{"id":23609,"date":"2023-07-18T15:07:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T15:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/?p=23609"},"modified":"2023-07-18T15:28:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T15:28:32","slug":"e-commerce-and-fintech-start-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2023\/07\/18\/e-commerce-and-fintech-start-ups\/","title":{"rendered":"E-commerce and fintech start-ups led Mena venture capital funding in first half of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nE-commerce and fintech start-ups dominated venture capital financing in the Mena region during the first half of this year despite global economic headwinds, according to <\/span>1H 2023 MENA Venture Capital Report by\u00a0<\/span><\/em>data platform Magnitt<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mega financing deals in both sectors accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the total funding in the region during the first six months of 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, the number of deals and the value of financing for Mena start-ups<\/a> dropped amid continued global economic volatility and geopolitical headwinds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCautious investor sentiment at a time of economic uncertainty saw funding [value] and deals decline by almost 50 per cent in the region on a year-on-year basis,\u201d stated the report.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost half of the total capital aggregated by the Mena region in the first half came from the three mega deals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The three large financing rounds propelled the e-commerce\/retail and fintech to the top sectors, followed by transport and logistics, software and media and entertainment sectors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Globally, the e-commerce market is forecast to reach $55.6 trillion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of about 27.4 per cent, from an estimated $13 trillion in 2021, data from US research firm Imarc Group suggests.<\/span><\/p>\n

In February, Saudi Arabia-based grocery shopping and delivery platform Nana raised 500 million Saudi riyals ($133 million) in a new funding round to expand its services across the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Floward, a start-up delivering gifts and flowers in the Mena region and the UK, secured $156 million in funding in February as well to expand operations before a planned initial public offering.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pre-IPO series C funding round was led by Aljazira Capital, Rainwater Partners and STV, Floward said at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, Mena start-ups raised more than $1 billion through 193 deals, with the region\u2019s venture capital ecosystem seeing a 42 per cent retreat in the funding levels and a 49 per cent decline in the number of transactions closed to 193, Magnitt said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of the quarterly number of transactions, the second quarter this year was the lowest since the second quarter of 2017, Magnitt data shows.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the broader Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Turkey region, start-ups bagged $7.2 billion through 1,473 deals last year. Funding for Mena start-ups crossed the $3 billion mark in 2022 – an annual increase of 8.3 per cent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the increased probability of further interest rate hikes and subsequent economic challenges, any chance of a recovery is likely to appear after September in Q4, when deals closed in the summer are announced and high-profile tech summits are organised,” said the report.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The UAE government has launched the Dubai Economic Agenda D3 to prioritise the growth of start-ups, while Egypt has introduced a five-year tax exemption for start-ups.<\/span><\/p>\n

In February, a report compiled by Wamda showed that Mena start-ups secured $103 million in January across 22 deals, translating into a 17 per cent month-on-month decline in funding value.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

E-commerce and fintech start-ups dominated venture capital financing in Mena in the first half of 2023 despite global economic volatility, data platform Magnitt found<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":21339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[154,1,4106],"tags":[4321,3988],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23609"}],"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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23609"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23614,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23609\/revisions\/23614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}