Due to varying regulatory environments, insurance is a largely localized business — providing an opportunity for homegrown insurtech startups to compete in the MENA markets.

Investors have taken note. In 2022, the region saw $417M in funding across 21 deals. This was lower than 2021 — which saw a record $545M invested across 30 deals — but the decline was much less stark than funding to the overall insurtech category, which saw a drop of nearly 50% YoY. 

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Nearly half of the population is under the age of 25, providing fintech startups with a large market of tech-savvy customers for decades to come. Further, the region’s fintechs have an opportunity to improve financial inclusion for the estimated 70% of adults who lack access to a bank account.

The region set new funding records last year, with $2.1B going to the fintech space over 175 deals. So far in 2022, fintechs in the Middle East have secured 41 deals totaling $503M. The largest rounds this year have gone to Israel-based Personetics, a customer engagement platform for banks, and Dubai-based BNPL provider Tabby — highlighting the variety of fintech categories gaining traction in the Middle East.

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Past unicorns with backing from MENA investors include US ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft, among others.

Using CB Insights data, we visualized MENA’s unicorn hunters and their investments in today’s global unicorns, all tracked on CB Insights’ real-time unicorn list. We include private, active companies only. Our analysis excludes MENA-based investors that are not direct investors or LPs in a fund that has invested in a unicorn.

Please click to enlarge.

Key takeaways

MENA’s unicorn investors range from sovereign wealth funds such as the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) to corporate venture firms like Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures.

The QIA is the only MENA investor that has backed 3 companies in the global unicorn club. Three other MENA-based investors have participated in deals to 2 unicorns: Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Only 2 unicorn companies have been backed by multiple MENA investors: French music platform Deezer (backed by Rotana Audio Visual and Kingdom Holding Company) and UK-based healthcare AI company Babylon Health (Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, NNS Holding).

In total, 14 MENA investors hold a stake in 17 unicorn companies as of 2019 YTD (9/4/2019).

United Arab Emirates leads unicorn investments 

The highest concentration of MENA investors with unicorns in their portfolio are in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Seven of the 14 MENA investors in the graphic above are based in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, within the UAE.

Mubadala, a fund based in Abu Dhabi, participated in DiDi Chuxing’s $4B Series H round (alongside SoftBank Group) in December 2017. China-based ride hailing giant DiDi Chuxing is the most valuable MENA-backed unicorn and the second most valuable private company in the world, with a $56B valuation.

Mubadala has also backed US-based fintech startup C2FO, participating in the company’s $100M Series F round in February 2018.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) backed China-based computer vision tech platform Face++ in a $750M Series D in 2019 and backed India-based renewable energy company ReNew Power in a $265M private equity round in 2015.

Dubai-based VentureSouq is the only MENA-based venture capital firm with a stake in a unicorn. VentureSouq backed US-based web community reddit in the company’s $200M Series C in July 2017.

From edtech to blockchain, MENA investors back a wide range of unicorns

Other MENA investors not based in the UAE also have stakes in the global unicorn club.

The QIA in Qatar has backed three unicorns: US-based fintech Sofi, US-based real estate tech startup Compass, and India-based edtech company BYJU’s.

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) backed US-based augmented reality company Magic Leap and UK-based digital healthcare company Babylon Health.

Other Saudi Arabia-based investors include The Kingdom Holding Company, which backed Deezer alongside Rotana Audio Visual in 2018, and Zad Investment Company, which backed Netherlands-based blockchain unicorn BitFury in a $20M Series A in 2014.

US-based Knotel, which offers premium office space, is one of the newest additions to the global unicorn club, reaching a $1B valuation in August 2019. Knotel’s recent $400M Series C saw participation from Wafra, the investment arm of the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund.

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UAE-based tech startups are raising more money across more deals than ever before.

Using the CB Insights database, we identified the 10 most well-funded tech startups in the UAE each year since 2015.

Startup emirates rising

The number of equity deals to UAE-based tech startups reached an all-time high in 2018, up nearly 200% from 2015.

The largest single funding round to a UAE-based startup since 2015 goes to e-commerce company Noon, which raised a $1B round from investors Mohamed Alabbar and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia in 2016.

By excluding Noon’s funding round from the chart below, we can see that the total amount of US dollars deployed to the UAE’s tech startups also peaked in 2018. In fact, the amount of dollars deployed to UAE-based tech startups in 2018 more than doubled versus the year prior.

In 2018, the UAE-based real estate website PropertyFinder raised a $120M mega-round from US-based General Atlantic and Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures. PropertyFinder is the second most well-funded tech startup in the UAE as of 8/20/19.

The UAE’s Most Well-Funded tech startups

Below, we mapped out the 10 most well-funded tech startups in the UAE each year since 2015. We only included companies that have disclosed new funding since 2016. Dead or acquired companies are excluded.

Click on the image to enlarge.

The UAE’s rise within the global tech startup ecosystem is in part evidenced by the fast run-up in total disclosed funding raised by the country’s 10 most well-funded tech startups over the last five years. The most well-funded company ranking has shifted over the past few years as investors continue to pour more money into the biggest and most promising startups in the UAE.

In fact, the combined total disclosed funding of the most well-funded companies today (excluding Noon) are 11x greater than the funding of the top ten companies in 2015.

Key insights about these companies:

• Noon has been the most well-funded tech startup in the UAE since 2016.
• Over half of the top ten most well-funded tech startups in the UAE since 2015 are operating in e-commerce.
• 2018 was the first year on record in which all of the UAE’s top ten most well-funded tech startups had each raised a total of $10M+.
• Three startups — Fetchr, Souqalmal, and The Luxury Closet — are the only companies to stay in the top ten in each of the last five years.
• Fetchr is the only startup that has stayed in the top five most well-funded tech startups in the UAE since 2015.

What’s next? (the UAE’s next unicorn)

All of the top ten most well-funded tech startups in the UAE are worth keeping an eye on. However, one company stands out as a rising star to watch.

Fetchr is the third most well-funded tech startup in the UAE, and the company has been dubbed “the next desert unicorn.”

In May 2017, Fetchr raised a $41M Series B round led by US-based New Enterprise Associates. Fetchr has raised $52M across four rounds of funding, and the company will reportedly raise a large Series C round in 2019.

Fetchr delivers packages to a location by using the receiver’s smartphone GPS instead of an address. Much like a ride-hailing app or a food delivery service, Fetchr’s algorithm matches couriers with appropriate pick-up and drop-off points.

In areas where there are no street names or building numbers, package delivery is challenging and in some cases impossible. Fetchr is capitalizing on two trends to help solve the “no address” problem: growing levels of smartphone penetration, and the rapidly expanding e-commerce industry in the region.

Fetchr currently operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bahrain, but a new funding round could be used to expand outside of the Middle East.

The company is also looking ahead to autonomous drone delivery services. It partnered with Eniverse Technologies and Skycart last year to develop the first autonomous drone delivery service in the Middle East.

Fetchr’s entire technology platform is based on Amazon Web Services (AWS). In July 2019, Amazon launched the first AWS Region in the Middle East to provide cloud coverage for its expanding Middle East client base. Fetchr could be a possible acquisition target as Amazon moves further into the region and looks to expand e-commerce services in other emerging markets.

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The country’s internet user base grew nearly 22% in 2017, making it one of Asia’s fastest-growing internet markets.

However, despite substantial growth in the internet space, the country’s tech ecosystem remains largely under the radar. This is partially due to the fact that its population size pales in comparison to other high-growth countries like India, which offers a substantially larger addressable market.

That said, several investors and foreign companies see an opportunity in Pakistan’s nascent market, positioning themselves early as more people come online. Many of the country’s most popular digital services are local offerings from foreign companies.

We analyzed some of the activity being carried out by these foreign companies.

FOREIGN COMPANIES PUT THEIR STAMP ON PAKISTAN’S TECH SCENE

The Badshahi Moque in Lahore, Pakistan.

Many of the companies leading the way in Pakistan’s new digital economy are from outside the country or owned by foreign entities. Below we look at some of the most prominent players.

Foodpanda: Rocket Internet’s Foodpanda, which was acquired by Germany’s Delivery Hero in Q4’16, has operated its food delivery service in Pakistan for many years. It bought local rival food delivery startup EatOye in Q1’15 and is considered the country’s foremost food delivery company.

Rocket Internet: Rocket Internet also operates its online retail subsidiary Daraz in Pakistan. It also separately operated a classifieds site, Kaymu, which it folded into Daraz in 2012.

Daraz is considered the country’s most popular e-commerce site. Daraz is also the country’s most well-funded tech company. Its only fundraise, a $55M Series A round raised in Q3’15, is larger than the total funding of any other tech company in the country.

OLX: Without the direct presence of major e-commerce players like China’s Alibaba, the US’ Amazon, and India’s Flipkart, the contest to become Pakistan’s dominant online shopping destination is still up for grabs.

Amsterdam’s OLX, which is owned by South Africa’s Naspers, is a Craiglist-esque classifieds website that’s popular in the country. In 2015, it bought rival classifieds site Asani. Currently, its biggest competition is e-commerce site Daraz, which, unlike OLX, does not allow merchants to sell directly on its platform.

Careem: Competing with Uber in Pakistan is the UAE’s Careem, which has raised $771M and is considered a unicorn (valuation over $1B). Careem has raised funding from Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, Japan’s Rakuten, and Saudia Arabia’s Saudi Telecom Company.

In Q4’18, it raised a $200M series F round that involved multiple investors from Saudi Arbia, including Al Tayyar Travel Group and Kingdom Holding Company. According to rumors, Uber has discussed possibly acquiring Careem. Careem is also suspected to be entering food delivery.

Uber: The international ride-hailing giant is beginning to expand in Pakistan. As of May 2017, Uber is available in seven cities across Pakistan.

CHINA ENTERS VIA ALIBABA, ANT FINANCIAL, AND SMARTPHONES

In March 2018, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba was rumored to be looking to buy e-commerce site Daraz, which is the online retail subsidiary of Germany’s Rocket Internet in Pakistan.

Its financial arm ANT Financial already has a presence in Pakistan. In March 2018, Telenor’s Pakistan subsidiary, which it fully owns, signed an MoU with Alibaba’s financial arm, ANT Financial. ANT will invest ~$184M in Telenor’s microfinance bank, taking a 47% stake.

Chinese smartphone brands like OPPO, Infinix, and Xiaomi are also active in Pakistan. In 2017, according to IDC data, three of the top 5 best-selling phones in the country were created by OPPO. The other two spots were Samsung products.

The post Here’s How Foreign Tech Companies Are Entering Pakistan Early appeared first on CB Insights Research.

The country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), was the first Saudi-based investor to enter the EV space.

In recent months, the fund has commanded the attention of the press, largely driven by its investments in Lucid Motors and in Tesla — as well as its rumored buyout of Tesla that ultimately fell through.

Investing in EV companies, in addition to companies pioneering technology in alternative energy, helps the country hedge against its oil export business.

In addition, Saudi Arabia was hit hard by the collapse of crude oil prices in 2014, which weighed heavily on the profitability of its oil business.

These recent investments in EVs and renewables are part of a broader economic diversification strategy called Saudi Vision 2030, pioneered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in an attempt to lessen the kingdom’s dependence on oil.

As part of the plan, PIF is planning to reach $2T in assets under management by 2030, up from an estimated $250B currently. To finance these investments, Prince bin Salman has been redirecting the country’s oil revenues to the fund, and recently, PIF announced it had raised an $11B bank loan.

While PIF has driven the majority of funding in recent months, a number of venture capital firms and corporates in the kingdom are also funneling capital into tech firms, which could help diversify the economy and bring new jobs into the region.

To understand where Saudi investors are most focused in the alternative energy space, we used our Business Social Graph tool to map out their investments in electric vehicles and renewable energy since the launch of Saudi Vision 2030 in April 2016.

Click to enlarge. Orange lines represent acquisitions. Green lines represent investments. 

breaking into electric vehicles

In September, PIF poured $1B into Lucid Motors, an EV manufacturer that had recently been struggling to raise enough capital to launch production for its first luxury EV, the Lucid Air. Lucid plans to use the funding for engineering development and testing of the Air, which is due in 2020. The company also plans to build its first factory in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Lucid’s all-electric sedan, the Lucid Air

The investment in Lucid came just six weeks after Elon Musk tweeted that he would take Tesla private at $420 a share, suggesting that PIF would back the company’s move.

While many view the Lucid investment as PIF passing over Tesla, it’s important to note that in August, PIF had purchased a roughly 5% stake in Tesla, which would equate to an investment of almost $2B.

Both of these investments highlight the fund’s attempt to hedge its bets on oil, in addition to taking advantage of the long-term opportunity in EVs.

Renewable ENergy also a focus among saudi investors

PIF, as well as a number of other Saudi VC funds and corporations, are also investing in clean energy.

The fund announced an investment in Saudi power company ACWA Power in July, taking a 15.2% direct stake in the company. ACWA is currently building out its renewable energy capabilities.

ACWA’s solar plant in Morocco

In February, ACWA won a contract to develop a 300 megawatt solar plant in Saudi Arabia worth $300M.

PIF has also expressed interest in investing in its own solar project, announcing in May that it was in talks with banks to fund a solar farm in partnership with SoftBank that would have a capacity of 200 gigawatts — 100 times larger than the largest solar farm ever proposed — and would cost $200B to build.

In October, the fund announced that the project had been shelved for a broader, more practical strategy to support renewable energy. It’s worth noting that government-driven solar projects have been cancelled in the past.

The country is also planning to invest $7B in renewable energy in 2018, mainly to create seven new solar plants and a wind farm. These investments are intended to help the country reach its goal for 2023 to have renewables driving at least 10% of its power generation.

Outside of PIF, a number of VCs and Saudi holding companies have also invested in renewable energy.

In December 2017, Saudi Aramco’s venture arm led a $9.4M Series B investment in NexWafe, a spin-off of solar energy research firm Fraunhofer ISE. NexWafe has developed monocrystalline wafers used in solar cell production, which consume substantially less energy than traditional wafers.

WOW Ventures, a Saudi VC firm, contributed to Tespack’s $2.35M Series A investment in September 2017. Tespack has developed a solar backpack that allows people to utilize off-grid electricity outdoors.

The KAUST Innovation fund, a seed fund at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, has also invested in two solar startups. In February 2017, KAUST contributed to QD Solar‘s $7.64M Series A round. QD Solar has developed technology that increases the energy output of solar panels, utilizing quantum dot technology to capture infrared energy that’s currently wasted.

The fund has also invested in NOMADD Desert Solar Solutions, which has developed a fully-automated system that cleans the dust from the surface of solar panels without using water or causing any other type of damage.

NOMADD’s solar panel cleaning technology

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To enter these high-growth countries, many are partnering with regional power producers or launching large-scale energy projects in emerging markets. Few are making investments.

According to CB Insights data, only a single utility stands out for its high level of activity in emerging markets. ENGIE is a French utility company that also generates natural gas, renewable energy, and nuclear energy.

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In this brief we take a closer look at the investment activity coming out of the MENA region and identify forward-looking trends to keep an eye on as the region’s investors continue to make an impact in the global private markets.

Highlights from our analysis include:

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The startups profiled in this report are headquartered in countries that each take between .01% and .5% of the world’s venture capital deals since 2012. You can see below that 50+ startup frontier markets take only 5% of the world’s VC deals.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:

Startup frontier markets are seeing increased deal activity.

Collectively, the 50+ frontier markets we identified have seen rising VC deal activity nearly every year since 2012, with this year being on track to beating last year’s total of ~1500 VC deals.

These companies and ecosystems are young.

The lion’s share of deals to startups in these markets have been at an early stage (Seed/Angel – Series A), including 75% of all deals last year.

Jakarta leads, followed by Dubai, Vienna, and Istanbul.

Of cities in these markets Jakarta, Indonesia, takes the largest share of global VC deals since 2012, almost twice as large a share as Dubai. Jakarta companies saw 47 VC backed deals last year.

The post Emerging Startup Frontiers appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Some recent first-time investments by US CVCs/corporates outside the US include Nasdaq Ventures’ June 8 bet on France-based blockchain app-development company Stratumn as part of a $7.8M Series A, Lockheed Martin took a minority stake in Canada-based company OMX, and Bristol Myers Squibb invested in German company Cardior Pharmaceuticals in May.

Part of this trend is pushed by the overall increase in active CVCs which we’ve tracked in our semiannual CVC Report.

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That’s a large proportion of Naspers’ private market activity. As CB Insights data shows, it participated in investments totaling $3.35B across 37 total deals in that time span.

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The country is now home to one unicorn company valued at $1B; the ride hailing company Careem Networks reached unicorn status in December 2016. The e-commerce company Souq.com received a billion-dollar valuation in February, last year. However, Amazon is reportedly now in the process of acquiring Souq.com, for a price that has been reported to be between $650M-$750M.

Another Emirati e-commerce company, Noon.com, obtained $1B in funding in November 2016, and has said it will begin operating in 2017.

The most active venture capital firm in the UAE investing in tech startups is Wamda Capital.

Using CB Insights database we charted the rise of equity funding to tech startups in the UAE and mapped the most active VCs and corporate VCs based in the UAE that invested globally in tech startups since 2012. We also profiled the quarterly investment activity of Wamda Capital over the last two years.

Annual UAE Tech Startup Funding History

Tech startups in the UAE have raised more equity funding deals every year since 2012. Last year, deals peaked at 38. Dollars invested in Emirati tech startups first broke $100M in 2014, and sky-rocketed to over $1.7B last year. However, the $1B funding round to Noon.com from Mohamed Alabbar, and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, accounts for an outsize portion of last year’s funding total. Nevertheless, if we remove that round, the amount of equity funding to private tech startups in the UAE, still increased 588% in 2016.

Most Active UAE VCs

The most active venture capital investor based in the UAE by number of unique companies funded since 2012 is Wamda Capital, with 20 unique investments; two more than the next most active startup investor in the UAE, Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi. Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi, supported by Twofour54, primarily makes seed-stage investments in UAE startups. Rounding out the top three is BECO Capital, with 12 companies funded. The ten most active VC firms in the UAE have all invested in three or more tech startups since 2012.

Turn8, a venture fund established by the global trade corporation DP World, is widely considered one of the most active early-stage startup investors based in the UAE, but is excluded from this analysis due to the limited availability of disclosed information regarding the firm’s investments.

STC Ventures, the No. 5 most active UAE investor, is an independently managed venture capital fund whose anchor investor is the Saudi Telecom Company. STC Ventures is managed by Iris Capital, and has its headquarters in the Emirate of Dubai. Womena, tied at 5th, is an angel investment network for high-net-worth women in the Gulf that invests in startups.

Twofour54, in 7th, is a subsidiary of the Media Zone Authority Abu Dhabi. Along with STC Ventures, these two firms are the only corporate venture capital investors in the top ten.

Dubai Silicon Oasis, tied for eighth place, is a public-private partnership that invests in tech startups in the UAE, among other services.

UAE VC Investments Mapped

Notable common investments between the firms in our infographic below include the ride-hailing company Careem Networks, with partial backing from Wamda Capital, BECO Capital, and STC Ventures; the financial products comparison site Compareit4me with backing from Wamda Capital, Dubai Silicon Oasis, and STC Ventures; and the online marketplace The Luxury Closet, with backing from Wamda Capital, Dubai Silicon Oasis, twofour54, and EquiTrust. All three startups are based in the Emirate of Dubai.

These investors also participate in deals to companies outside the Middle East. For example, the US-based unicorn company Apttus, valued at $1.3B, obtained an $88M Series D round in September 2016, from investors that included Gulf Islamic Investments.

Note, several investments associated with Wamda Capital, in the mapping below are associated with MENA Venture Investments (MVI); the predecessor of Wamda Capital.

Click on the image to enlarge. 

Spotlight: Wamda Capital Annual Financing Activity

The Wamda Growth Stage Fund is a $75M fund launched in June 2015 by Wamda Capital. That fund was pre-dated by MENA Venture Investments (MVI), a $55.7M venture fund. Wamda Capital’s most active investment quarter was in Q3’16 when it participated in five deals. Wamda has invested in disclosed follow-on rounds to three companies in its portfolio: Careem Networks, Compareit4me, and the online fashion retailer for Muslim clothing Modanisa. Seed deals with Wamda Capital’s participation include: Lunch:on ($500K), KapGel ($1M), GEEKS ($600K), and Boxit ($600K), among others. 
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Additionally, the government intends to turn the country’s Public Investment Fund, already one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds into a major tech investor. As part of that drive, it has announced that the Public Investment Fund would partner with Japan’s SoftBank Group in order to create a $100B tech investment fund in October 2016. Separately, SoftBank Group has pledged to invest $50B in US companies, as part of a handshake agreement between SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and then President-elect Donald Trump.

Given the rising profile of Saudi investors, we used the CB Insights Business Social Graph, which maps relationships between investors and target companies, to map out a network of 25 Saudi Arabian investors as well as their private market investments between January 2012 and January 2017. We include investors, both public and private, that are headquartered within Saudi Arabia.

We chose to exclude investors that were headquartered in other countries (albeit with a connection to Saudi Arabia), or investors that were jointly owned by entities from other nations in addition to Saudi Arabia-based owners. Although we recognize that other investment entities located in, or related to Saudi Arabia exist, such as AlTouq Group, Rajhi Invest, and KBW Investments, we excluded such entities from our analysis due to lack of publicly available information.

In the graph below, investments are denoted by green lines, acquisitions by orange lines.

Note: Hellofood is listed as both a company (in plain text) and an investor (marked with the company’s logo). Raed Ventures also participated in deals to Crowd Analyzer, Fetchr, and foodics, however these companies were not featured in the image below due to a lack of publicly available information on those deals. Although INET may have additional investments, they were not featured in the image below due to a lack of publicly available information. 

Click on the image to enlarge.

Key insights from the Business Social Graph image above:

• Saudi Aramco has already invested beyond oil: Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), the venture arm of Saudi Aramco, is the second most active Saudi investor, with a total of 20 investments that have taken place between January 2012 and January 2017. Moreover, SAEV has participated in deals in industries beyond oil, such as those involving Siluria Technologies, MAANA, and Wearable Intelligence. Siluria Technologies is a producer of natural gas-related and clean energy-related technologies, while MAANA and Wearable Intelligence are focused in the big data analytics, and wearable technology spaces, respectively.
• Clean energy: Of the 24 deals pertaining to companies in the energy, oil, and drilling space, at least 12 deals relate directly to clean or alternative energy companies. The National Petrochemical Industrial Co. also participated in financing to the company Siluria Technologies (described above). The Riyadh Valley Company has participated in rounds of financing to 3 clean-energy related companies: a $12.5M Series C round in Q2’16 to Sol Voltaics, a solar efficiency energy capture and storage company; a $14M Series B round in Q3’15 to GLM, a Japanese electric car company; and, a $36.6M Series D round in Q2’15 to BeamReach Solar, a solar commercialization company. Additionally, the KAUST Innovation Fund, based out of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, has participated in two rounds of financing totaling $1.2M to NOMADD Desert Solar Solutions, which offers an automated solar panel cleaning robotic device.
• Ride-sharing: Of the 70 deals related to tech between January 2012 and January 2017, 16 deals have been directly connected to companies in the mobility industry. Saudi investors have shown a particular affinity for ride-sharing companies. Both the Saudi Telecom Company and the Al-Tayyar Travel Group participated in a $350M Series D round of financing in Q4’16 to Careem Networks, a newly minted ride-sharing unicorn, and competitor to Uber in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia financed a $3.5B private equity round to Uber in Q2’16, one of the largest investments ever in a privately held startup. Additionally, the Kingdom Holding Company participated in a Series F and other transactions to Lyft, in deals totaling more than $497M.
• Private jets: Alongside Jay-Z, the Saudi Royal Family has participated in multiple financing rounds, totaling $155M in aggregate to the unicorn JetSmarter, a worldwide mobile marketplace for private jets.
• Going local: Beyond investments in global tech companies, some Saudi investors have focused the majority of their efforts on local tech investments in the MENA region. Mobily Ventures, the venture arm of Etihad Etisalat (dba Mobily), invested in 4 MENA-based companies between 2014 and 2015, including United Arab Emirates-based mobile delivery app Fetchr, and Saudi Arabia-based online food ordering platform Hellofood. All 30 deals in which seed investor Flat6Labs Jeddah participated, pertain to companies based in Saudi Arabia. Flat6Labs Jeddah was the most active investor on our graph.

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Using the CB Insights database, we rounded up 11 notable tech VC financings in Africa over the past 5 years to see which companies are drawing investor attention.

Interestingly, a largest share of financings on the list went to e-commerce, highlighting the industry’s potential in Africa. In first place was Jumia, an e-commerce company active in 9 African markets. Its latest round put it at a valuation of $555M. Also notable is that Jumia is a portfolio company of Africa Internet Group, the unicorn that is an internet holding company and also appears separately on the list. 

The next largest round went to Takealot Online, a South Africa-based e-commerce platform that appeared on our list of 50 Future Unicorns. Takealot raised a $100M round in Q2’14 from Tiger Global Management.

Finally, in third place was the previously mentioned Africa Internet Group (AIG) whose recent financing from French insurer AXA Group put the company at a valuation just above $1B. AIG is a joint venture between of Rocket Internet, MTN Group (a South African telecom), and Millicom, a telecom and media conglomerate active in Africa and Latin America. AIG portfolio companies include Jumia and Zando (a fashion e-commerce site also on the list), among many others.

Aside from e-commerce (Nigeria-based “online mall” Konga.com is also present), several other verticals made the list. Smile is telecom with focus on mobile phone infrastructure, and Wananchi Group is a television/internet service provider. Travelstart, a travel tech booking site, made the list with a recent $40M round. And Teraco Data Environments, with a $23M Series C, operates data centers to house clients’ data and networking operations.

While most were large rounds, also included were 2 companies that raised sizable early-stage rounds: BRCK recently raised a $3M seed round for its wireless connectivity devices; and Kopo Kopo raised a  $2.1M Series A in Q4’15 for its pivot away from mobile payments into micro-lending.

See the full list below:

Notable African VC Tech Financings
2011 – 2016 YTD (2/16/16)

Rank	Company	Logo	Round	Amount ($M)	Country	Quarter
1	Jumia		Series C	150	Nigeria	Q4’14
2	Takealot Online		Series A	100	South Africa	Q2’14
3	Africa Internet Group		Corporate Minority	83.5	Nigeria	Q1’16
4	Wananchi Group Holdings		Unattributed VC – II	57.5	Kenya	Q2’11
5	Smile Telecoms Holdings		Unattributed	50	Mauritius	Q3’15
6	Travelstart		Unattributed VC	40	South Africa	Q1’16
7	Zando		Series A	26	South Africa	Q4’12
8	Konga.com		Series B	25	Nigeria	Q1’14
8	Teraco Data Environments		Series C	23.2	South Africa	Q2’11
10	BRCK		Seed	3	Kenya	Q1’16
11	Kopo Kopo		Series A	2.1	Kenya	Q4’15

Feature image credit: K. Kendall. Creative Commons license Attribution 2.0 Generic.

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