Funding activity in the Middle East was led by growth-stage funding of two startups during the final week of 2023.
Soum and Hakbah both raised funding in their Series A rounds and will utilise the funds to fuel growth.
Other key startups that secured funding this week include Spare and Zeroe. Besides, buy-now-pay-later platform Tabby also secured debt funding.
On the investment front, Riyadh Valley Company (RVC), the investment arm of King Saud University, made its fourth limited partner style investment this year in Impact46’s third vehicle.
Founded in 2019 by Abdulaziz Alomran, Impact46 is a Saudi-based fund manager that invests mainly in tech startups from growth stages to pre-IPO.
Soum
Riyadh-headquartered Soum raised $18 million in a Series A round led by Jahez, along with participation from Isometry Capital.
Existing investors Khwarizmi Ventures, Alrajhi Partners and Outliers Venture Capital also participated in the round.
Founded in 2021 by Fahad Al Hassan, Fahad Albassam and Bader Almuburak, Soum is platform where SMEs can sell second-hand electronic products.
The startup aims to use the funding to expand regionally and scale beyond second-hand electronics to collectibles and vehicles, going ahead.
Soum claims to have grown 40 times since its launch.
Hakbah
Saudi-based fintech Hakbah raised $5.1 million in a Series A round led by VentureSouq, along with M Capital, Bunat Ventures.
Existing investors Global Ventures and Aditum Investment Management also took part in the round.
Founded in 2018 by Dimitar Kazakov and Naif AbuSaida, Hakbah is a social savings platform that allows users to save and access funds through rotating savings and credit association method (ROSCA).
It has previously, raised $2 million in a pre-Series A round in April.
The current investment will be used towards improving user journey and further developing its savings engine algorithm.
Spare
Fintech startup Spare raised $3 million in a round led by Vision Ventures to expand operations.
Others including Wa'ed Ventures, Seedra Ventures, 500 Global, and angel investors also participated in the round.
Founded in 2018 by Dalal Alrayes and Saurabh Shah, Spare is a Saudi Arabia-based open banking platform that allows businesses to access their customers' financial data to create new products. It is connected to banks in the region and offers a single connection to businesses to simplify access to data.
It aims to use the funds to expand the team and operations and ramp up marketing efforts.
Phoenix x Lyvely
UAE-based cryptocurrency mining and blockchain company Phoenix Group PLC acquired a 25% stake in a social networking and content monetisation platform Lyvely. The acquisition will allow Phoenix Group to enhance its presence in the social networking space.
Lyvely had, in fact, in August raised seed funding from Cypher Capital to develop a cryptocurrency token to provide earning potential to users on the platform.
Lyvely was founded earlier this year by Farah Zafar and Dave Catudal, enabling freelancer content creators to monetise their work. It also offers users a fintech feature that provides physical cards without a bank, as they are linked to their Lyvely earnings and digital wallet.
Zeroe
Cleantech startup Zeroe secured $2.2 milion in seed funding, led by Indonesian investor Owen Rahadiyan.
UAE-based Zeroe is an AI-powered carbon management and reporting platform that allows companies to measure emissions and report their decarbonisation performance. Founded earlier this year by Farouk Jivani and Ali Najafian, Zeroe helps organisations to make data-driven decisions, achieve their sustainability goals and create long-term shareholder value.
Tabby
Mubadala-backed buy-now-pay-later platform Tabby, which emerged as the region’s first fintech unicorn last month after raising $200 million in a Series D round, has now secured $700 million in debt financing from JPMorgan ahead of its planned initial public offering in Saudi Arabia.
Founded in 2019 by Hosam Arab, Tabby offers users a BNPL facility for shopping online and offline. It currently manages over $6 billion in annualised transaction volume.
In May, Tabby increased its debt facility to $350 million to fuel its growth plans, led by US-based Partners for Growth (PFG), along with Atalaya Capital Management and CoVenture.
It has four million customers and 15,000 retailers as clients across UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait. It had raised $58 million in Series C funding in January at a valuation of $660 million.
