In April 2023, startups based in the Middle East and North Africa raised roughly $7 million, a drop of 97 per cent compared to March 2023 and a 99 per cent drop compared to April 2022, according to a report in Wamda.
The significant decline can be attributed in part to the holy month of Ramadan, in which private sector activity often slows. But the steep drop also highlights the decline in tech startup investment globally.
“Ramadan is usually a slow month for news and announcements, so it was no surprise that investment announcements would drop in April. What was surprising however, was by how much,” Wamda writes.
“This dramatic slowdown was compounded by the Eid and Easter breaks and the subsequent fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank crisis. It also highlights the decline in tech startup investment globally, following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In March 2023, more than $247 million was raised across Mena. While $150 million was down to Tamara’s debt financing round, taking this one deal out still results in $90 million invested more in Mena startups compared to last month.”
April’s $7 million, raised across 11 deals “takes us back to 2018/2019 levels, when investments in startups was much slower than it has been for the past couple of years,” the report notes. Of the amount raised last month, a little over $3 million went to three startups in the UAE while another $3 million was invested in three startups in Saudi Arabia.
