Zest Your Equity | 5-February-2024

This week’s agenda 📜

• Our latest resource ✍️

• Who’s raising? 💰

• M&A activity 🤝

• What we’re reading 📖

Let’s dive in 👇

Our latest resource ✍️

In a leveraged buyout, a buyer - commonly a private equity firm - acquires a target company by placing a substantial portion of the purchase consideration onto the target’s balance sheet as debt. The buyer then uses the target’s future cash flows or assets as collateral to service and eventually repay this debt.

LBOs became particularly popular in the 1980s with groundbreaking deals like the acquisition of RJR Nabisco by private equity firm, KKR. In today’s market, they remain a staple in private equity strategies, ranging from small, niche acquisitions to multi-billion-dollar transactions.

Read our latest resource to find out why LBOs are used, how they work, and how they’re structured in transactions.

Who’s raising? 💰

• 🇪🇬 Egypt-based fintech Khazna has closed a $16 million pre-Series B funding round. 

• 🇪🇬 Egypt-based CNC machine manufacturer Simplex has raised $13 million, led by Saudi Arabia's National Industrial Development Centre.

• 🇦🇪 Dubai-based Qeen.ai (stylized as qeen.ai) has raised $10 million to scale its platform, which provides autonomous AI agents for e-commerce businesses.

• 🇦🇪 UAE-based healthtech BioSapien has extended its pre-Series A funding round to $7 million, joined by new investors like Golden  Gate Ventures, marking the first deployment of its dedicated MENA Fund. 

• 🇦🇪 UAE-based fintech Pluto has raised a pre-Series A funding round at $4.1 million.

• 🇦🇪UAE-based HRtech Ogram has secured a $3 million investment from Tenami Capital. 

• 🇦🇪 UAE-based Maalexi agriculture-focused fintech Maalexi has secured a $3 million debt finance facility from Citi.

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia-based fintech Ebana has secured $2.66 million in a pre-Series A funding round, led by Esnad Legal Consulting and Business Governance. 

• 🇦🇪 UAE-based fintech Myne has raised a $2 million pre-seed funding round, led by Scene Holding, followed by Raz Holding with participation from Plus VC, Annex Investments, and a group of other angel investors.

• 🇦🇪 UAE-based proptech Silkhaus has closed a seven-figure growth round, led by Nuwa Capital and Oraseya Capital, with participation from Impulse International, Yuj Ventures, Nordstar, and other family offices.

• 🇹🇳 Tunisia-based fintech EasyBank has secured an investment of $370,000 from undisclosed investors.

M&A activity

• 🇪🇬 Egypt-based loyalty and rewards solutions provider Dsquares has acquired a majority stake in the Egyptian B2B SaaS loyalty platform Prepit for an unknown value. Source.

• 🇸🇦 Saudi-based Spark Education Platform (SEP) inked definitive agreements to acquire a majority stake in Riyadh’s Qimam El Hayat International School. Source.

• 🇸🇦 PIF-owned Social Impact Capital confirms its 88.7% stake in Egypt’s CIRA Education. Source.

• 🇸🇦 Saudi-Based WAMID Acquires Direct Financial Network's Remaining 49% Stake For $59M. Source.

Want to learn more? Schedule a time with our team below!