Saudi startups raised a combined USD 31 mn across seven transactions in July, up from USD 13.5 in the previous month, putting the Kingdom in fourth place in the MENA region in terms of the size of funds raised, according to data compiled by Wamda and Digital Digest.

Startups that landed funding in July: Deep-tech AI company Intelmatix closed aUSD 20 mn series A funding round last month, while fintech startup TechMal raised USD 1 mn in a pre-seed investment round, and shipping management platform Oto closed a USD 8 mn series A round. These rounds add to a total of USD 29 mn, leaving some USD 2 mn unaccounted for.

The regional view: Total funds raised by some 38 MENA startups rose 260% y-o-y to USD 355 mn last month, a 206% m-o-m hike. Egypt ranked first with USD 185 mn across 7 transactions, followed by UAE raising a combined USD 96 mn across 12 transactions, and Oman reeling in USD 37 mn through a single transaction by a carbon capture startup (44.01). In June, UAE came first, followed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

Investors are bullish on tech: Fintech reeled in the most investments during the month at USD 180.8 mn with the sector maintaining its position as the most appealing to investors, followed by Web 3 (USD 85 mn), cleantech (USD 37 mn), deeptech (USD 20 mn), and e-commerce (USD 15.7 mn).

Tags: