2016 was a booming year for investments, with startups collecting over $815 million. Two regional companies, Careem and Souq.com, achieved the coveted ‘unicorn’ valuation, making them the first companies in the region to do so.

1. Startup Investment Report
2016 Highlights of the MENA region
March 2017

2. 8% 63% 18% 12%
2016 was a favorable year for MENA startups
Startup Investment Report 2016 2Wamda Research Lab
59% 30% 9% 2%
Investment Stages
Seed Series A Series B Series C
$815M+
Collected by
Startups in 2016
$350M
Careem
$121M
Top 5 Rounds (After Careem & Souq)
Wadi.com 67M
Bayut 20M
Propertyfinder 20M
The Luxury Closet 7.8M
Holiday.ME 7M
$69M
Raised by 32 Startups
By number of investments:
$275M
Souq.com
In addition to 28
undisclosed deals
By transaction value:
𝑛1 = 53
1: The sample consisted only of stages publicly disclosed by the involved parties

3. Fintech
Ecommerce
Food & Dining
Cars
20%
14%
8%
8%
Egypt currently has the largest share of seed stage investments and
further investments at the Seed and Series A stages are likely to
increase given the $55.6M in raised by two funds to support Egypt’s
startups
The UAE remains the most prominent startup hub in the region, with the
highest concentration of investments and the region’s two unicorns:
Souq.com and Careem.
6
7
15
16.3
11.4
13.2
UAE Jordan Lebanon Egypt
Disclosed Investments / Country
Number of Deals Disclosed Amounts ($M)
27 764
Startup Investment Report 2016 3Wamda Research Lab
With Investments concentrated in four hubs
50% of investments were dedicated to four sectors:
% of investments

4. Startup Investment Report 2016 4Wamda Research Lab
In addition to increasing financial support
Venture
Capital
41%
Corporate
Venture
29%
Private Equity
9%
Support Institution
7%
Other
14%
Corporate venture capital forms a sizable portion of this year’s investors,
which comes with a surfeit of benefits for startups that include access to
markets and distribution channels otherwise unavailable.
In addition, the emergence of late stage private equity deals from non-
MENA investment firms in the UAE signals investor confidence in the
potential of regional tech companies. This marks the beginning of the
UAE’s transition into a mature ecosystem.
Available funding rose 287% above the disclosed 2015 amounts.
Moreover, there is an increased focus on providing funding past the seed
stage (Only 4 of the 11 new funds target seed stage companies
exclusively). This is crucial to bridging the funding gap that would enable
startups to effectively scale up and expand internationally.
Turn8 Fund $60M Seed
Innov Invest $51M Seed
Ibtikar Fund $12M Seed
Flat6Labs Fund $5.6M Seed
Algebra Capital $50M Series A/B
Dubai Future Accelerators Fund $275M Multi-Stage
Oman Technology Fund $200M Multi-Stage
Hikma Ventures $30M Multi-Stage
Bedaya $16M Multi-Stage
Riyadh Tanqia Capital $133M SME-Focused
Who were the investors of 2016? $833M In Venture Capital Raised by 10 new funds

5. Fintech
10%
E-Commerce
9%
Cars 6%
Ad Tech 6%
Software 6%
Analytics 6%
Learning 4%
1
Others 49%
Consumer Productivity
6%
Startup Investment Report 2016 5Wamda Research Lab
Furthermore, 2016 saw an uptick of startup acquisitions
Investors and founders
currently favour consumer
services sectors
Acquirer Acquired Sector
My Fatoorah Taajr (60% Acquired) Fintech
Network International Emerging Markets Payments($340M) Fintech
Talabat Q8flowers.com ($3M) E-Commerce
Careem Savaree Travel
Sarouty.ma Selektimmo Real Estate
El Grocer Quickshop.ae E-Commerce
Wuzzuf Viriphy Recruitment
Stillfront Group Babil Games ($17M) Gaming
The rise in M&A activity amongst startups may represent the early stages of
consolidation in some sectors which can catalyze the development of
regional powerhouses in multiple industries.
Startups Founded in 2016 M&A Activity

6. Startup Investment Report 2016 6Wamda Research Lab
Regional investments occurred against a backdrop of supportive
governmental & academic initiatives
 New federal bankruptcy law encouraging investment and increasing
the ease of doing business
 Launch of Dubai Future Accelerators program
 Abu Dhabi Global Market launch the region’s first Fintech regulatory
sandbox
 Announcement of Vision 2030 aimed at diversifying the economy in
addition to the plan to establish a $1.1B fund to support SME growth
 New banking law in Morocco legitimizes digital currencies, in addition
to allowing the creation of cards (pre-paid) by non-bank institutions.
This law goes into effect at the end of 2016
 New York University Abu Dhabi introduces Venture Launchpad, a 10-
day entrepreneurship boot camp to complement their entrepreneurship
platform and incubator
 American University of Sharjah and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space
Centre sign an MoU to develop UAE talent through the Entaliq
Scholarship Program
 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the
Saudi British Bank (SABB) launch the ‘Taqadam’ Accelerator
 The University of Jordan establishes an Innovation center
 The American University of Beirut announces its innovation center

7. Startup Investment Report 2016 7Wamda Research Lab
Coupled with rising efforts from private support institutions
15
Accelerators
launched
26
Major
events
organized
 Most active organizers: Wamda, Seedstars, and Arabnet
 BDL Accelerate 2016 had the highest attendance at 20,000
people
 STEP Conference, BDL Accelerate, and RiseUp are the top 3
most attended regional events
5600
12600
30000
2014 2015 2016
Attendance at the top 3 events
Examples of Founding Partners:

8. Corporates playing a bigger role
Global corporate investments in the form of Corporate Venture Capital
(CVC) or direct investments were present in 15% of the total deals
closed. In MENA, this figure reached 29% in 2016 .
Some notable funds:
Globally, venture capital is showing some noticeable trends
Startup Investment Report 2016 8Wamda Research Lab
Global VC funding slips
Global funding levels fell during the second half of 2016, particularly
during the final quarter. Total VC deals amounted to $21.8B, the lowest
figure since Q1 of 2014 (KPMG).
2016 also marks the first year that total VC funding fell on a year-on-year
basis since 2012, accompanied by a steady decrease in deal numbers
that started in Q1 2015.
The global decrease in deals appears to be concentrated in the Americas
and Asia, as European deal growth remains positive over the past years
(Atomico).
Highest relative decline was among the seed stage
The total number of seed stage deals drastically decreased globally,
standing at 33% of all deals in Q3 2016; the lowest it has dipped in five
quarters (KPMG). This decrease was likely driven by market uncertainty
during the second half of 2016 as well as a rising preference for later
stage deals targeting more established companies.
Interestingly, the percentage of seed investments in the
UAE stands at 38% (MENA: 59%), further indicating a
shifting preference towards later stage deals
$2.7B
Dedicated to CVC funds by European corporations (Atomico)
BMW i Ventures bolster their
fund by 500% to $500M with a
focus on urban mobility
Google Ventures is raising a new
$230M fund targeting the
healthcare sector

9. Authors: Tarek Faycal, Elias Boustani
Contributors: Jonas Feller, Edoardo Giorgetti
Editors: Maya Rahal, Dana Ballout
Wamda is a platform of integrated programs that aims to accelerate entrepreneurship ecosystems throughout the MENA region. Its core focus
includes media, community development, research and corporate and government advisory services. In the past few years, Wamda has become
the leading grassroots community and knowledge platform for entrepreneurs and supporting stakeholders.
The Wamda Research Lab is Wamda’s research program that produces studies on entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
and seeks to foster thought leadership in this field. Its agenda is to inform investors, policymakers, and other stakeholders on barriers to and
solutions for developing entrepreneurship in MENA.
wamda.com/research research@wamda.com facebook.com/wamdaME twitter.com/wamdaME linkedin.com/company/wamda
MENA Investment Report by the Wamda Research Lab is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non
Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

10. Appendix
Startup Investment Report 2016 10Wamda Research Lab

11. Startup Investment Report 2016 11Wamda Research Lab
I. Resources
MENA Ecosystem Data (Figures & Graphs) : Wamda Research Lab Data & Analysis
Atomico, 2016: The State of European Tech.
KPMG Enterprise, 2017: Venture Pulse Q4 2016.
KPMG Enterprise, 2016: Venture Pulse Q3 2016.

12. Wamda Capital
Ibtikar Fund
500 Startups
Arzan VC
BECO Capital
Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP)
twofour54
A15
Equitrust
Precinct Partners
Silicon Badia
Souq.com
Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund’s (EAEF)
Jabbar Internet Group
Levant Investment Bank
Samih Toukan
Addventure
Al Tayyar Group
Alsop Louie Partners
Amr Awadallah
Aramex Ventures
Startup Investment Report 2016 12Wamda Research Lab
II. Investors
B&Y Partners
Berytech Fund
BPI France
Cairo Amman Bank
Capital Bank
Digital Currency Group
Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority
Endeavor Catalyst Fund
Etihad Bank
Force Over Mass Capital
Fransabank
iMena Group
Insure & Match Capital
iSME Holdings
Isource
Jim Payne
Kamelizer
KAUST Innovation Fund
Kickstart Accelerator Zurich
Millenial Partners & Co.
MTN
Naspers
Oncu GSYO
OTMT Holding Company
PayFort
Pinnacle
Rabea Ataya
Samena Capital
Saned Partners
Standard Chartered Private Equity
STC Ventures
Techstars Ventures
Tiger Global Management
Venture Friends
Vostok New Ventures
YCombinator
Jisr Venture Partners
Mulverhill Associates
Rakuten Inc.
Accel
DASH Ventures

13. Mini Exchange
Movesouq
Mumm
Mumzworld
Myki
NOMADD
OfficeRock
Orcas
Ousta
PayMob
PinPay
Propertyfinder.ae
Reserveout
SchoolApply
Shaghalni
Shezlong
Silkroad Images
Smart Medical Services
Souq.com
TanitCash
Tasameem
The Luxury Closet
Torch
UnnyHog
Wadi.com
5QHQH
Anghami
ArabiAuto
Bayut
Bayzat
Beekast
BitOasis
Boxit
Brate
Careem
Cantalop
CashBasha
Collectionair
Compareit4me
Drofie
eatapp.co
Eventtus
Fadfid
Falafel Games
Geeks.ae
Homely.ae
Holiday.ME
Instabug
InstaShop
joi
Startup Investment Report 2016 13Wamda Research Lab
III. Investments
Kharabeesh
Liwwa
Lunch:on
M media
Madfoo3at
Masari
Mashvisor
Matic
Wing.ae
Wirez
Worknizer
Wrappup
Mr Usta