Zest Your Equity | 18-September-2024

This week’s agenda 📜

• Key terms and concepts ✍️

• Startup fundraising? 💰

• M&A activity 🤝

• What we’re reading 📖

• Zest in the news

Let’s dive in 👇

Key terms and concepts ✍️

Minimal Viable Product (MVP): The simplest version of a new product that allows a team to collect significant data about their customers and their needs. An MVP is typically the first step in building a new product as a company. 

Burn rate: The amount of money that a startup business spends each month on operating expenses. A company’s burn rate can determine how many months of cash reserves they have until they run out of funds. Burn rate can be calculated in two ways: gross burn rate and net burn rate. The gross burn rate is the total amount of operating costs that a company spends each month. The net burn rate is the total amount of money a company loses each month after accounting for revenue. 

Vesting schedule: A vesting schedule is a process that allows an entrepreneur or an employee to earn the company equity that they were originally granted over a period of time or once certain milestones are reached. 

Vesting schedules are common in private market startup businesses and were created to align incentives between the company and individual stakeholders. 

In practice, vesting schedules ensure that stakeholders make positive contributions to a company’s growth over a period of time before unlocking part of their ownership in the company. 

These schedules typically occur over several years and can be defined as time-based vesting, milestone-based vesting, or a combination of both.

Who’s Raising? 💰

• 🇦🇪 UAE-based fintech FlapKap has raised $34 million in a pre-Series A funding round that included both debt and equity financing.

• 🇪🇬 Egypt-based fintech Paymob has raised a $22 million Series B extension round, bringing the company’s total Series B funding to $72 million.

• 🇦🇪 Seez, a UAE-based automotive SaaS startup, has raised $4.2 million from several international investors.

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia-based SaaS provider Reachware has raised $3 million in Seed funding, led by Sadu Capital, with participation from 500 Sanabil Investments and Elm Company.

• 🇴🇲 Oman-based cloud kitchen IO Kitchens has closed a $2.8 million Seed funding round, led by Tanmia Small-Cap Fund and supported by a group of family offices and regional investors.

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia-based proptech Darent has closed an undisclosed Seed funding round, led by Al Tawuniya Insurance, with participation from the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab and BIM Ventures.

M&A Activity 🤝

• 🇪🇬 Entlaq, an Egypt-based company supporting entrepreneurs, has acquired a stake in the Egyptian foodtech Brotinni for an undisclosed value. Source.

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