Welcome to our daily funding update for MENA startups. This brief will cover the latest funding news and investments from the region’s vibrant startup ecosystem.
17th July 2023 Funding and Investment Update
1. Saudi Restaurant and Catering Platform Kaso Raises $10.5M Seed Round Aiming at Accelerating Its Growth and Increasing the Volume of Goods to $1 Billion Within a Year.
KASO Saudi Arabia’s restaurant and catering platform in the Middle East raised $10.5M during a seed funding round involving investment firms including Spade Ventures, Hala Ventures, Seedra Ventures, Cyfr Capital, BY Venture Partners, Pioneer Fund, and Vulpes Ventures. Founded in 2021, KASO is developing a platform for ordering between restaurants and food suppliers in an automated digital form, and the company aims to use the new funding to boost its platform’s presence, increasing the total volume of goods offered to it to $1B within 12 months.
2. Agthia Launches $54M Corporate Venture Capital Fund Agthia Ventures Supporting Top Food Entrepreneurs and Startups.
Agthia Group, the region’s leading food and beverage company, has announced the launch of the $54M Agthia Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund CVC. The new fund aims to expand the Group’s capabilities to innovate and generate value with startups, ensuring that it continues to provide growth and profitability sources in current and future markets. The CVC, co-funded by Agthia Group and its parent company ADQ, will be managed in collaboration with Touchdown Ventures, a global leader in establishing and operating venture capital fund programs for large corporations, with over 100 investment projects completed. Agthia Fund is creating a program to help the best food entrepreneurs expand their operations and accelerate the development of their products and adoption in the market by exchanging experiences, diversifying different distribution networks, developing technological infrastructure, and enhancing research and development capabilities, in addition to developing marketing areas and developing solid relationships with customers.
3. Saudi Passenger Transport Services & Solutions Company Closes $1.3M Second Round of Investment Through Its Share Listing on Afaq Capital.
Saudi company Rehla for passenger transport solutions and services managed to close its second investment round and raise $ 1.3M through the Afaq Capital platform, which offered 178.5 thousand shares for subscription at a value of SAR 28 each through its platform, where Afaq Capital provides financial and investment services under the licence of the Saudi Capital Market Authority, including arranging for ownership financing rounds and providing investors with the opportunity to finance small and medium enterprises in exchange for shares in them. Established in 2020, Rehla offers ride-hailing solutions to passengers by connecting car owners and passengers heading to the same destination to reduce trip costs.
4. Bahrain’s EdTech Company Unipal Receives $500K in Investment Funding to Accelerate Its Activity and Growth in KSA.
Bahrain’s Unipal edtech company announced that it had received $500,000 in investment financing from Flat6labs, Tenmou, with the participation of GTS and some angel investors. Unipal was launched in 2020 to offer an online learning application that provides special offers and discounts for university students on a variety of products and brands, and its success was driven by its innovative platform that allows brands direct access to students and offers exclusive discounts on the application, which was well received by students and companies alike, as the application was able to attract 74% of students to its user base in Bahrain. The new funding aims to accelerate the activity and spread of Unipal startup in Saudi Arabia and help it grow regionally.
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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