Wamda

Regional

Careem's sale to Uber and how it affects the Mena startup ecosystem

I would have liked Careem to go public and remain independent because that is how you make the biggest statement about the maturity of the...

careem Uber acquisition

U.A.E

Namshi’s CEO Hosam Arab steps down after company’s full acquisition

Source: Menabytes Hosam Arab, the co-founder and CEO of Dubai-based fashion ecommerce platform Namshi has stepped down from his role...

E-commerce acquisition ceo

Regional

Emaar fully acquires Namshi

Dubai’s Emaar Malls has fully acquired e-commerce retailer Namshi. This follows acquiring the remaining stake of Global...

ecommerce Retail Fashion

U.A.E

Global video ads marketplace Teads acquires Dubai-based Buzzeff

Source: Menabytes Teads, a New York-headquartered global video ads marketplace has acquired Dubai-based video ads...

Videoads Dubai acquisition

U.A.E

Dubizzle stake acquired for $190 million

UAE-based online classifieds website dubizzle has been fully acquired by Naspers, a South Africa-based investor through its subsidiary OLX...

Dubizzle classifieds marketplace

Saudi Arabia

Maharah acquires a strategic stake in UAE's Bloovo

Source: Entreprenuer Bloovo, one of UAE’s algorithm-based online recruitment platforms, has brought Saudi-based Maharah Human...

acquisition HR saudi

Global

Mobile game developer Zynga acquires Gram Games in a $250M deal

Zynga Inc., a leading social game developer, announced it has acquired privately-held mobile game developer Gram Games for $250 million in...

Zynga Gram Games acquisition

Global

Chinese ecommerce Jollychic gets funding from Sequoia Capital, hits a reported $1 billion valuation

Jollychic, a Chinese online store founded in 2012, has a value of $1 billion after a Series C round from the global venture firm Sequoia...

Sequoia Capital Jollychic ecommerce

U.A.E

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala acquires minority stake in NY-based Phoenician Capital

Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Company acquired a minority stake in the general partner of Phoenician Capital, a New York-based...

uae Mubadala Investment Company acquisition

Saudi Arabia

Beauty ecommerce GlamBox gets acquired by a Saudi consortium of investors

Dubai-based GlamBox, a beauty online subscription platform, has recently been acquired by a Saudi consortium of investors. Neither the...

GlamBox acquisition Success Stories

Saudi Arabia

SRMG acquires 51 percent stake in Saudi financial news service Argaam for $10M

The Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) has acquired a controlling stake (51 percent) in the Argaam Investment and Trading Company,...

Saudi Arabia Argam acquisition

Egypt

Mobile billing consolidated in Egypt following TPay’s acquisition of DCBEgypt

There are over 95 million SIM cards registered with Egypt’s three mobile networks: Etisalat Misr, Orange (Mobinil previously), and...

Egypt TPay DCBEgypt

Regional

Entrepreneurship is disrupting MENA’s real estate and retail gurus

The first half of 2017 was an exciting one for enterprises and startups in the MENA region with mega deals taking the ecosystem by storm....

acquisition VC investment Real Estate

Saudi Arabia

Becoming an employee in the company you founded: Esimsar

Following the acquisition of Saudi Esimsar by Propertyfinder in 2014, its founder Tarek Zeitoun chose to continue working in his company as...

Saudi Arabia ksa Esismsar

Regional

Alabbar acquires large stake in MEVP

Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) announced May 18 that Mohamed Alabbar, acquired a large stake in the company to create one of...

Alabbar emaar properties MEVP

U.A.E

Jadopado is acquired by Mohamed Alabbar

Editor's note: this story has been update May 11 to include the acquirers of Jadopado and a comment from Omar Kassim. In a statement...

JadoPado uae noon.com

U.A.E

The Souq sale is a game changer for MENA ecommerce [Opinion]

We all heard the news: Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer by sales and market capitalization, founded 23 years ago in...

Amazon Souq.com acquisition

Regional

Why Amazon acquired Souq.com

This article is a crosspost with Centric.ae. Seeking global world domination in the ecommerce marketplace, Amazon acquired...

Souq.com acquisition Amazon

U.A.E

Why is the Souq.com acquisition so significant? [Opinion]

For those who have been in the dark, Amazon has acquired Souq.com for over $650 million. The news of an acquisition of this size has...

Souq.com Amazon acquisition

Regional

Amazon acquires Souq.com for over $650 million

Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Senior Vice President, International Consumer and Ronaldo Mouchawar, Souq.com CEO and cofounder (Image via...

Souq.com Amazon Alabbar

Bahrain

Fetchr buys Bahrain courier company in expansion push

Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Group (YBA Kanoo), one of the largest family-owned multinational businesses in the Middle East, has announced that...

Fetchr acquisition uae

Regional

$815M+ invested in MENA startups in 2016 #Wamda2016

2016 was an exciting year for the startup ecosystem, especially from an investor’s standpoint. Investors’ appetite for...

Wamda2016 Roundup investments

Global

$900M sale for a Dubai HQ’d company

Serial entrepreneur Divyank Turakhia's Media.net has been sold for approximately $900 million. Media.net, who have their global...

media.net Advertising acquisition

Kuwait

Talabat cofounders acquire Q8flowers.com for $3M

Cofounders of Talabat.com has accquired florist delivery site Q8flowers.com for one million Kuwaiti dinar (US$3 million). The deal,...

Q8flowers talabat acquisition

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