Value of funding deals for start-ups in Middle East H1 2018-H1 2023

In the first half of 2021, startup funding in the Middle East jumped by nearly 440 million U.S. dollars over the previous year, reaching approximately 1.065 billion U.S. dollars. The following year saw another substantial increase in start-up funding, this time increasing by roughly 450 million USD, reaching around 1.52 billion USD. However, the first half of 2023 did not perform as well as previous years, and for the first time since 2018. Between 2020 to 2022, the number of startup funding deals in the Middle East exceeded 200 in the first half of each year. Types of startup fundingTraditionally, there have been multiple modes of startup funding. This could come in the form of angel investors, venture capital, series funding, crowdfunding, and even equity. Typically, funding from angel investors, small credit loans, and crowdfunding are relatively more accessible. Series funding and venture capital require a lot more preliminary effort since these offer the highest levels of funding to startups. In the Middle East, industries like real estate and e-commerce have historically secured a higher share of startup funding. Startups in the Middle EastThe Middle East is a growing hub for up-and-coming startups. Recently, countries like the United Arab Emirates have become attractive destinations for blockchain and artificial intelligence startups. In the e-commerce space, Souq.com was acquired and rebranded by Amazon in March of 2017. Ride-sharing app Careem, founded in Dubai, was bought by Uber in March 2019 for 3.1 billion U.S. dollars. It has since evolved beyond simply ridesharing into a super app, and is one of the few unicorns in the Middle East.

在2021年上半年，中东地区的初创企业融资额较上年激增近4.4亿美元，总额达到约10.65亿美元。次年，初创企业融资额再次显著增长，此次增长约为4.5亿美元，总额达到约15.2亿美元。然而，2023年上半年并未如往年般表现出色，这也是自2018年以来的首次。在2020年至2022年期间，中东地区每年上半年的初创企业融资交易数量均超过200宗。初创企业融资类型传统上，初创企业融资存在多种模式。这可能包括天使投资者、风险投资、系列融资、众筹甚至股权。通常，来自天使投资者、小额信贷和众筹的融资相对更容易获得。系列融资和风险投资则需要更多的前期努力，因为这些方式为初创企业提供的是最高级别的资金支持。在中东地区，房地产行业和电子商务行业历来占据了较高的初创企业融资份额。中东地区的初创企业中东地区正成为新兴初创企业的增长中心。近年来，阿拉伯联合酋长国等国家已成为区块链和人工智能初创企业的热门目的地。在电子商务领域，Souq.com于2017年3月被亚马逊收购并重新命名。成立于迪拜的共享出行应用Careem于2019年3月被Uber以31亿美元的价格收购。此后，它已从单纯的共享出行服务发展成为超级应用，并成为中东地区为数不多的独角兽企业之一。