Invest In The Founder, Not The Company
Gulf Business|October 2020
In an exclusive interview, regional venture capitalist Noor Sweid outlines how the startup ecosystem has coped with the pandemic and reveals her plans for the future
- Aarti Nagraj
Invest In The Founder, Not The Company

With 2020 being defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, the impact of the virus on the regional startup sector has been mixed. On one hand, the number of investment deals for MENA-based startups were down 8 per cent year-on-year in the first half of the year (with March and April seeing the biggest drops of 66 per cent and 35 per cent respectively), according to a report by startup data platform Magnitt.

On the other hand, there was a 35 per cent increase in total funding in H1 2020, with MENA-based startups raising $659m between January to June – standing at 95 per cent of the full-year 2019 funding. This was largely attributed to a few startups raising sizable funding rounds, such as Kitopi ($60m) and Vezeeta ($40m), before the Covid-19 outbreak, as well as high-profile funding rounds during the pandemic, such as EMPG ($150m) and Jahez ($36.5m), the report stated.

On a ground level, in reality, the pandemic has been the first-ever crisis experience for many startups in the region. “Covid forced a lot of startups to pivot and kind of really think about being sustainable – not that startups don’t want to be sustainable – but that became a priority. The other thing that it’s done for startups is made them more creative in a way and more focused,” explains Noor Sweid, partner and founder of Dubai-based venture capital firm Global Ventures.

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この蚘事は Gulf Business の October 2020 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

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