2016 was an exciting year for the startup ‘ecosystem,’ Wamda says. The UAE is still the central hub of regional investment activity, with investment there 10x more than the closest ranking countries but, generally, “the entrepreneurship ecosystem began showing early signs of maturity.” Wamda says private equity firms have begun making investments in “regional tech companies” and “capital availability is increasing with the launch of 11 new venture funds that raised more than double the amount of deployable capital than last year’s funds.” The biggest investments regionally were the USD 350 mn Careem received and the USD 275 mn in Souq.com. There were 15 disclosed agreements in Egypt with a total investment of USD 13.2 mn, putting it in third place regionally in terms of transaction volume behind UAE and Jordan.