CAIRO: From accelerator program graduations and fintech funding boosts to market entries and technology partnerships, the startup landscape in the Middle East and North Africa region is witnessing dynamic developments.

Impactful investments, strategic expansions, and collaborative initiatives are helping various sectors experience significant growth and innovation. 

Egypt’s Raya FutureTECH completes first accelerator program 

Egypt’s Raya FutureTECH, the innovation arm of Raya Holding, has successfully concluded its inaugural accelerator program in collaboration with GIZ.  

The Demo Day, held in Cairo, marked the graduation of the first cohort of 13 startups, including Arzaq Masr, Cultivaet, and Accounting Club, as well as Meta Egypt, BUS14, and Credify.

Jadeed, Wfrley, and PlanQ also completed the program, as did Tatbeek, the Holiday Homes Service Co., H.E Rental, and WhereApp.  

The winners will receive additional support and funding to further develop their solutions. 

Clara Samman, senior program officer at Raya FutureTECH, shared insights on the program’s objectives and achievements.  

“This program was designed to provide the founders with the resources, training, and mentorship they need to grow. Through one-on-one consultations with experts from Raya, workshops, and connections to our network, we’ve equipped them with the tools for success,” she said.  

UAE’s Maalexi secures $1 million venture debt from Stride Ventures 

UAE-based Maalexi, an agriculture-focused fintech, has raised $1 million in venture debt from Stride Ventures, according to a report by Abu Dhabi SME Hub.  

Founded in 2021 by Azam Pasha and Rohit Majhi, Maalexi facilitates direct cross-border trade access for small food and agri-businesses through its dynamic risk management platform.  

This investment aims to accelerate Maalexi’s growth plans and enhance its operational capabilities for more efficient procurement and distribution of food and agri-produce across the region. 

Pasha, the firm’s CEO, emphasized the impact of this funding on the company’s expansion.  

“This debt capital raise from Stride Ventures will significantly enhance our ability to acquire new users and scale our operations, further solidifying our position as a leading digital risk management platform for small and medium enterprises engaged in cross-border trade,” he said.

The executive added that the funds would be used to deploy “cutting-edge technology solutions” that streamline the movement of goods across the firm’s local and international warehouses and carriers.

Jordan’s ISSF invests $5 million in Global Ventures’ Fund III 

The Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund in Jordan has invested $5 million in Global Ventures’ Fund III.  

Founded in 2018 by Noor Sweid, Global Ventures is a series-A focused, emerging-market VC firm with $300 million in assets under management, investing in mission-driven founders across the MENA region.  

The ISSF, established in 2017 by the World Bank and the Central Bank of Jordan, supports Jordanian startups through direct investments and venture capital fund investments. 

Mohammed Al-Muhtaseb, ISSF CEO, expressed optimism about the collaboration, describing it as aligning with the company’s “vision” for Jordanian ecosystem that includes capitalizing on local talent. 

“We are happy to welcome Global Ventures Fund III to our portfolio of funds. They have demonstrated deep belief in the Jordanian ecosystem, having invested in several Jordanian companies from previous funds,” he added.

UAE’s Hala expands into Egyptian market with MwaslaTech partnership 

UAE-based mobility company Hala has announced its entry into the Egyptian market through a partnership with MwaslaTech.  

Hala, established in 2019 through a joint venture between Careem and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority, has signed a memorandum of understanding with MwaslaTech, a provider of smart transport and shared mobility solutions.  

Hala aims to introduce an e-hailing taxi solution and leverage advanced technologies to enhance the travel experience in Egypt, particularly in new cities such as the New Administrative Capital. 

Khaled Nuseibeh, CEO at Hala, highlighted the strategic significance of this expansion.  

“This is a proud moment for all of us at Hala as we pursue new and exciting opportunities beyond the UAE for the first time and commence our ambitious expansion into the MENAT region,” Nuseibeh stated.  

“We are pleased to partner with a trusted industry leader, MwaslaTech, for this pivotal next step in our growth journey. Our experience and reputation for reliability in the UAE will enable us to deliver first-rate transportation solutions in Egypt,” he added. 

Qatar’s Startup Grind partners with Builder.ai to support local startups 

Qatar-based startup community Startup Grind Qatar has partnered with the UK’s Builder.ai, an AI-powered composable software platform, to digitally empower local businesses and entrepreneurs. 

Through this collaboration, Qatar-based startups will gain access to Builder.ai’s platform and expertise, enabling them to streamline their development processes, accelerate time-to-market, and efficiently scale their businesses. 

Varghese Cherian, chief revenue officer of Builder.ai, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership. 

“We are excited to join forces with Startup Grind Qatar to empower local startups with the tools and resources they need to succeed in today's competitive market,” Cherian said. 

“At Builder.ai, we are committed to supporting entrepreneurship and fostering innovation, and this partnership exemplifies our dedication to driving digital transformation and growth within the Qatar startup community,” he added. 

MENA VC landscape sees 33% increase in investors: MAGNiTT   

Investor numbers in the Middle East and North Africa’s venture capital ecosystem saw an annual increase of 33 percent in the first half of 2024, new data revealed.  

According to a report from venture data platform MAGNiTT, rising sentiment spurred a 130 percent increase in the number of funds launched in the MENA region during this period.   

Data revealed that despite the increase in investors, only $768 million in funding was poured into regional startups, a drop of 34 percent year on year.   

The total number of deals reached 211, an 18 percent decline in the first half of the year, while exits plummeted by 63 percent to just 10.     

E-commerce was the most funded sector with $244 million in funding, while fintech was the industry of choice in terms of deal count.     

The Public Investment Fund’s Sanabil Investments was the most active investor in the region with $57 million in capital deployed.    

Saudi startups garnered the most funding in the first half with $412 million, followed by the UAE with $225 million, and Egypt with $86 million. However, all these markets saw a drop of 7, 19, and 75 percent, respectively.     

Morocco and Kuwait joined the top five list with $17 million and $14 million, respectively.     

In terms of deal count, the UAE topped the list with 83 transactions, an 11 percent annual increase. Saudi Arabia followed with 63 deals, a 3 percent drop, Egypt with 28, a 15 percent decrease, and Morocco and Bahrain with 10 and 7, respectively.    

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is joining the global artificial intelligence race by accelerating generative AI research and development through models that align with the Kingdom’s Research Development and Innovation Authority’s Vision 2030.

“Generative AI (GenAI) is on its way to transform every aspect of our civilization and has already started doing so. It will be central to the future development of (Saudi Arabia), with a plethora of applications in health care, industry, energy, sustainability and entertainment, among many others,” Bernard Ghanem, chair of the Center of Excellence in Generative AI at KAUST, told Arab News.

On July 1, KAUST announced the launch of its Center of Excellence (CoE) on Generative AI, which intends to be the premier research, development, and innovation hub for pioneering generative AI technology aimed at addressing the most pressing challenges faced by the Kingdom and the world.

“The KAUST GenAI CoE will push the envelope on what is possible with GenAI, in terms of technical capabilities, applications and real-world impact,” Ghanem said.

“We envision that the CoE will play a major role in boosting and expediting the GenAI landscape in the Kingdom and the world at large, leading to an explosion of new models with real-world applications in the four national priority R&D sectors identified by the Kingdom.”

KAUST’s mission is to enable GenAI research and development through GenAI models to find solutions aligned with the four national priority areas outlined in the Kingdom’s RDIA Vision 2030: Health and wellness; sustainability and essential needs; energy and industrials; and economies of the future.

“Throughout its lifetime, the GenAI CoE will work with partners in the Kingdom and the world to identify specific challenges to tackle within each of the four RDI pillars,” Ghanem said.

He outlined KAUST GenAI CoE’s strategies for using GenAI in the Kingdom’s priority research and development areas.

For health and wellness, the center aims to develop a GenAI multi-modal foundation model designed for clinical image analysis as well as establish a GenAI-based drug design and development pipeline for the Arab population.

In line with sustainability, KAUST GenAI CoE is working to develop GenAI foundation models for Earth observation data from satellite inputs as well as using the set foundation models for insights about Earth observation, with emphasis on specific-use cases including agricultural informatics, ecosystem assessment, and weather forecasting and prediction.

On energy and industries, Ghanem explained that the center of excellence was developing and specializing in GenAI foundational models in the domain of chemistry.

The center is using “foundation models for chemical reaction optimization (i.e., discovering the optimal chemical setup for a reaction to produce the best outcomes) and advanced material discovery and synthesis (i.e., combining GenAI models with an automated robotic chemistry lab for significantly expedited real-world discovery).”

Finally, in its mission to build the economies of the future, the GenAI Center of Excellence is developing and specializing in multi-modal GenAI models for business and government transformation. Through this, it aims to create GenAI models for the education sector such as intelligent tutoring for students and teacher assistance.

Ghanem said that the work in GenAI also extended to establishing “more expressive and more efficient GenAI models for visual content creation to support the growing creative industry such as social media, gaming, and entertainment in general.”

“The prospects of GenAI in creating massive value are supported by recent reports that expect this technology to conservatively add to the world economy a market size of several hundreds of billions of USD by 2030 and to significantly contribute to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2030,” Ghanem said. 

Ghanem explained that this mission would be executed through three main pillars: “The innovation of general-purpose GenAI models that are endowed with properties needed for ubiquitous, efficient and trustworthy deployment, the specialization of these models for solutions in all four pillars of the RDIA … and the delivery of the Kingdom’s ambition to accelerate the adoption of GenAI in the Kingdom by focusing on translational research and talent development.” 

With advances in Gen AI, new concerns are raised about the technology’s negative societal impacts, such as data privacy, environmental sustainability, and disparities in quality and coverage across regions and cultures. 

The KAUST CoE plans to address these concerns through its research projects on GenAI trustworthiness, efficient training and inference, and Arabic language model development. 

Ghanem underlined their mission in these projects to “usher in the next phase of GenAI technological evolution headlined by trustworthiness, internationalization, open access, and less environmental impact.” 

The GenAI CoE also intends to focus on making a positive impact through GenAI training and upskilling programs for KAUST researchers, partners, and the general public. Through their training outreach initiatives, the CoE hopes to address the shortage of GenAI talent in Saudi Arabia. 

In a press statement, the center recognized that much more will be needed in the way of training, especially at the national level, “to truly drive significant impact in this aspect.” 

When asked what scientific, technical and upskilling challenges need to be addressed to advance the Saudi GenAI sector, Ghanem spoke of the importance of “access to large-scale data, talent development, GenAI hardware infrastructure, and GenAI Investment. 

“The GenAI ecosystem in the Kingdom is young and flourishing, and much progress has been made so far. However, several challenges still remain,” Ghanem said. 

“Arguably, one main reason why popular GenAI tools perform so well right now is their access to large-scale data for training and fine-tuning. Getting access to such volumes of data is crucial for future GenAI development in the Kingdom. Although efforts are ongoing in this respect within Saudi Arabia, more can be done to open source data from various organizations and entities.” 

Developing a suitable GenAI environment in Saudi Arabia, Ghanem said, “will require a mass-scale talent development program (i.e., GenAI for the masses). This includes access to higher education in the field, but more importantly, it is based on short-term and focused training programs that teach the essentials of GenAI development to non-experts.” 

Ghanem believes that having access to large-scale data and sizable local talent is not enough for a thriving GenAI ecosystem. 

“Access to specialized hardware accelerators (e.g., high-end GPUs) is paramount for GenAI large-scale training and mass inference. Unfortunately, without access to enough of this hardware infrastructure, progress will be dampened, and the ecosystem will not progress and deliver impact in a timely manner,” he said.

On the topic of GenAI investment, Ghanem explained that healthy investment in this sector for homegrown and internationally competitive technology and commercial solutions is essential for a thriving and self-sustaining GenAI ecosystem. 

“While there are efforts in this respect currently ongoing, more concerted efforts can be made to address this challenge in such a fast-paced and ever-evolving field,” he said. 

“Through the CoE, new GenAI models will be developed and deployed to tackle the most pressing national and global challenges. We will do so while maintaining the utmost levels of AI ethical standards, by enforcing key values (e.g., fairness, safety and trustworthiness) in our R&D pipelines.”