Mena startups raised $632 million in July 2021

Startups raised almost $632 million in July across 77 deals, a record-breaking month thanks mostly to Kitopi’s $415 million Series C round. The Softbank-backed cloud kitchen operator, now a unicorn, pushed the UAE’s total amount invested to $530 million, far ahead of Egypt which raised the second highest amount last month at $70.7 million across 19 deals.

Other significant rounds included UAE-based SWVL, which announced its intention to go public on the NASDAQ via a SPAC, also raised $100 million from Agility, Luxor Capital and Zain group through a private investment in public equity (PIPE). Meanwhile, Egypt-based B2B e-commerce enabler MaxAB raised the highest Series A round with $40 million, one of 16 deals in the e-commerce sector which together raised $63 million.

In Saudi Arabia, 11 startups raised $23.8 million, a modest 7 per cent rise month-on-month. Qatar’s push for entrepreneurship is now becoming more evident, with two incubators graduating their cohorts, resulting in 16 startups in the country raising $1.5 million in total.

Both Kitopi and SWVL’s rounds have skewed the amount invested in male founding teams heavily this month with $626,540,000 across 60 deals. Thirteen startups founded by women raised $2 million while four mixed team startups managed to raise $3 million.

*These monthly reports are a collaboration between Wamda and Digital Digest

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