A quarter of the founders of pre-seed startups operating in the MENA region are Egyptian — meaning that we eclipse all other nationalities, a report by Wamda shows (pdf). 12% of regional pre-seed startup founders are Jordanian, putting them in second position. Meanwhile, a third of MENA’s pre-seed startups are registered or incorporated in Egypt — a higher number than any other country in the region, with the UAE having the next-highest figure of 27%, even though only 2.7% of the region’s startup founders are Emirati. Egypt and the UAE are also the favored locations for pre-seed startups to base themselves, the report shows — with 26.5% of these startups being based in Egypt and 35.3% in the UAE. The report is based on data from 627 startup founders who applied to the Wamda X fellowship program, Zawya reports.

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