Funding activity in the Middle East accelerated in the third week of July, led mostly by the UAE-based startups such as sustainable construction marketplace Tenderd, fashion recommendation e-commerce startup Get Outfit, business-to-business marketplace YallaHub, and restaurant marketing startup Growdash.
Separately, sustainable mobility solutions provider One Moto Technologies secured $40 million in lease financing.
The second quarter of 2023 reported the lowest funding amount in the Middle East and North Africa region since the third quarter of 2020, and the lowest number of deals since the second quarter of 2017, according to a report by Magnitt. Saudi Arabia led the region with $446 million raised during this period, whereas the UAE led in terms of volume, reporting 60 deals.
Tenderd
The startup raised an undisclosed sum from the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco, Wa’ed Ventures, to expand geographically and come up with more sustainable solutions for manufacturers.
Founded in 2018 by Arjun Mohan as a construction vehicle rental marketplace, Tenderd has evolved to offer AI-driven insights to optimize asset use and reduce emissions.
It enables construction companies to rent excavators, dump trucks, bulldozers, cranes, while its platform TenderdTrack helps transform heavy equipment into "smart" machines. It facilitates decarbonizing construction and logistics operations.
The platform provides customers with AI-generated insights to increase asset utilization and reduce emissions, targeting heavy industries such as construction and logistics. Its clients, essentially large organisations in the construction, ecommerce, logistics, and energy sectors globally use the platform to improve utilisation of their capital equipment and vehicles, besides reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions during operations.
Tenderd, which has presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria, had in 2019 raised $5.8 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Peter Thiel, Paul Graham, and Beco Capital.
Get Outfit
The startup raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-seed round led by Forward Angel to accelerate the soft launch of its mobile app in the UAE.
The Dubai-based entity plans to raise further capital to scale and launch its operations in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Founded in 2022 by Kim Sanzhiev, Get Outfit is a personalised fashion discovery app with an AI-powered stylist, which recommends outfits to a user from over 18,000 brands at the backend. It connects with the inventory of leading fashion marketplaces and retailers, well as local designers to make the correct recommendation.
YallaHub
Dubai-based marketplace aggregator and quick commerce startup YallaHub raised $6 million in a pre-Series A round to refine its IT platform for order aggregation and expand its network of partner marketplaces to facilitate geographical expansion plans.
The round was co-led by Regolith, a financial and investment service firm and several Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region-focused private investors including Fedor Ovchinnikov, founder of Dodo Brands.
The B2B ecommerce startup plans to accelerate its expansion to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Founded in 2021 by Leo Dovbenko and Stas Seleznev, YallaHub enables brands to scale up across the GCC region and achieve global omnichannel sales with a “single-window service”.
The platform charges businesses a monthly subscription fee, an onboarding fee, and a commission for managing brand sales and promotions. YallaHub has already introduced over 80 small, medium and enterprise brands to the UAE market, including the global health food brand Vkusvill. It also plans to enter three other GCC countries in 2024- Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
Growdash
Growdash, which helps restaurants build and execute profitable online growth strategies, raised $750,000 in a pre-seed round led by Flat6Labs to scale operations and expand geographically.
Other investors in the UAE-based startup include Plus Venture Capital, Judah VC, TPN Investments, and angel investors including former Talabat CEO Abdulhamid Alomar, and serial entrepreneur Zeid Husban.
The startup, founded by Sean Trevaskis and Enver Sorkun, plans to use the funds to expand the team size besides improving its proprietary capabilities and launching its software-as-a-service offering in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
With operations in the UAE and Kuwait, essentially helps restaurants manage and optimize marketing campaigns to generate higher returns on advertising spend, including by creating data-driven online campaigns. According to the company, its platform has enabled popular brands to increase the returns on their online advertising efforts by over 800%.
One Moto
Sustainable mobility solutions provider One Moto Technologies secured $40 million in lease financing, led by Pyse along with other investors, to expedite the leasing of electric delivery vehicles throughout the UAE.
Founded in 2016 by Adam Ridgway and Stephen Wood, One Moto provides sustainable mobility solutions focused on decarbonising the last mile in the UAE.
The financing will allow One Moto to expand its offering of electric delivery vehicles to customers and further establish its robust infrastructure network across the UAE.
