Who got funded in April this year?
Sary, the digital B2B marketplace connecting small businesses with merchant wholesalers of fast moving consumer goods, announced today a Series A investment of $6.6 million led by Raed Ventures, with participation from MSA Capital and Derayah Ventures.
Sary is in the process of expanding its Saudi footprint, with two new offices planned by the end of this year, catering to an additional 25 cities. The investment will also support the development of new revenue streams, the creation of an enhanced product roadmap, and the optimization of an innovative user experience, taking Sary to untapped customer segments.
Pure Harvest Smart Farms has secured a multi-stage investment commitment valued at over USD $100 million with Wafra International Investment Company leading with $20.6 million Series A financing round with an initial $10 million capital injection, the first step in a multi-phase regional expansion to deliver sustainably-grown safe, delicious and affordable fresh produce throughout the GCC.
The investment makes it the largest-ever agriculture technology investment in the MENAPT region. Ghazi Al-Hajeri, CEO of Wafra, will now join Pure Harvest’s Board of Directors. The strategic investment will drive the Company’s development and deployment of advanced controlled-environment agriculture solutions across the region to sustainably grow premium quality fresh fruits & vegetables—regardless of outdoor climate conditions.
Mamo Pay, the peer-to-peer payments app, has raised $1.5M from investors supporting its efforts with partners and regulators in the run-up to launch this year. Global Founders Capital led the investment round, with Global Ventures, VentureSouq, MSA Capital, Dubai Angel Investors , 500 Startups, and other angel investors also participating.
Founded by former Google employees, Mohammad El Saadi, Asim Janjua, and Imad Gharazeddine, Mamo Pay enables payments to family, friends and businesses with just a few taps and zero fees. Mamo Pay is currently testing on Android in run-up to launch this year, followed by iOS and web versions.
UAE based travel-tech start-up, Hotel Data Cloud (HDC), has successfully secured AED 1.3 million in seed funding from both local and international investors, to support hotels in re-engaging with customers in post COVID-19 recovery.
With the hotel industry reeling from the economic downturn of COVID-19, the funding will assist HDC in accelerating the introduction of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) based recommendation engine, specifically designed to help hotels overcome a range of pain points, as well as reach a wider customer base, once people start traveling again.
US venture capital firm - Signal Peak Ventures leads seed funding for the launch of Hubpay’s digital wallet in the Middle East market. Additionally, a UAE angel investment group – the Falcon Network, is participating in Hubpay's Seed round.
Hubpay will address both the remittance market and the mobile money market by launching a digital wallet for both the senders and receivers. As part of Hubpay's international strategy, Hubpay has been welcomed onto the Visa Fast Track program, enabling it to leverage Visa's payment infrastructure and further scale the business. Hubpay is in the advanced stages of the licensing process to receive a Money Services License in the United Arab Emirates market, enabling low cost digital remittances and international bill payment.
360VUZ, the immersive virtual mobile app, has secured a $5.8M in a Series A investment round from leading VCs such as Shorooq Partners (lead investor), KBW Ventures, Media Visions, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups with the participation of top global investment firms as well as Magnus Olsson and Samih Toukan, the two founders that had their companies acquired by Uber, Yahoo and Amazon, and several other investors.
The investment will support further development of the immersive video app technology, scale the business, expand its global reach and offer more personalized experiences along with additional proprietary technologies.
Egyptian FoodTech startup, Mumm, has just closed a Pre-Series A Bridge Round from Alex Angels. The startup, founded by Waleed Abd El Rahman in 2015, is an online marketplace that delivers homemade food to individual customers as well as businesses. The new funding will help them expand their operations.
Initially launched as an online marketplace for customers to access nutritious, affordable and delicious homemade food conveniently, Mumm has grown to become a virtual cafeteria for corporate and SMEs offices, delivering company orders in bulk, thus saving money for employees, and removing the operational hassle of having to provide food for the company.
Ibtikar Fund announced its newest seed investment in Tawazon, a mobile application offering Arabic-language meditations. Tawazon, or “balance” in Arabic, offers guided meditations of different durations and for different audiences. Users log on, find a quiet spot, select a meditation of choice, ranging from breathing to mindfulness and relaxing before sleep.
Meditation in the Arabic language remains a largely untapped market, while in other markets, meditation apps have proven to be great successes. Ibtikar’s funding will help the Tawazon team finalize key features in the app and begin market testing.
