 YoY Vc funding for MENA region Venture capital firms have invested $12.6B into startups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region so far this year. Pitchbook data shows that the region has closed 874 deals since the beginning of 2022 and is on track to outpace last year's tally of $16.8B. The reason behind the increase in venture funding can be traced down to increased government support in recent times. More: - There is an abundance of local capital available through sovereign wealth funds in the region, such as Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
- Last month, the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund launched a $10B fund in partnership with AI and cloud computing firm G42.
- Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth funds have assets under management totaling over $1T.
- Israel nabbed the most investment from the region, with the nation having the second highest VC investment per capita globally.
- Venture funding has increased 200% in the UAE since last year.
- A total of $2.4B has been invested this year.
- Angel/seed rounds represent 40% of the total deals, followed by early-stage deals at 32% and late-stage deals at 27%.
- Notable unicorns from the region include Futora, Getir, Rapyd, Wiz, and Moon Active, amongst others.
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Canadian venture capital firm IGan Partners Inc. is looking to launch two new healthcare technology startup-focused funds. The firm expects to raise $400M toward the new funds. IGan is targeting an IRR of 20%. More: - $150M of the fund is being raised for the IGan Fund 2.
- The IGan Fund 2 will invest in North American startups over a period of 10 years.
- The remaining $250M is being sought for another fund, called IGan Arabia Fund, that will invest in the Middle East.
- The firm will back companies in the region that are looking to scale production or sales capacity.
- The firm will primarily invest in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt.
- IGAN outlined its investment thesis, which is to fund startups that reduce health care costs or improve patient care.
- Notable companies in its portfolio are RetiSpec and MolecuLight.
- The fund's limited partners include Emilio Botin D'Ornano's family office, Mexico's Coppel family, and Canada's Francis family.
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Visionaries Club, a Berlin, Germany-based venture capital firm, announced three new funds totaling $393M (€400M). The funds include a pre-seed stage fund, a seed stage fund, and an early growth stage-focused fund. The German firm will focus its investments on B2B startups in Europe. More: - $147M (€150M) of the total funding is earmarked for the second Seed Fund, while $196M (€200M) is for the Early Growth Fund.
- The remaining $49M (€50M) is for the Tomorrow Fund.
- The fund will invest in “science-driven startups at the pre-seed and seed stages.”
- As a micro-VC fund, the firm leads or co-leads seed stage deals or co-invests along with larger VC funds in early stages.
- The firm has invested alongside Sequoia, Accel, Index, Bessemer, and Lightspeed.
- Personio, Miro, Leapsome, Xentral, Truelayer, Taxdoo, and Pigment are a few of the startups the firm has invested in.
- Visionaries Club was established in 2019 by Sebastian Pollok, a former VC at e.ventures and founder of Amorelie, and Robert Lacher, a founding partner at La Famiglia.
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Japanese investment bank Nomura established a venture capital division to invest in digital assets. The new entity is registered in Switzerland and called Laser Digital Holdings AG. The new venture capital division will back startups working on centralized finance (CeFi), decentralized finance (DeFi), Web3, and blockchain infrastructure. More: - In addition to venture capital, the newly formed division will also focus on secondary trading and investor products.
- Jez Mohideen has been announced as the new division’s CEO, while Steven Ashley will be its Chairman.
- The bank chose to incorporate the new firm in Switzerland due to the favorable regulatory environment for blockchain and digital assets and the presence of experienced talent.
- As of June 2022, Nomura had $454.8B worth of assets under management.
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Singapore-based venture capital firm Arbor Ventures has received $193M worth of capital commitments toward its third core fund. The firm expects to close the fund at $300M, per SEC regulatory filings seen by TechCrunch. The firm backs startups globally and has team members based in New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo. More: - Arbor intends to focus its investments primarily on early-stage fintech startups.
- The firm also invests in AI, healthcare, crypto, and BNPL platforms.
- HeyDay, Ralali, Planck, HiBob, and Tabby are a few of the 70 startups in the firm's portfolio.
- The firm has had six exits to date, most notable of which are Abra, Paidy, and 2C2P.
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E-commerce aggregator OpenStore secured a $32M funding. The funding was led by Lux Capital. OpenStore increased its valuation by 25% over the last funding round to $970M. More: - The new funding brings the firm’s total funds raised to date to over $150M.
- The Miami, Florida-based firm nabbed $75M in Series B funding from General Catalyst in November 2021, prior to which it received $30M funding from Khosla Ventures in July 2021.
- OpenStore was founded by Atomic general partner Jack Abraham and Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois.
- The firm acquired over a dozen startups over the last 18 months and tripled its team size to 100 employees.
- The firm acquires D2C brands that generate between $1M and $10M in gross merchandise volume.
- In addition to acquiring more brands, the incoming funds will be used to further develop the company’s technology, automate merchant acquiring processes, and improve operational efficiencies.
Zoom out: - E-commerce aggregators raked in $2B in funding in the first eight months of 2020, less than a third of the $9B investment received in the same period in 2021.
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- The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) will establish a new venture capital program to support underrepresented founders in the state of California. The program will receive $200M of the $1.1B U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) funds allocated to California.
- Global private market investment firm HarbourVest Partners closed its 12th flagship fund with $3B in capital commitments. The firm will make venture capital, growth equity, and buyout investments with the funds.
- Pharmaceutical company Bayer is looking to invest $1.3B into small biotech companies through its venture capital arm, Leaps by Bayer.
- Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) became the lead investor for The PVH Foundations’ $250M Fashion Climate Fund.
- Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and One Peak co-led a $60M (€61M) Series B fundraiser into German data privacy and compliance platform DataGuard.
- New York-based fintech AccessFintech raised $60M through its WestCap-led Series C funding round.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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