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Continent / region

MENA

Continent / region · #32 region by EV

A public taster of the full MENA ecosystem on Dealroom — request a demo for live deal flow, founder pedigrees, AI-talent maps, and the full cap table for every company below.

$142B+65%
Combined startup EV
$5.9B
VC invested (last 12mo)
4,435
Tracked startups
🦄 Unicorns
33
33 live · +9 new in 2025 (incl. 1 new decacorns)
💎 Decacorns
1
$10B+ tier
🐎 Thoroughbreds
21
Top 1% growth · $500M+

Enterprise value · 2015–2025

MENA grew 32.7× since 2015

Combined enterprise value of every tracked startup headquartered in MENA that's still operating today — public and private companies combined, totalled by founding-year cohort.

0 $50B $100B $150B $200B MENA · $140B 2015 2018 2021 2024 2025

Adjacent regions by EV

Top sub-locations

Inside MENA: top 8 sub-locations

Sub-locations inside MENA ranked by combined enterprise value, paired with their 5-year growth multiplier.

By enterprise value
2 Saudi Arabia $33.6B
3 Egypt $12.3B
4 Armenia $12.3B
5 Kuwait $6.1B
6 Bahrain $1.5B
7 Jordan $1.4B
8 Tunisia $1.1B
By 5-yr EV growth
1 Saudi Arabia 81×
2 Bahrain 60×
3 Tunisia 37×
4 Kuwait 35×
6 Egypt 9.6×
7 Armenia 8.3×
8 Jordan 4.7×

Startup funnel

MENA's power-law funnel

From the first cheque written to a $10B+ outcome. Each arrow shows what fraction of companies at one stage graduate to the next, tracked by founding cohort.

Pre-Seed
1,144
Seed
755
Series A
377
Series B
169
Series C
84
Unicorn
30
Decacorn
1

* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.

Notable companies

Top private companies in MENA

Up to 20 names per tier from Dealroom's tracked dataset. Decacorns are valued $10B+, unicorns $1B+, thoroughbreds have crossed $100M in revenue.

Decacorns $10B+ valuation 1
noon
Unicorns $1B+ valuation 30
AlephSallaSwvlTalabatVini Cosmetic5ireTamaraOptasiaSouqYallaFawryPicsArtDeribitKitopiJahezProperty FinderAndalusia LabsTelegramNice OneG42+10 more
Thoroughbreds+ $100M+ revenue 18
Network InternationalJahezFawryYallaNice OneG42OptasiaRasanTalabatTelegramThiqahDeribitDubizzle GroupKitopiPicsArtProperty FinderPaackAleph

Academia

MENA's academic flywheel

Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to MENA.

University-linked startup formation
90
University spinouts
1,505
Total alumni-founded companies
1,091
Of which startups (<$15M raised)
330
Breakouts ($15M-100M)
84
Scaleups ($100M+)

Vs. similarly-sized ecosystems

How MENA stacks up

Peers chosen from other continents / multi-country regions, sized closest to MENA by combined EV. The scatter plots growth × current size — outliers in the upper-right are ecosystems compounding fastest.

Combined enterprise value
$581B
$368B
MENA
$142B
$73.6B
EV growth (5-yr ×) vs current EV
peer median 5.8× 4.0× 8.2× 12.4× $73.6B $1.8T $44.1T EV growth (5yr ×) Combined enterprise value (log) World North America Asia EMEA MENA

Top overview

Top regions — combined view

Top regions globally ranked by combined EV. MENA's row is highlighted.

# Ecosystem Combined EV 5-yr EV growth Unicorns VC invested Tracked startups
1 World $44.1T 5.8× 3,634 $444B 288.9K
2 North America $31.5T 6.8× 2,136 $290B 122.2K
3 Asia $8.9T 4.0× 916 $85.5B 74.2K
4 EMEA $4.6T 4.7× 857 $84.1B 89.8K
5 Europe $3.8T 4.4× 689 $67.9B 75.5K
6 European Union $2.3T 4.4× 410 $37.3B 48.5K
7 Nordics $581B 5.1× 105 $8.2B 8,196
8 South America $502B 11.3× 69 $4.7B 8,638
9 Oceania $368B 10.6× 51 $5.4B 5,662
10 Central Eastern Europe $193B 5.2× 58 $2.3B 7,162
11 MENA $142B 12.4× 33 $5.9B 4,435
12 Africa $73.6B 10.7× 14 $1.7B 4,526

Premium analytics

What we don't show on this page (yet)

Sector breakdowns, founder origins, AI-talent leaderboards and live deal flow are gated to logged-in Dealroom users. Book a demo to access the full MENA dataset — or see a sample on the Dealroom app.

Sector breakdown
Where MENA's unicorns concentrate
Fintech
AI / Enterprise SW
Health Tech
Biotech
Cybersecurity
Consumer
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Capital autonomy
MENA's domestic vs foreign capital mix
% domestic VC by stage
Cross-border lead investors
Sovereign-fund participation
Foreign-LP exposure
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Recent momentum
MENA's VC investment trajectory by stage
2024 vs 2025 by stage
Round-size trends
Stage-conversion deltas
Quarterly velocity
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Founder origins
Where MENA's startup founders come from
By country of origin
Per capita
Top universities
Top alumni-factory companies
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AI talent
Top employers of AI talent in MENA
Core AI roles
Frontier AI roles
YoY hiring growth
Senior + lead engineers
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Deal flow
Live deal flow & funding rounds in MENA
New rounds last 30 days
Stage breakdown
Active investors
Round-size trends
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