MENA startups raised $923 million in 1Q 2022

Pioneer Investors – The first quarter of 2022 witnessed lots of venture investment deals in the Middle East and North Africa, which Saudi startups topped the deals in terms of the value and number of investments.

According to Digital Digest figures, startups in the Arab region raised $923 million during the first quarter of 2022 through 198 deals.

The value of investments in startups jumped 106.03% in the first quarter of 2022 comparing to the same quarter in 2021 and reached $448 million.

The number of deals also increased by 26.9% comparing to 156 companies that received financing in the first quarter of 2021.

Saudi Arabia acquired the largest investment value in the first quarter of 2022 which was 33.9% of the whole investment value, followed by the UAE with 27.5%, then Egypt with 20.5% of the value of financing.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE acquired the largest number of invested companies during the first quarter of 2022; With 26.8% of the number of investments for each of them, then Egypt by 22.7%, and Jordan by 6.1%.

During March 2022, the investments of startup companies amounted to $280 million through 67 investments, of which $118 million were announced in the last week; and this was 1.5 times more than the value raised in March 2021. In addition, the largest rounds of the month were collected by Al-Tibbi ($44 million) and Khazna ($38 million).