MENA startups raised $284 million in November

Pioneer Investors – MENA startups raised $284 million across 71 deals in November 2021 which means an increase of 89% compared to the previous month and a whopping 666% increase compared to November last year.

Startups in the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt have succeeded in attracting the largest proportion of venture capital funding, which amounts to 73% of the total value of the deals. The UAE topped the scene in terms of the number of deals (24), followed by Egypt (24) and Saudi Arabia (12).

Despite an increase in funding rounds targeting late-stage and growth-stage companies, the majority of funding rounds in November came from accelerator programs led by Flat6Labs.

In terms of sectors, financial technology was the most funded sector with a total of 15 deals worth $73 million, followed by the food technology and logistics sectors.

A large proportion of the investments went to 3D printing startups, which secured $33 million in funding, distributed over 4 deals, including the Emirati company Immensa, which raised $7 million.

As for the Saudi Rasan, which works in insurance technologies, and the Jordanian Abwaab, an e-learning platform, the former earned $24 million and the latter $20 million, which contributed to the arrival of these two sectors to advanced positions. This month also witnessed a surge in investment activities in other sectors such as SaaS, travel technology, legal technology, data analytics, and mobility.

It should be noted that investors in the UAE are the most active at the international level; They have participated in 12 startup deals in the Middle East and North Africa. Chinese investors come in second place after participating in three deals and leading the financing round for iMile, a Dubai-based logistics company, which raised $40 million. At the regional level, Egyptian investors took the lead after participating in more than 22 deals.

Headed by a team consisting of both men and women who are called: Rita Huang, Naveen Joseph, Nancy Chen, and Zhao Wenley, iMile successfully closed the largest funding round in the region for the year. The share of start-ups headed by women of the total investments reached 5% last month, with a value of 14 million dollars distributed over 6 deals.

Startups headed by men raised $218 million across 54 deals. Startups headed by mixed teams of men and women raised $54 million; This indicates that the presence of a man among the founding partners increases the chances of female founders obtaining funding.

Largest funding rounds:

iMile, a last-mile logistics and delivery startup, UAE ($40 million)

Yassir Super App, Algeria ($30 million)

Eon Dental, a dental technology startup, Jordan ($26 million)

E-grocery startup, Egypt ($26 million)

Rasan Insurance Technologies, Saudi Arabia ($24 million)

Abwaab Education Technologies in Jordan ($20 million)

In November, 8startups did not disclose the amount of funding they received, including Crefer, Hekouky Rights, Dallali, KIWE, Klickit, Nuqtah, Venu, and Qubx.

According to our conservative estimates, we estimate that each of these companies raised $100,000 in their funding rounds.