC fund to support B2B Mena startups

The Italian management group Azimut (ME) Limited ADGM, in partnership with GELLIFY Middle East is launching a VC fund targeting a fund...

Azimut GELLIFY VC

Regional

Tourist VCs and their impact on emerging market ecosystems

There is a rising number of foreign VCs investing in the Middle East. Of the 10 Egyptian startups that raised investment in September, four...

Egypt Investment

Regional

Four Mena startups receive Village Capital’s Sustainability Mena 2021 investment

Four startups have won $20,000 each as part of Sustainability Mena 2021, a three-month investment readiness programme run by Village...

Village Capital Sustainability Mena 2021

Regional

Flat6Labs: A decade of accelerating startups

Once Hany Sonbaty and Ahmed Alfi launched their venture capital firm, Sawari Ventures, in Egypt back in 2010, the pair were often hounded...

Flat6Labs

Regional

Young Arab entrepreneurs need govt’ support, increased access to funding

Amid today’s challenging labour market and lack of access to high quality education, young people across the Arab World are...

Arab youth

Egypt

Fawry invests in Sudan-based classifieds marketplace alsoug.com

Fawry, Egypt’s leading provider of e-payments solutions and digital banking services, has acquired a minority stake in Sudan-based...

fawry Alsoug

Regional

Women cannot have it all...

Julie Nguyen is the founder of Crunchmoms, a professional network based in the UAE for talented, working mothers. There is...

Women empowerment

Regional

Mental health startups in Mena

To mark World Mental Health Day, we have mapped the mental health startups in the Middle East and North Africa. Wamda also recently...

mental health

Regional

Startups in Mena raised $338 million in September 2021

Startups in Mena raised almost $338 million across 37 deals in September, a 111 per cent rise month on month and a whopping 3000...

Investment

Regional

Noon.com to raise $2 billion over three to four years

E-commerce platform Noon.com is receiving $2 billion in financing from investors including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund...

Noon ecommerce

Regional

Do robots create or destroy jobs?

Eugene Kovalenko is the chief commercial officer of Rozum Robotics, the company behind the first robot cafe in the UAE. When it...

robotics

Regional

India's startup expansion to Mena: A cause for concern?

Since 2016, more than 50 India-based startups have expanded into the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) by making their UAE debut an entry...

India Softbank Softbank Vision Fund

Regional

Should online retailers pay greater attention to men?

Leith Mathews is the founder and CEO of UAE-based rokpool, an online platform dedicated to men’s personal care products. Safe...

E-commerce

Regional

The Abraham Accords and its impact on the 48er startup community

‘Historic’, ‘ground-breaking’ and ‘momentous’ was how the world’s media described the Abraham...

48-Palestinians 48ers

Regional

Should we care about Philosophy of AI in the Mena region?

Aliah Yacoub is an AI philosopher and head of techQualia at Egypt-based Synapse Analytics, a data science and AI company The...

Artificial intelligence AI

Thought Leadership

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