Sharjah start-up scene, funding round up & family offices
Featuring EKar on our Startup spotlight series,
Dubai rising and with it, raise of Asian family investment offices
Singapore and Hong Kong were the leaders in Asian family investment offices and now with both countries facing setback of their own kind, with Singapore more recently having to fight for reputation with a scandal — Dubai is capitalising on it.
With the golden visa program and access to lifestyle options and lower to no taxation policies for SFO, Dubai certainly seems to be the place to be if you were to set up a family investment office.
Recent Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) Family Arrangements Regulations are amend to favour family offices.
Sharjah making its pitch to lure more entrepreneurs to launch, base and grow the emirate.
Sharjah’s startup scene had been quite active post Covid the Emirate feels like it can do more. A lot of attention has been given to SMEs, and rightfully so, as being one of the levers for UAE’s economic growth.
There is space that can be created for ‘micro’ businesses with capital needs well below Dh5 million. With costs in Sharjah well below its rich neighbour, Dubai, it certainly has credentials to focus on Micro SME growth.
Recently concluded Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival 2024 had record attendees with over 400 start-ups showcased.
Kachings for this edition
Fundraising is an incredibly draining yet most important part of a founder(s) job description. Having gone through that myself, I know how hard is to convince your vision that can appeal to someone else who isn’t as vested as you are but see’s the commercial possibility.
Here are a few that have successfully raised money:
Silkhaus. Launched in 2021, Silkhaus operates across the MENA region -with bases in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and another one set to open soon in Riyadh- as well as South Asia and Southeast Asia. Pre-series A raise.
Hakbah, a Saudi-based fintech startup, successfully closed a $5.1 million series A round, pushing its total funding to date to $9 million. Series A raise.
Velents closed a seed funding round led by Egypt’s A15 with participation from Nibras Capital, AUC Venture Lab, and other local investors. The amount remains undisclosed. Seed round.
Qatar’s Droobi Health merged with India’s Smit.fit to form DroobiSmit and they secured approximately $5 million to date, with support from entities including QSTP, QDB, Barzan Holding, Doha Tech Angels, and MVP. Series A raise
Egypt-based healthtech startup Chefaa has successfully raised $5.25 million in a funding round co-led by Newtown Partners from South Africa and Global Brain from Japan, with additional participation from GMS Capital Partners LLC in the US, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures in Nigeria, and M3, Inc. from Japan.
Start-up Spotlight
EKar
Founded in 2016, this pay-as-you-go car rental is a great alternative to your regular car rental service and if you are some one who likes to self drive but don’t want to commit to long durations, this service is perfect. When I was living in the UK, used to love Zipcar and the closest to that is EKar.
