Funding activity in the Middle East and Africa region more than doubled during the month of July, compared to June, according to Wamda.
Startups in the MENA region raised $95 million from private equity and venture capital players, against $35.6 million recorded in the preceding month. Deal volume at 31, however, was lower by 31% for the period under review.
Activity in the Middle East was led by two UAE-based healthtech startups, LVL Wellbeing and Udenz this month. Both the companies have bagged Series A funding to scale their business.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia-based construction company Nesma & Partners signed an agreement to acquire Dubai-based energy services company Kent to expand further in the Middle East region.
Some other key deals in the region last month, included acquisition of Sanad Cash by Saudi-based Abu Dhabi-owned EDGE Group’s acquisition of OrxyLabs.
LVL Wellbeing
UAE-based corporate wellbeing platform LVL Wellbeing raised $10 million in a Series A funding round to fuel geographical expansion and develop new product features.
The funding round was led by MG Wellness Holding, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi-based investment holding company, Multiply Group.
Founded in 2017 by Dilesh Bhimjiani, Gary Blowers and Graeme Perry, LVL Wellbeing platform offers digital and physical wellbeing solutions to enterprise level organisations for their employees and customers.
The six-year-old startup will integrate Multiply's HealthierU marketplace to its platform. HealthierU is an online marketplace with wellness consultants around the world offering virtual 1-on-1 sessions. The funds will also be used to facilitate expansion to Saudi Arabia as part of a regional growth strategy. LVL Wellbeing plans to launch an Arabic version of its app towards the end of the 2023.The startup earlier raised $4.5mn in seed round in 2021 led by AngelHub and SC Ventures.
Udenz
Dubai-based innovative digital dental platform Udenz raised $5 million in a Series A funding round, led by Hakim Capital Holding, Techcelerate Investments LLC, Inspira Management, and Dubai Business Corporation.
The company will use the funds to expand its product offerings across the MENA region.
Founded in 2016 by Hisham Safadi, Udenz provides a one-stop solution for dentists across the MENA region offering a booking appointments platform, an electronic dental records system, a dental directory, payment gateway, digital services, crowdfunding and customer support.
It had earlier raised $450,000 through crowdfunding and additional rounds. The latest round of funding will enable Udenz to offer dental ultra platform services free of charge to over 50,000 dentists across the MENA region. The platform with a database of about 8,000 dentists has crossed 100,000 search requests for a dentist and confirmed more than 5,000 bookings. It currently operates in Casablanca in Morocco and Muscat in Oman.