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.

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%).

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

The below carousel showcases early-stage VC investment into MENA-based startups over the past decade in an annual and quarterly overview.

The below carousel showcases breakout-stage VC investment into MENA-based startups over the past decade in an annual and quarterly overview.

The below carousel showcases late-stage stage VC investment into MENA-based startups over the past decade in an annual and quarterly overview.

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.

The table below displays VC investment into each MENA country, sorted by default by the highest VC investment raised in the last year.
Double-click on any of the column headers to sort by the leaders in the MENA region.

By city

Dubai, Istanbul and Riyadh are the leading tech cities in MENA, ranking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd top ecosystems respectively.

The table below displays VC investment into each MENA tech hub, sorted by default by the highest VC investment raised in the last year.
Double-click on any of the column headers to sort by the leaders in the MENA region.

By industry

Food and Fintech are the most prominent funding category in MENA, over-indexing compared to the global average. Gaming and Robotics are the fastest-growing top industries.

Investors

Below is a table of investors investing the most actively in MENA-based startups.

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

Saudi Arabia is the country with the most patents in the MENA region, followed by Türkiye.

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.

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.

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