$3.94 billion.. startups investment in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE
Shrouq
Middle East and North Africa startups raised $3.94 billion through 795 deals in 2022.
This represents a 24 percent increase in investment value and a 22 percent increase in deal volume during 2021
The top three markets in the region, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, which raised about $3.5 billion in 2022, continued to dominate the venture capital landscape.
came out on top, The UAE which attracting $1.85 billion in investments across 250 transactions (a rise of 5 percent in terms of investment value).
Came in second, Saudi Arabia, with $907 million raised across 153 deals (a 40 percent increase in investment value).
Meanwhile, Egypt secured the second-highest number of transactions, which totaled 180 amounting to $736 million, a whopping 70 percent increase over 2021.
Increase financing and deal volume
Other countries that witnessed an increase in financing and deal volume were Algeria, Bahrain, Palestine, Oman, Iraq, Qatar, Yemen, Sudan and Tunisia.
In contrast, Kuwait, Lebanon and Morocco witnessed a decrease in the value of deals, with investment in Jordanian start-ups decreasing by 76% compared to 2021.
$1.1 billion investments
In the other side, fintech remains the darling of the startup world in the Middle East and North Africa, attracting $1.1 billion in investments, nearly double the 2021 figure and nearly a third of the total amount raised last year.
The main sub-sectors that saw an increase in funding were new banks, crowdfunding, open banking, and corporate and retail lending.
Mega funding rounds, those worth more than $100 million, were once uncommon for startups worldwide, and almost non-existent in the MENA region.
However, this is changing, and the primary reason is fintech, which exploded when the pandemic aided the regional adoption of online services. Fintech companies (or those with fintech solutions at the core of their offerings) delivered five of the Middle East and North Africa ten largest mega-rounds in 2022.
These five transactions, a mix of equity and debt financings, totaled $680 million and accounted for nearly 20 percent of all regional startup funding in 2022.
