Last Week in the MENA Startup World (Jun 03 – Jun 09)
Vijeesh Papulli
Exploring Thoughtful Technology Solutions for Education and Training #time4humanity
Hi Everyone!
Hope everyone is doing well. If you are thinking that startups world must have slowed because of the fasting in the month of Ramadan then you got it wrong. I somehow get a feeling that it has got even busier in the startup world this month.
There are many articles that have come out this week and I have picked the ones I felt would be most useful to your readers. Hopefully, you feel the same after reading them!
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The Fintech sector in MENA has been growing rapidly. There is a large underserved section in the population that have not been catered to by the traditional financial institutions of the region. In the last 3 years, the number of Fintech ventures in MENA doubled from 46 to 105. 70% of these startups are based in four countries, namely – UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. UAE is the clear leader here with a 4-year CAGR of 57%. In UAE, Dubai already has been the active destination of Fintech innovation in this region. Added to this Abu Dhabi has also quickly emerged as one of the Top Fintech hubs for the MENA region. Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has been very active in the last couple of years and one of their activities that conduct is the Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge in partnership with KPMG Lower Gulf Limited (KPMG LG). Last year 166 Fintech startups from 39 countries applied 11 companies were selected for the 5-week programme (For the list of the 11 companies from 2017 check out this article here). So if you are a Fintech founder and looking for a platform to tell the world about your startup, then you may want to check out this opportunity.
Do you have what it takes for ADGM and KPMG LG’s FinTech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge?
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This next article will give you a quick look at the status of the startup environment in MENA and why there is so much of activity in this space in the last decade. Socio-economic factors combined with political changes have forced many of the countries in the MENA region to focus more on the unemployment problem among their youth. These steps though employed at varying pace across MENA counties are starting to bring positive results. Some of them being, 3000 startups in MENA currently of which 60% of the top 200 funded companies were all founded between 2012 and 2015. Some of us would have read about how Silicon Valley had emerged in US from books like the Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators but if you want to see this happening in front of your eyes, then you need to be in the Middle East. Well not exactly on the same scale but it is evolving at a relatively rapid pace. UAE is the leader here - 40% of the MENA region’s new tech companies are from here with startups securing a large chunk of the investments amounting to $600 million. But there is still a long road ahead to really emerge as one of the leading innovation hubs in the world. Roadblocks like regulatory restrictions, lower technical talent, Funding difficulties need more work. Some countries are ahead of others in their efforts but the whole the region is on the right track and as long political stability can be maintained on the road for bright future. Do read the article.
Special report: Rise of Arab startups offers hope for region’s sluggish economies
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I am happy to share yet another amazing article with the readers. This one from Entrepreneur Middle East written by the CEO of Coplex Zach Ferres. For those who complete the article, one thing becomes clear, Zach has seen the situations played out in close quarters. I may not have the vast experience he has, but I certainly have had a taste of the situation. Would be entrepreneurs who even before starting to build their product or service talking about attracting funding from investors in the form of VCs, Angels or other corporates. Zach also shares the view from an investor angle which will be very useful to understand for us entrepreneurs. Some of the ways of attracting pre-seed funding that Zach talks about are working for equity, founder investment, friends and family, Angel investors, Corporate partners, grants, prizes and pitch competitions, customer-funded and finally accelerators. Please do the read the article if you would like to be well prepared for your first fundraising efforts.
How To Get The First Investment In Your Idea-Stage MENA Startup
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The third edition of My Startup Bootcamp is going to kick off in October in Bahrain and application for the program will be open in June 2018. My Startup Bootcamp is a joint initiative of YoStartups – provides early-stage support and CH9 – an accelerator supported by Tamkeen, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Bahrain Economic Development Board and StartUp Bahrain. The application is open internationally so if you are interested in participating in the boot camp and accelerate your exposure then you may want to take a look at this one.
YoStartups and CH9 graduates their second batch of My Startup Bootcamp
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I was recently up at Krypto Labs Abu Dhabi to attend a session on Growth Hacking when I first heard about Alef Education. I was told that the startup scaled quickly and was about 300 member team (I assume I heard the number correctly!!). I decided to check out the firm once I come back home and I did. Alef Education is an education technology company in Krypto Labs, Abu Dhabi. Alef Education is essentially an innovative and immersive multi-lingual learning-science framework with in-house hypermedia content powered by cutting-edge technology and AI. Is a mouthful but in simple English Alef helps students learn at their own pace with access anywhere and with a support system of teachers who can help students achieve short and long-term goals. An interesting startup in a space that desperately needs disruption – Education!
Alef Education implements its technology-based education system in a UAE private school
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The title of this article might be a bit misleading but I suggest start-ups or would be entrepreneurs in the Fintech space read this article to understand more about ADGM and the various initiatives that they are taking to make Abu Dhabi a leading financial centre in MENA. Their partnerships with Plug and Play, KPMG Digital Village and with The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has been in the news recently.
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Dubai Startup Hub, an initiative of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has launched the second edition of its Market Access programme inviting innovative ideas and solutions to challenges faced by prominent organizations in Dubai. This is a very interesting model where large established companies can look for solutions from smaller nimble start-ups for challenges they currently face. This year the 4 companies participating in this initiative are DP World, Emirates NBD, Sanofi and NIKAI Group. You can read about what each of the companies look for in their startup partners in the article.
Dubai Startup Hub launches innovation drive
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If you have been reading my aggregation of interesting startup articles in MENA, you will agree with me when I say Fintech is one of the most active sectors in the startup space here. The launch of FinTech Bay in Bahrain, upcoming DIFC’s Fintech Hive second edition of its accelerator program and the emergence of interesting startups like Paytabs, Democrance and Ajar Online to just name a few have made the fintech space very exciting indeed.
Opinion: Why there's no better time for GCC's fintech revolution
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That’s it for now friends. Till next week, have a wonderful Eid Holidays!