Welcome to our daily update for the latest developments and activities of startups in the Arab region. This brief will cover the latest news from the region’s vibrant startup ecosystem.
15th November 2023 Startups Activities News
1. SC Ventures and SBI Launches a $100 Million Initiative to Boost the UAE’s Cryptocurrency Market.
SC Ventures and SBI have launched a $100 million initiative titled The Digital Asset Joint Venture to boost the UAE’s cryptocurrency market. The initiative will focus on supporting companies involved in cryptocurrency and blockchain market infrastructure, risk and compliance, decentralised finance – DeFi and digital tokens. According to the company’s official statement, the funds will be allocated to various stages of investment, from seed funding to Series C financing, focusing on global investment opportunities. The two companies also plan to invest strategically in diverse areas, including market infrastructure, risk management, compliance tools, tokenization, payments and metaverses.
2. AYEN Saudi Real Estate Signs a Memorandum of Understanding With OYO to Facilitate Buildings Valuation.
AYEN Real Estate inspection platform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with OYO, one of the largest companies in the field of operating hotel buildings. The two parties stated that the signing of the memorandum aims to provide real estate inspection and evaluation services that will be displayed on the OYO website to speed up the sorting and acceptance of real estate, mainly since OYO receives hundreds of offers per month, as reported, and chooses the appropriate properties after evaluating the safety and readiness of the buildings in addition to ensuring that they meet the standards specified by the relevant authorities such as the Ministry of Tourism or Civil Defense, whether in Saudi Arabia or in other countries in which they operate. AYEN stated that it is expected to start providing services in Saudi Arabia and then expand with OYO, which is present in more than 40 countries worldwide. It is worth noting that AYEN is one of the first companies in the real estate technology sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, providing its services and solutions in the real estate inspection field since 2017.
3. XSPACE Begins Its Services in Riyadh in Alliance With Hotdesk to Meet the Growing Demand for Coworking Spaces.
XSPACE has announced the launch of the company’s services in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in alliance with Hotdesk to meet the growing demand for flexible workspaces in Saudi Arabia. The company notes in its statement that there is an increase in demand for flexible workspaces in the Kingdom due to several factors, including economic transformations and government initiatives that include the upcoming launch of the program to attract the regional headquarters of international companies to Saudi Arabia on the first of January 2024, as well as the development of significant digital cities, the large influx of consultants working on various projects, and the move of startups to Riyadh to secure venture capital and take advantage of extensive market opportunities. XSPACE enables landlords to transform untapped commercial spaces into co-working environments, connecting and operating properties to facilitate the transition to the target model for their owners, including branding, guidelines, selection of appropriate office equipment, venue design and identification of technical capabilities through its announced partnership with Hotdesk, and the company also stated that it will introduce the XSpace Lite model explicitly designed for hotel and café lobbies to providing an attractive and comfortable working environment and noise reduction, as well as private work desks equipped with distinctive furniture, lighting and acoustics to enhance privacy. All XSPACE locations will be provided with the latest Hotdesk technologies and solutions, including HotdeskOS for effective co-working space management, Hotdesk Marketplace platform for quick access to customers, and Hotdesk enterprise technology solutions. Hotdesk, founded in 2016 and headquartered in Dubai, features more than 1,500 workspaces in 45 countries and over 200 cities, allowing users to book offices and meeting rooms easily by hour, day, month or year. Hotdesk also provides SaaS systems for businesses to optimise their real estate and manage workforces that need workspaces outside the main offices. It also offers cutting-edge data analytics and a co-working space management platform, enabling coworking spaces to streamline operations.
4. Mylers Egypt and Shift Ev Signs an Agreement to Convert a Fleet of Logistics Vehicles to Electric.
Mylerz Egypt and Shift EV announced their agreement to electrify the fleet of Mylerz logistics vehicles using Shift EV’s electrification technology following the successful pilot deployment of electrically equipped vehicles in Mylerz’s operations. Through this agreement, Mylerz and Shift EV will establish a fleet of electric cars in batches during 2023 and 2024 to support the growth of the e-commerce market, as Mylerz is an innovative company in the field of delivery and implementation and works in Egypt and North Africa to provide high-quality and reliable delivery service to e-commerce customers while prioritising time, effort and money to its customers while delivering their products promptly. Mylerz has provided same-day express delivery service for the first time in Egypt through its logistics management technology to ensure that parcels are transported from one place to another in a time ranging from 2 to 8 hours. Mylerz uses Shift EV’s proprietary electrical fit-out technology to carry out an industrial process to convert commercial vehicles from internal combustion engines to electric cars using locally manufactured lithium-ion batteries at Shift EV’s factory in Sixth of October City, the first of its kind in the MENA region, where Shift EV’s electric fit-out technology significantly reduces fleet operating costs by up to 80% compared to gasoline and reduces carbon emissions from vehicles thus preserving the environment and economy.
That’s all for today’s funding update. Stay tuned for more updates on the MENA startup scene, and remember to subscribe to our newsletter or browse our archives for more news and analysis.
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Last Updated on November 15, 2023 by Safiya K
