Category: Middle East
YC-backed Ziina raises $7.5M seed led by Avenir Growth Capital and Class 5 Global
Cash is the predominant method of sending and receiving payments in the Middle East. If you owe someone a cup of coffee or a trip over a long period, repaying via cash is your best bet. This is one problem out of many financial issues that haven’t been addressed in…
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Video e-learning platform for MENA, Almentor, closes $6.5M Series B led by Partech
There are more than 400 million Arabic speakers globally and that number isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Arabic, to most people, is a tough language even to those who speak it. According to Duolingo, someone fluent in Egyptian Arabic might not fully understand Yemeni Arabic speakers because of the vast…
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Middle East and Africa will reap benefits from Nuwa Capital’s newest fund
Nuwa Capital, a venture capital firm based in Dubai and Riyadh, announced the first close of its $100 million NVFI fund in February. The close was three-quarters of the target and was done in less than a year following the firm’s launch in February 2020. According to the firm, the…
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Visa takes a swipe in fintech, builds new online marketplace
The relationships between banks and fintechs are multi-faceted. In some cases, they partner. In many cases, they compete. In other cases, one acquires or invests in the other. Well, today, an announcement by global payments giant Visa is aimed at helping facilitate banks and fintechs’ ability to work together. Specifically, Visa…
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BuffaloGrid and Techfugees launch education, solar charging initiative for refugees, aim to raise $3M
BuffaloGrid, a startup that provides phone charging and digital content to people in off-grid environments, is teaming up with the Techfugees refugee non-profit to provid free educational content and device charging to displaced people across East Africa and the Middle-East. The initial service will see solar-powered ‘BuffaloGrid Hubs’ deployed in…
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Israel’s startup ecosystem powers ahead, amid a year of change
Released in 2011 “Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle” was a book that laid claim to the idea that Israel was an unusual type of country. It had produced and was poised to produce, an enormous number of technology startups, given its relatively small size. The moniker became…
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