CAIRO: The UAE-based fintech startup Qashio raised $10 million in a seed funding spherical utilizing fairness and non-equity investments to speed up growth into Saudi Arabia.

Established in 2021, the corporate allows companies to achieve full visibility and management over their bills by means of its spend administration platform. In addition, it claims to be the primary fintech firm within the UAE to difficulty company worker playing cards.

“Saudi Arabia is making great efforts to align with its Vision 2030 by taking fintech-friendly approaches and bringing more fintech firms into the market. At Qashio, we are proud to be an integral part of propelling a cashless society in the UAE and now Saudi Arabia,” Armin Moradi, CEO and co-founder of Qashio, mentioned in an announcement.

The firm already serves purchasers within the UAE and Saudi Arabia however will use its acquired funding to speed up additional buyer acquisition and market presence within the Kingdom.

“This round of funding will help us expand hiring and growth into Saudi Arabia and other parts of the GCC and accelerate the execution of the product roadmap. We are excited for the days ahead,” chief product officer and co-founder Jonathan Lau mentioned in an announcement.

The spherical noticed participation from enterprise capitalists One Way Ventures, MITAA, Cadorna Ventures, Sanabil 500 MENA, Nuwa Capital, Iliad Partners and Phoenix Investments.

Data is the brand new oil

Saudi Arabia-based knowledge platform DataLexing raises $3 million in a seed funding spherical led by Sadu Capital with participation from Impact46 and different buyers.

Founded in 2018 by Rayan Al-Faheid and Abdulelah Al-Ganas, the corporate presents organizations and people to amass knowledge with out counting on technical personnel and gathering insights, apps, notifications, types, and sheets in a single place.

“The link between data and centralized reporting usually goes through different applications, platforms, data engineers, and multiple integrations. That wastes business users’ time and effort to produce a report on time and even with questionable accuracy,” Salem Washeely, managing director at Sadu Capital, mentioned in an announcement.

He additional defined that DataLexing managed to bridge the hole for purchasers domestically and globally by making a hassle-free answer.

The firm plans to make the most of its funding spherical to develop into Gulf Cooperation international locations and develop its product additional.

Educating the youth

Saudi Arabia’s academic expertise agency Jeel secured $1.1 million in a seed funding spherical led by Egypt-based enterprise capital agency EdVentures.

Founded in 2020 by Ahmed Sobaih, the corporate educates pre-schoolers by means of its edutainment platform, which incorporates studying content material ready by psychologists and educators.

EdVentures presents incubation, acceleration, and funding packages for startups to spice up the ed tech sector, which hosts over 1,500 firms within the Middle East and North Africa.

Full spectrum of prescription drugs

Egypt-based B2B market Grinta raised $8 million in a seed funding spherical co-led by Raed Ventures and Nclude alongside Endeavor Catalyst and 500 Global.

Established in 2021 by Mohamed Azab, Yosra Badr, Ali Youssef and Hamza Mohamed, Grinta gives pharmacies with a full vary of pharmaceutical and medical merchandise from distributors by means of its B2B platform.

“As we plan to expand our footprint in the main Pharma hubs on the continent, we will also enable Egyptian and regional Pharma manufacturers to further penetrate the $50 billion African market,” Azab, CEO of Grinta, mentioned in an announcement.

The firm plans to extend its market presence in Egypt and make the most of its funding to reinforce its tech platform and develop its group.

Since its inception, Grinta has been current in seven governates in Egypt, with over 14,000 registered pharmacies, 20,000 product choices, and greater than 100,000 delivered orders.

A Phoenix Star

UAE-based gaming platform Fenix Games secured an funding mega-round of $150 million led by Phoenix Group and Cypher Capital.

The firm, based this 12 months, goals to spice up blockchain video games within the area by buying, investing, and making a publishing platform of the long run.

The firm believes blockchain gaming is heading towards consolidation, the place giant companies will purchase and spend money on robust startups.

“We plan to acquire, invest, publish, and operate in select cases games and studios. We will have a few hundred million to deploy to execute our strategy,” Chris Ko, CEO and co-founder of Fenix Games, mentioned in an announcement.

He added that the corporate is tackling a structural hole by redefining publishing teams to leverage conventional publication however with new and progressive performance.

Fenix Games goals to mix the abilities of its group in publications and product administration to offer publishing providers to all recreation fashions, which embody premium, free-to-play, and blockchain gaming throughout all platforms.

“The infrastructure, tools and support just do not exist. We believe there is an opportunity for the role of publishing to elevate its role in the gaming ecosystem,” Ko added.