Zest Your Equity | 9-Nov-2023

Zest is digitizing private market transactions, building tools to streamline how entrepreneurs, funds and investors transact. Our platform is designed to save you time and reduce administrative costs, simplifying the end-to-end investment process.

Regional News 🗞

According to Wamda’s 2023 report, we saw a significant acceleration in venture activity across the MENA region in October 2023 compared to September 2023, but total funding remains 76% lower YoY.

The UAE took home the largest share of capital raised in October at $90M, followed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt whose startups raised a combined total of $51M and $13M respectively.

The UAE also claimed the highest number of startup deals - with 24 financings happening, followed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia with 9 deals each.

AI/deep tech investing was the most popular in October, contributing ~$46M of the total raised in the month, followed by HRtech ($31M), proptech ($28M), and logistics ($23M).

The increase in startup funding and activity is a positive turnaround after months of below-average activity across the region, echoing similar trends across the world. We believe the region is poised to continue this acceleration as we end the year and begin 2024 on a strong note. At Zest, we’re excited to be supporting the ecosystem with infrastructure that makes transacting as a founder or investor easy and efficient.

Who’s Raising? 💰

• Saudi Arabia-based fintech Tabby has raised $200M in Series D equity financing at a valuation of $1.5B, led by Wellington Management, becoming the MENA region’s first fintech unicorn.

• Saudi Arabia-based edtech Noon has raised a $41 million Series B funding round, co-led by Wa’ed Ventures and Raed Ventures with participation from STV, SVC, Riyadh Valley Company (a subsidiary of King Saud University), Endeavor, Sanabil 500, Qyem Development Holding, and Nahlat Alarab Holding among other investors. 

• UAE-based cybersecurity startup SpiderSilk has raised a $9 million funding round led by Wa’ed Ventures, with participation from STV and Global Ventures.

• UAE-based proptech Keyper has raised a $6.5 million Seed round, led by Access Bridge Ventures and Vivium Holdings, with participation from venture Capital firm MEVP, Jabbar Internet Group, key players in the real estate ecosystem, and a group of angel investors.

• UAE-based proptech Nomad Homes, has closed a $20 million Series A extension round, led by Acrew Capital.

M&A Activity 💼

• UAE-based SaaS provider Shipsy has acquired Stockone, an Indian cloud-based warehouse management system (WMS) and inventory management solution provider, for an unknown amount.

• Saudi Arabia-based venture capital firm Core Vision has acquired a stake in The Chairman Group, a holding group with five diversified companies based in Riyadh and Jeddah. 

• UAE-based Dubizzle Group has announced the sale of its Lamudi property portals in the Philippines and Indonesia to Australia-based Digital Classifieds Group in a divestiture deal. This comes three years after Dubizzle acquired Lamudi.

• Saudi Arabia-based fintech CashIn has fully acquired Cardless, a Saudi provider of digital payment products for an unknown amount.

What We’re Reading 📖

Zest Equity Updates 📋

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We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to build the infrastructure for entrepreneurs, funds and investors to transact in the private markets and we believe this is going to add significant value MENA startup ecosystem as it continues to grow!

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Zest in the News 🚨

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