There were a total of five $100 million rounds in 2023, with three of them being in fintech and two in ecommerce. Four of them were raised by startups headquartered in Saudi. One by an Egyptian startup. And none by those headquartered in the UAE.
- If we expand the list to top ten rounds, Saudi has five, UAE four, and Egypt one (which kind of tells you how big of an exception Halan was).
Interestingly: Two of these startups with $100 million rounds were imported into the Kingdom. They were not founded there. Tabby started in UAE and Floward in Kuwait. Tabby moved its headquarters to Saudi in 2023 and Floward apparently in 2022. Both these companies plan to go for an IPO in Saudi.
Of note: Many argue that it is just for optics but Saudi accounted for 80 percent or $4.8 billion of Tabby’s annualized volume in 2023. Floward’s biggest market is Saudi too. Almost one-third of their 700 employees are also in the Kingdom. Some of their biggest investors are also Saudi funds. So, yes, some of it would be for optics, but there’s definitely a lot more going on here.
