MENA’s Digital News, Week #48
Yes, this is last week’s round up posted this week, although it was drafted and ready to post last week, my hosting provider decided to botch my domain and website. We should be back and running next week 🙌🏻
A weekly round up of the top headlines from the digital sector in MENA, covering startups, corporate and the public sector.
Investments & Acquisitions
Foloosi, UAE-based fintech startup, closes a angel funding round of $500k (inclusive of the committed funding in June) http://bit.ly/2A5bxGA
Shelvz, Lebanon-based Saas-workforce management platform, raises funding from iM Capital http://bit.ly/2kfmMIv
Misk Growth Accelerator kicks off cycle with 11 startups, each of which will receive up to $100k in funding from Seedstars & Vision Ventures by end of cycle http://bit.ly/2kFN7zz
Sector News
Wired Magazine launches Middle East edition http://bit.ly/2LlmVVh
Arrow Labs, Dubai-based wearable workforce management, expands to the USA. They had raised a single funding round from Global Ventures (Dubai) in May, 2018 (amount undisclosed) http://bit.ly/2LoJUPz
Qatar blocks Uber’s acquisition of Careem within the country http://bit.ly/318Vx2y
Youtube launches subscription based premium music streaming service in MENA http://bit.ly/2k6ehiG
Fintech
CareemPay launches mobile top-up capability in Egypt and Pakistan http://bit.ly/2lQpeFw
Accion Venture Lab & Fund, $33M, launches to invest in MENAP based startups focused on financial inclusion http://bit.ly/2A0bImT
Central Bank of Egypt to launch over $50M fintech fund http://bit.ly/2kc7KDc
Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) grants the first full digital banking license to Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank, which will allow it to provide corporate banking services to Abu Dhabi based companies starting with ones based in ADGM http://bit.ly/2ZTVkmf
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) is considering to expand the scope of digital currencies to banks & other countries http://bit.ly/30dybHr
Further Reading
Saudi’s Ministry of Labor launches a new platform to facilitate freelance work licenses in the kingdom (AR) http://bit.ly/2kaPzhc
Masdar (owned by Mubadala) and the UK government have invested £70M ($86.5M) in a new green technology fund to be managed by London-based Zouk Capital http://bit.ly/2lIVsmk
Egypt’s ICT Minister says they plan to launch 7 technological parks in 7 universities across Egypt, with EGP 1B (~$60M) budget from the government, and aims to increase ICT contribution to GDP to 4% by end of year http://bit.ly/2kFEFjE
Egypt begins digitization of its energy grid http://bit.ly/2ka3qEr
Long Read
World Economic Forum publishes the 2019 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report. The UAE leads MENA enablement, infrastructure, ICT, labor and at a globally competitive level, however it’s not faring well on nature, openness and price. Full report here: http://bit.ly/2kqLhCF
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