We've seen an incredible amount of activity in the region in H2'24 across both Fintech & wider Technology sectors. Here at Mingzulu we've paused for a breath and found time to do a blog of just a snippet of whats been going on.
This activity is supported by the recent investment landscape analysis by Wamda focussed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region indicating a notable recovery, with 63 startups securing a total of $282 million in September 2024. This is a substantial 234% increase month-on-month (MoM) and a 607% rise year-on-year (YoY), while debt financing accounted for just 12% of the overall investment.
The biggest ticket size last month was allocated to Shifts round, in which the Saudi mobility startup raised $82.8 million. The second highest investment was registered by Syarah garnering $60 million in a Series C round, $20 million of which is financed with debt.
Saudi startups shake off dust in particular! After being absent as the top-funded ecosystem in MENA for two consecutive months, Saudi startups made it to the top once again in September, scooping up more than 60% of the total investment in the region, raising $170.8 million stretched over 23 deals. The second spot was secured by the UAE, bagging $73.8 million by 12 startups. In contrast, Egyptian startups lagged significantly, with only 13 of them managing to secure a total of $25 million. Check out the full report by Wamda; https://www.wamda.com/2024/10/mena-startups-raise-282-million-september-2024-bringing-q3-total-727-million
Over the course of September & October the Mingzulu team have been actively engaged delivering on our mandates and promises with our clients, but also took some time out to engage in a few of the regions flagship show case Fintech & wider tech-digital innovation events, backing up Wamda's analysis of growth being seen across the investment scene.
As guests of The Central Bank of Saudi Arabia & Fintech Saudi, we had the honour of attending, with our founder Grant Niven leading a number of industry sessions at the inaugural 24 Fintech summit. The energy at the 4 day forum was testament to the progress the Kingdom is seeing across the Fintech & wider technology enabled financial services sector.
The stats alone below from the Fintech Saudi 2023 report are evidence of the growth seen in the Kingdom over the last year, with momentum building as we have accelerated through 2024. The full report is available via : https://fintechsaudi.com/about/
This growth backs demand from consumers for digital first services from the financial services sector and we're set to see this accelerate even further over the coming years. A great time to be in the region for entrepreneurs and also very timely for consumers across all segments who have been demanding enhanced services and products from the industry. There is no doubt that the support of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), Capital Market Authority, Insurance Authority & FSDP have been instrumental to this growth and acceleration of innovation agenda and long may it continue as the drive is needed to keep momentum across the industry in putting the likes of the Kingdom on the global map.
Mingzulu will continue to support leading founders in the Kingdom via our board advisory and Business 2 Investor (B2I) fund raise services, with support from our pioneers, the most notable addition to our client tribe of late being Forus Invest, led by the inspiring Nosaibah Al Rajhi (https://forusinvest.com/en/)
Forus is one of the first debt investment marketplaces registered and authorised by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), focussing on providing business loans and investment opportunities for SME's and investors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The SME sector has been underserved in many global markets and Nosaibah and her team at Forus are focussed on getting that right in the Kingdom with a clear vision to build a thriving ecosystem that bridges the funding gap and promotes financial inclusion.
Building a debt crowdfunding platform connecting SME's with the investor community requires trust and credibility thats fully aligned to SAMA regulations, a journey Forus has been on since entering the Fintech sandbox in 2019 and achieving full approvals from the regulator to scale operations during 2021-22. Key to success is technology and automation in the lending game. Forus's IP-backed automation and data drive lending with advanced AI for streamlined underwriting has been on of the investment areas during 2024, in addition to building out the team to manage risk and engage the market. We're delighted to support Forus on their journey as we push on into Q4'24-25.
Building momentum & collaboration across the Financial Services & Technology Ecosystems in the Middle East is our core purpose & mission. Bridging Founders / Entrepreneurs with Capital & Enterprise businesses will always be in our DNA here at Mingzulu. We've been supporting this on a number of fronts both directly via our advisory mandates, but also as part of Fintech Tuesdays - FTT (https://fintechtuesdays.com/) - a grass roots, non profit community started in the UAE (and now totalling 1000's of members) and now up and running in the Kingdom.
Its been really awesome seeing this grow from strength to strength over the last 2 years and in October 2024 we saw 3 further milestones with collaboration kicked off with the Association of Chartered Treasurers (ACT) in Dubai, the signing of a strategic MoU with ADGM and without doubt the best show case of the whole industry coming together at FTT Unplugged at Gitex, Fintech Surge - hosted at Dubai Harbour last week (as we type :-).
The line up of industry leaders and founders over the 2 day event was nothing short of magical....the energy, knowledge sharing and community coming together was nothing short of genius by the FTT team. Hats off to all involved,
Mingzulu's, Grant Niven will continue to support FTT as an Advisory Committee Member and also other founder communities such as OPUS (https://www.joinopus.org/) here in the UAE. Do reach out if you want to be part FTT - its free and registration details available via the link above.
Juggling day to day Mingzulu client and industry commitments is never easy in these busy conferences, but it has to be said that generating authentic dialogue with industry leaders keeps us all alive and the industry moving forward....
Now back to work...we've got lots to do.
Do reach out to us @ INFO@MINGZULU.COM if you are a growth stage or Enterprise business looking to scale, secure capital / debt or prepare for Middle East activation if coming from other international markets. Mingzulu are here to help, along with our pioneers and partners.
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