Middle East and North Africa
Introduction
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has known a remarkable rise in venture capital activity in the last three years, fostered by a young and tech-savvy population, a large potential market, strong government support, and strengthening links with the rest of the world.
MENA is home to over 5k+ funded startups which raised $6.8B of VC investment in 2022.
The MENA region is also home to 15+ unicorns including household names such as Telegram and Getir amongst others.
Geographical definitions
For the purpose of this guide, the MENA region includes: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
Azerbaijan, Libya, Oman, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are considered low VC activity regions, hence details of their respective VC investment is not provided.
Israel is not included as part of the MENA region.
Venture Capital
Venture capital investment into MENA exploded in 2021 and 2022, launching the region into a higher echelon.
While investment fell by 10% between 2021 and 2022, amid a global pullback in venture capital, this drop was much less pronounced than global VC (-31%).
Explore all 7K+ funding rounds into MENA here on the platform.
The share of MENA in the Middle East and Africa overall is at its highest in the last 10 years. It has grown 1.8x since 2020, while the combined share of Israel and the rest of Africa has decreased in the last two years.
By stage
Early stage
Access early-stage funding rounds into MENA startups here on the platform.
Breakout stage
Access breakout-stage funding rounds into MENA startups here on the platform.
Scaleup stage
Access scaleup-stage funding rounds into MENA startups here on the platform.
By country
The United Arab Emirates ranks 1st in MENA for VC investment raised, followed by Türkiye and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is the fastest growing among the top 3 between 2021 and 2022, with Jordan, Bahrain and Tunisia as fast-growing notable newcomers as well.
Compare country startup ecosystems within the MENA region and globally here on the app.
By city
Dubai, Istanbul and Riyadh are the leading tech cities in MENA, ranking as the top three startup ecosystems by VC investment over the past 5 years.
Compare city level startup ecosystems within MENA and overseas, here on the platform.
By industry
Food and Fintech are the most prominent funding category in MENA, over-indexing compared to the global average.
Explore funding rounds into MENA by industry here on the Dealroom platform.
Gaming and Robotics are the fastest-growing top industries.
Investors
Explore the data for the most active investors into the MENA startup ecosystem as well as the most active MENA investors here on the Dealroom platform.
Patents
Combined with other innovation data, patent intelligence add an entirely different perspective to innovation mapping, with a different set of industry players and longer time horizons.
Superclass patents
Below are the top categories by the number of patents granted and pending in 2021 per superclass and subclass by companies based in the MENA region.
Since 2000 the fastest-growing areas of innovation and patent filing in the MENA region have included Spectrometry sensors, Ultrasound sensors, and Robotics.
Subclass patents
Top countries by patent filing
More patents were filed in Saudi Arabia over the past decade than in all other MENA countries combined.
Spotlight: Healthtech in MENA
The remarkable growth of MENA's healthcare sector over the previous decade, fueled by both public and private finance, has firmly established the region’s healthcare as a worldwide player.
Healthtech investment in the MENA region is just getting started, with records being set since 2020.
VC industry segmentation
VC investment is particularly active in telemedicine and biotech & pharma.
By country
The United Arab Emirates is the Healthtech hub of MENA, followed by Türkiye and Egypt.
Related content
Report: Explore all our MENA focused reports
Report: Compare MENA based startup ecosystems against other global ecosystems in our Benchmarking Report
Dealroom Data: Explore 90k+ funded startups headquartered in MENA.
Taxonomy: To learn how Dealroom defines its entities, taxonomy, filters and more, click here