Dealmaking accelerated in the Middle East region this week, led by a slew of fundraises by startups, besides an acquisition and the launch of a corporate venture capital fund.
The UAE-based startups that raised funding include Revibe, an electronics ecommerce platform, and healthtech platform Alma Health. Saudi Arabian foodtech startup Kaso Technologies also secured funding.
Besides, Abu Dhabi-based cybersecurity player OryxLabs was acquired by technology group EDGE and food and beverage company Agthia Group set up a corporate venture capital vehicle to deploy funds in food-related startups.
Kaso Technologies
Kaso Technologies, a Saudi Arabia-based foodtech startup, raised $10.5 million in seed capital from investors such as Dubai-based Spade Ventures and Saudi Arabia's Hala Ventures, Seedra Ventures and Derayah.
Other investors include Oman-based Cyfr Capital, San Francisco's Pioneer Fund, and Singapore's Vulpes Ventures. Regional family offices and other investors from Saudi Arabia also took part in the round, as did previous investors.
Founded in 2021 by Manar Alkassar and Ahmed Soliman, Kaso is a business-to-business platform digitizing orders and procurement between restaurants and food suppliers. It also offers credit and payment facilities for restaurants.
The company will use the funding to scale its restaurant supply management tools to offer improved services to its network of over 5,000 partners in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It also launched a fintech platform to expand its operations in the food and beverage procurement market in the Gulf region. It aims to achieve a gross merchandise value of $1 billion in the next one year.
Alma Health
Abu Dhabu-based healthtech startup Alma Health secured $10 million in Series A funding to accelerate its growth in Saudi Arabia, enter new markets, and expand its team size.
The funding round was led by Knuru Capital and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund, and also saw participation from e& Capital, S3 Ventures, Pinnacle Capital, and Khwarizmi Ventures.
Founded in 2021 by Tariq Seksek and Khaldoon Bushnaq, Alma Health is a direct-to-patient digital healthcare application, which offers virtual doctor consultations directly with the company’s licensed in-house physicians. It is aimed to cater to patients with chronic conditions. Alma Health currently operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
Revibe
The refurbished electronics marketplace raised $2.3 million in a funding round led by Paris-based Resonance and Flat6Labs. It also saw participation from Techmind, Financiere Saint James and several angel investors.
Revibe will use the funding to expand in its core markets and scale its operations and customer care team.
Revibe was founded in July 2022 by Abdessamad Benzakour and Hamza Iraqui. It offers a business-to-consumer platform for refurbished electronics that it claims are 30-70% cheaper than brand new products. It aims to raise further capital in the second half of 2023.
Agthia Group
Agthia Group and its parent, sovereign wealth fund ADQ, launched a $54-million corporate venture capital fund to invest primarily in food and snack-related startups. The stage-agnostic fund is aimed at expanding Agthia's innovation and capabilities and create value with startups, the group said.
Agthia Ventures will evaluate startups that offer snacks and beverages, functional water and hydration, alternative proteins, sustainability solutions in farming and packaging, e-commerce solutions for the food and beverage industry, and other capability enhancements relevant to the group’s value chains.
It will look across early-stage, seed, and growth investment opportunities. The fund will be co-managed with Touchdown Ventures, which specialises in establishing and operating corporate VC programmes for blue-chip corporates.
OryxLabs
The UAE-based EDGE Group acquired Abu Dhabi-based cybersecurity company OryxLabs for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition will allow EDGE to expand its portfolio to offer advanced solutions addressing key cybersecurity-related issues, both locally and internationally.
Founded in 2019 by Mansour AlMulla, EDGE Group offers solutions for the defence sector. OryxLabs, founded in 2020, provides tailored cybersecurity solutions to safeguard its clients from emerging cyber threats, leveraging its expertise in data science, AI, security research, and Big Data.