{"id":18735,"date":"2022-10-10T17:15:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T17:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/?p=18735"},"modified":"2022-10-12T12:15:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T12:15:17","slug":"riyadh-and-dubai-top-list-of-best-locations-for-start-ups-in-mena-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2022\/10\/10\/riyadh-and-dubai-top-list-of-best-locations-for-start-ups-in-mena-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Riyadh and Dubai top list of best locations for start-ups in Mena region"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- VideographyWP Plugin Message: Automatic video embedding prevented by plugin options. --><br \/>\nRiyadh and Dubai have become the top destinations for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2022\/09\/29\/linkedin-top-uae-startups-postpay-tabby-and-the-giving-movement-make-top-10\/\">start-ups\u00a0in the Mena region<\/a>, according to a report by UK-based communications platform\u00a0Sortlist.<\/p>\n<p>They were ranked first and second respectively among 13 Mena cities.<\/p>\n<p>Kuwait, Amman, Istanbul, Manama, Casablanca, Cairo, Baghdad and Beirut also featured in the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi government has been vigorously involved in improving the innovation-friendly business climate,\u00a0activating legal framework in key sectors like fintech.<\/p>\n<p>Riyadh is also saturated with e-commerce platforms. For instance, Sary, founded in 2018, is a start-up that connects micro and small businesses (grocery stores and F&amp;B businesses) with wholesalers and FMCGs. It raised\u00a0$30.5 million in a Series B round\u00a0led by VentureSouq in May, and was ranked first on LinkedIn&#8217;s annual list of top SMEs in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Another key player is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2022\/08\/23\/tamara-raises-100-million-in-funding-for-expansion-plans\/\">Tamara<\/a>, a buy-now-pay-later platform\u00a0operating in Saudi Arabia and the UAE\u00a0that allows customers to defer and split payments into three equal installments free of charge and interest-free. This August, Tamara secured $100 million in a Series B funding round to bolster its expansion across the GCC region.<\/p>\n<p>Dubai stands out as the optimal location for hybrid working and collaborating with international clients and employees. The \u2018Global Hybrid Work\u2019 study by Cisco, a multinational\u00a0technology\u00a0conglomerate\u00a0corporation, revealed that 90 per cent of Dubai-based employees are working remotely, or at least have adopted a\u00a0hybrid\u00a0working model.<\/p>\n<p>In April, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce announced the addition of 3,056 new member companies, bringing the chamber\u2019s total membership to 300,000 &#8211; the largest number in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Dubai is an affluent market with no corporate tax, low value-added tax, high purchase power and a prosperous luxury segment. In April, Dubai Future Foundation launched an initiative to assist the growth of tech startups, scale-ups, SMEs and entrepreneurs from around the world to promote luxury retail.<\/p>\n<p>The report evaluated cities drawing on several criteria, such as success rates, average office rental costs, electricity prices, population with the most qualifications and broadband speed.<\/p>\n<p>According to Sortlist&#8217;s data, start-ups in Mena raised $323.7 million across 66 deals in June.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Riyadh and Dubai are considered the best locations for start-ups, according to the list of 13 locations compiled by UK firm Sortlist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":18736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[154,1,4106],"tags":[1507,3988,3958,2683,3966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18735"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18741,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18735\/revisions\/18741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}