Wamda

Regional

Investment in women-founded startups at 1.2 per cent of $2.87 billion raised in 2021

It was a year in which many records were broken - the largest funding round to date, the highest number of deals, and the arrival of...

wamda Investment

Regional

How can the GCC countries become digital leaders?

Tarek El Zein is a partner with Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network The digital economies of GCC countries have...

GCC Innovation

Egypt

The issue of e-pharmacy in Egypt

When Amazon acquired US-based e-pharmacy startup PillPack in 2018 in a deal valued at $753 million, it sent repercussions across the...

e-pharmacy B2B marketplace Chefaa

Saudi Arabia

Penny pushes into global e-procurement market

Procurement remains a largely offline and fragmented endeavour, but over the past couple of years, digital solutions have grown...

B2B e-commerce Penny SAAS

Egypt

Mozare3: Enabling small farmers in Egypt to become bankable

The agriculture sector is the largest employer in Egypt; nearly 28 per cent of the total workforce work in agriculture, according to USAID....

Agtech Mozare3

U.A.E

Startups and SMEs can only grow with access to funding

Ahmed Mohamed Al Naqbi is the chief executive officer of Emirates Development Bank The UAE government is steadfast in its commitment...

funding gap

Iraq

TipTop's $5 million raise and Iraq's quick-commerce expansion

The continued pandemic-driven disruptions impacting the e-grocery segment have led to the emergence of q-commerce, a new vertical which has...

tiptop quick commerce q-commerce

Regional

Mena startups raised $206 million in December 2021

Startups in the Middle East and North Africa region (Mena) raised $206 million in December 2021 across 44 deals, a 27.5 per cent decrease...

Investment

Regional

Trends to expect in 2022

After two years of ongoing uncertainty, the investor hesitancy that defined the beginning of the pandemic has dissipated entirely, as...

Trends

Regional

Our top stories from 2021

This past year has been an incredibly dynamic one for the entrepreneurship ecosystem across the Middle East and North Africa. We have...

wamda

Palestine

Fintech: A force for financial inclusion in Palestine

Majd Zghyer is the strategy officer at uMake, an entrepreneurship support organisation (ESO) based in Ramallah, Palestine. This year has...

Fintech financial inclusion

Regional

Has last-mile delivery reached its saturation point? [Part two]

In the first part of this feature, we charted the growth of last-mile delivery in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena). In this second...

Last-mile delivery Logistics Last mile

Regional

Last-mile delivery startups in North Africa and the Levant

Wamda has mapped 51 last-mile delivery startups in North Africa and the Levant region. Of these, 28 are based in the Egypt, the...

Last-mile delivery Logistics

Regional

Last-mile delivery startups in the GCC

Wamda has mapped 51 last-mile delivery startups based in the GCC. Of these, 22 are based in the UAE and 16 in Saudi Arabia. The majority of...

Last-mile delivery

Regional

Last-mile delivery startups in numbers

Over the past couple of years, the last-mile delivery sector has witnessed a spike of new startup entrants, with most operating an...

Last-mile delivery

Regional

A look at last-mile delivery in Mena [Part 1]

The final leg of the product shipping journey, defined as last-mile delivery, is the least efficient and costliest part of the product...

Last-mile delivery Last mile Logistics

Egypt

Has the Egyptian startup ecosystem “made it”?

Michel Assaad is a startup mentor and the vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa strategy at Citi Bank.The views expressed below...

fawry Swvl Vezeeta

Turkey

Wamda participates in Tarfin’s $8 million pre-Series B bridge round

Turkey-based agritech Tarfin has raised $8 million in a pre-Series B bridge round of financing from Yara Growth Ventures, Quona...

Tarfin Bridge round

Regional

Mena startups raised $284 million in November 2021

Startups in the Middle East and North Africa region (Mena) raised $284 million in November 2021 across 71 deals, an 89 per cent...

investments

Regional

The regional race for content creators

The arrival of social media platforms has not only changed the advertising and marketing sector, but entertainment too. Combined with...

Creative Industry Summit TikTok Peace Cake

Regional

One-third of Mena’s femtech companies are based in the UAE

Kate Batz is the director of FemTech Analytics, managing partner at Longevity Capital as well as director of strategy and business...

femtech healthtech

Iraq

A look at the cleantech startups in Iraq

Azza Yahia is part of the investment team at Five One Labs, an incubator based in Iraq Cleantech is a term initially coined in the 1990s...

Five One Labs Cleantech KESK

U.A.E

UAE accedes to Madrid Protocol: What does this mean for founders in the UAE?

Bianca Gracias is a partner at ICLO, a UAE-based legal services firm The Madrid System is a convenient and cost-effective solution for...

trademarks

Egypt

RiseUp Summit concludes ninth edition by the Pyramids

It was an event intended to connect Egypt's innovative past with its thriving startup ecosystem, a bustling return to in-person events,...

RiseUp Egypt

Thought Leadership

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