Funding activity in the Middle East picked up pace in the first week of July after a subdued last week, thanks to two tech startups, HR-tech venture Alfii and foodtech platform Nomu Group, raising early-stage funding.
In June, startup funding in the Middle East and North Africa region dropped 92% on a month-on-month basis, with $35.6 million raised across 45 deals, according to a report by Wamda, a venture capital firm and startup accelerator. Funding was led by Saudi Arabia with $25 million raised across 12 rounds.
Dubai-based Alfii secured pre-seed funding of $2.5 million (around Rs 20 crore) led by US-based Preface Ventures. The round also saw participation from Kayan Ventures, Aditum Ventures and Wayfinders, besides a slew of local and regional angel investors.
The startup will use the capital to expand its team and develop its product offerings.
Founded in 2022 by Yousef Albarqawi, Becky Jefferies and Dina Mohammad-Laity, Alfii is a cloud-based HR platform that aims to help businesses manage their HR workload and optimize the administrative work including employee data, payroll, among others. Since the launch, over 250 businesses have come on board, with its clients spread across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Saudi Arabia-based Nomu Group has raised seed funding of $5 million (around Rs 40 crore) from DIV Capital and Shurfah to expand geographically and widen its business-to-business product offerings.
Core Vision and Purity for Information Technology, besides family offices in Saudi Arabia, such as the Altoukhi family office and Bakr family office and some angel investors also participated in the fundraise.
Founded in 2022 by Salman Attieh, Yassir El Ismaili El Idrissi, Shehab Mokhtar, and Ahmed Eldemerdash, Nomu was formed following the merger of two foodtech e-grocery startups, Saudi-based Jumlaty and Egypt-based Appetito.
The fresh funding will be used towards expanding its operations in the hotel, restaurant, and catering (HoReCa) sector, besides developing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution and an AI-enabled procurement chatbot.
The company plans to scale its business to 50 cities by 2025 including covering Pakistan and key sub-Saharan countries in the near future. Nomu currently operates in four countries—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.
