Funding activity in the Gulf region during the first week of October was dominated by growth-stage and high value deals. It was led by Saudi startups, HyperSpace and Jisr, which raised $50 million and $30 million, respectively.
Other key deals include Series A fundraise by UAE travel startup Dharma and a pre-seed funding round by Jordan-based fintech firm Capifly.
Meanwhile, the two-year-old Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF), an evergreen venture investment and fund of funds, created with capital commitments of AED 1 billion ($275 million), made a direct investment in an AI technology company Camb.
Saudi tech startup HyperSpace raised funding of $55 million in a mix of equity and debt financing, as it aims to facilitate global expansion and enhance its existing offerings.
The funding round was led by New York-based venture capital fund Galaxy Interactive and also saw participation from Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners.
Founded in 2021 by Alexander Heller, the Riyadh-headquartered startup is a multi-brand entertainment attractions developer that builds permanent ticketed experiential attractions like parks and proprietary technology to shape the future of physical-to-digital experiences.
Earlier, it raised $11 million in a seed funding round in 2021 led by Introsight and Dubai Financier Mohammed Afkhami.
The startup aims to use the additional funding to further expand globally, including entering the US market. The company’s debut entertainment attraction, AYA in Dubai, is a digital immersive experience consisting of 12 zones across 40,000 square feet, and has sold more than 480,000 tickets in its first nine months of operation.
HyperSpace plans to open two new larger parks in the coming six months: House of Hype at Riyadh Boulevard and House of Hype at Dubai Mall.
Saudi Arabia’s largest human resource management platform Jisr has secured a $30 million funding from Merak Capital, marking the largest Series A investment for a software-as-a-service startup.
The funding will enable Jisr to enhance its HR technology systems and develop products to improve various aspects of HR operation, including seamlessly integrating functions like recruitment, management and payroll processing with various platforms.
Founded in 2016 by Mohamed Akkar Al-Johi, Jisr offers its clients HR tech solutions, towards transforming and modernising human resource management in Saudi Arabia. It has a client base of over 3,000 large, medium and small companies across 16 sectors.
Dharma
Abu Dhabi-headquartered travel startup Dharma has raised $4.7 million in a Series A funding round led by San Francisco-based Convivialité Ventures to fuel further growth and expansion.
The round also saw participation from Shorooq Partners, FJ Labs, Equinox Steve Ross and LionTree, among others.
Founded by Nisma Benani, Charaf El Mansouri and Leah Howe in the UAE in 2021, Dharma is a travel management company that builds and operates hosted by the world’s most inspiring people and brands.
With this investment, the total funding raised by the company stands at around $10 million.
The funding will allow Dharma to continue to expand its roster of world-class creators to offer multi-day travel experiences in new verticals such as sports, culinary, fashion and lifestyle tourism. It was one of the first startups accepted into the Hub71 programme.
Camb
UAE-based generative AI technology company Camb ai has secured early stage funding from UAE’s evergreen fund Dubai Future District Fund.
Founded by Avneesh Prakash and Akshat Prakash, the startup provides a solution for the instant localization of video content into any language through a combination of specialized deep learning models.
The company aims to disrupt the global localization market for content which includes voice dubbing and audio translation services. It helps creators and enterprises reach a global audience by providing localized colloquial versions of their content in more than 78 languages.
The two-year old DFDF has made over 10 direct investments and around seven fund-of-fund investments. DFDF aims to deploy half of its investments into venture capital funds with a local focus and the other half directly into startups.
Capifly
Jordan-based fintech startup Capifly raised a $1 million in pre-seed funding from Oasis500 and BLDR Ventures, among others for growth.
Other investors include Joa Capital and Ahli Fintech, along with other angel investors from Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Founded in 2022 by Dunya Bashiti and joined later by Ahmed Jaradat, Capifly provides growing technology companies with quick and non-dilutive capital, against annual recurring revenue.
In fact, Capifly is set to initiate a $10 million non-dilutive capital facility to empower the digital economy. It recently expanded into Saudi Arabia to support its growth in the region.
