Forbes Middle East - December 2022 - English

BISWAS

GAURAV

8 I Sidelines

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By Claudine Coletti

12 I World’s Top 5 Tech Investors 2022

Meet the top five listees from Forbes’ Midas List 2022, featuring the world’s leading tech investors.

By Jamila Gandhi

14 I The Growth Of Giving In The GCC

According to a report by LGT, the international Private Banking and Asset Management Group, philanthropy in the GCC area has grown over the last ten years to hit an estimated $210 billion annually, in part driven by an increase in the number of business leaders committing to philanthropic practices.

By Rawan Hassan

STARTUPS

16 I World’s Top 5 Unicorns

There are approximately 1,191 unicorns—a privately-owned firm valued at more than $1 billion—worldwide, worth a collective $3.9 trillion, according to estimates from CB Insights. Here are the world’s top five. Figures are as of October 2022.

By Hagar Omran

18 I Top VC-Funded Industries

These five industries have attracted the most funding from VCs worldwide in 2022, in terms of deals count over the past five years, according to Statista. Here we take a look at how they’re growing.

By Munawar Shariff

22 I In Numbers: MENA’s Gender Gap

In Startup Funding

Investments in MENA startups hit $2.4 billion in the first nine months of 2022, but less than 2% of this was invested in startups solely founded by women, according to a report by Wamda, TiE Dubai, and TiE Women. Here’s a look at other insights from the report, which was based on responses from 125 female founders in MENA.

By Samar Khouri

BILLIONAIRES

24 I World’s 5 Richest Investment Billionaires

Here are the richest five people in the world who built their fortunes from investing, according to Forbes. All five reside in the U.S. and are self-made billionaires. Net worths are as of November 11, 2022.

By Jamila Gandhi

28 I Seizing Opportunities

Ajlan Bin Abdulaziz Alajlan, Chairman of the Ajlan & Bros Group, is poised to gain ground as new windows open for the private sector in Saudi Arabia.

By Nermeen Abbas

34 I Back To Business

William E. Heinecke, billionaire Founder and Chairman of global hospitality group Minor International, sees plenty of reason for optimism in the travel markets. As his hotel company moves forward with a raft of Middle East openings, he’s betting on a steady and profitable period ahead.

By Claudine Coletti

100 I Thoughts On Inspiration

INTRODUCING THREE NEW COMPANIES THAT WILL BUILD THE FUTURE.

MENA’S TOP 50 MOST-FUNDED STARTUPS

58

Riding High

Noureddine Tayebi, Founder and CEO of North Africanbased multi-sided marketplace Yassir, scratched the surface of an untapped market when he launched the company five years ago. The startup now has the upper hand in the Maghreb region, backed by $193.25 million in funding.

By Hagar Omran

64

Backing Buyers

Jad Antoun, Cofounder and CEO of Huspy, has raised $45 million in less than three years for his end-to-end propertybuying tech startup. With three new acquisitions under his belt, he’s now looking to Europe for expansion.

By Jason Lasrado

Over six years, Gaurav Biswas, founder and CEO of TruKKer, has raised over $203 million in funding for the truck aggregator and expanded it across the Middle East. Now it’s time to plan for an IPO.

By Samar Khouri

SIDELINES

Powered By Entrepreneurs

Well, I feel like I say this every year, but what a year it has been. Global challenges have once more tested the resolve and resilience of business leaders old and new, but while they have had to adapt and watch out for unexpected bumps in the road, they have also managed to find opportunities and embrace change. This happens every year because that is the nature of the world we live in and the cycle of business—and the ability to innovate, survive, and thrive among it is a core element of the entrepreneurial spirit that we celebrate. We highlight that spirit to the max in our last issue of 2022.

This month we bring you the most-funded startups of the year in MENA, which have attracted a total of over $3.2 billion in capital from investors in 2022. Despite a bumpy global economy, these young companies have seen a slight increase in investor interest—in 2021, as markets recovered from the pandemic, the 50 most funded brought in $3 billion. Of course, just because they’ve attracted funding doesn’t mean they’re future-proof— it’s a well-known fact that most startups fail, and the Middle East has witnessed some big names fall this year. But those in this month’s list have convinced venture capitalists that they have staying power. Time will tell.

Last month we had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know many such young business leaders at our jam-packed and incredibly fun Under 30 Summit, which we held for the first time at the end of November in El Gouna in Egypt. We welcomed a roster of the most amazing speakers – from celebrities to doctors, artists to entrepreneurs, big business leaders, and under30 listers. It was diverse, insightful, and full of energy for the whole three days.

The summit celebrated a number of things. Yes, the spotlight was on the achievers from our 30 Under 30 lists, the latest of which we published in October for the fifth consecutive year. But it was also a hotbed for entrepreneurial ideas and discussions. One of the many things the event provided was a platform for conversations, introductions, debates—and yes, I’m sure pitches—that happened across the campus, in the breaks between panels, and of course, at the after-parties. The event helped build connections and networks that we believe will go on to drive more ideas, more success, and ultimately more innovation and change for the future.

We may be blessed to be able to provide a platform for this development and growth, but it is the people feeding and driving the ecosystem that are the key to it. They are also the sustainable energy that fuels our success—and that includes you, our engaged and esteemed audience. So, on behalf of the whole team, thank you for reading. We look forward to continuing this incredible journey with you in the new year. Enjoy the issue.

—Claudine Coletti, Managing Editor

INNOVATING SINCE 2010

DECEMBER 2022 ISSUE 123

Dr. Nasser Bin Aqeel Al Tayyar President & Publisher nasser@forbesmiddleeast.com

Khuloud Al Omian

Editor-in-Chief Forbes Middle East, CEO - Arab Publisher House khuloud@forbesmiddleeast.com

Editorial

Claudine Coletti Managing Editor claudine@forbesmiddleeast.com

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Jamila Gandhi Senior Reporter jamila@forbesmiddleeast.com

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Research

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FORBES

Money World’s Top 5 Tech Investors 2022

1. Chris Dixon

Firm: Andreessen Horowitz

Notable Deal: Coinbase

Headquarters: U.S.

Andreessen Horowitz’s general partner Dixon jumped six places from last year to reach number one, thanks to his firm’s continued investment in crypto exchange Coinbase. His focus is on Web3. The company has bet on Coinbase 15 times, across every funding round from its Series B in 2013 to its April 2021 IPO with an $85 billion market cap. The 51-yearold entrepreneur also cofounded cybersecurity company SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee in 2006, and recommendation tech firm Hunch, which Dixon sold to eBay in 2011. He is also a personal investor in Pinterest, Stripe, and Warby Parker.

2. Micky Malka

Firm: Ribbit Capital

Notable Deal: Coinbase

Headquarters: U.S.

Ribbit Capital founder Malka is credited with some of the highest-profile IPOs of 2021, including Coinbase, Nubank, and Robinhood.

The 48-year-old Venezuelan native founded and sold his first business, a financial brokerage, in his teenage years. Malka established payments startup Bling Nation in 2007, which failed in 2011. The serial entrepreneur founded Ribbit Capital in 2012.

3. Neil Shen

Firm: Sequoia China

Notable Deal: ByteDance

Headquarters: Hong Kong (SAR)

Shen is the founding and managing partner of Sequoia China, the Chinese arm of Silicon Valley’s venture capital firm. He was the Midas List’s top investor for three years until 2021. Before founding

Sequoia China in 2005, the 54-year-old cofounded travel site Ctrip.com, now Trip.com, and worked as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank Hong Kong, Chemical Bank, Lehman Brothers, and Citibank. Besides TikTok parent ByteDance, Sequoia China spearheaded deals for Meituan and Pinduoduo. Forbes estimated his fortune at $3.4 billion as of November 11, 2022.

4. Richard Liu

Firm: 5Y Capital

Notable Deal: Xiaomi Headquarters: Hong Kong (SAR)

Eight-time recurring listee Liu is a founding partner at China’s 5Y Capital, which manages $5 billion in global capital. 2022 marks the 48-year-old’s third year in a top 10 slot on the Midas List. Liu invested in mobilemaker Xiaomi, which went public in 2018. His other stakes include electric vehicle maker XPeng Motors and cloud communications platform Agora. 5Y Capital was formerly known as Morningside Venture Capital.

5. Navin Chaddha Firm: Mayfield Fund

Notable Deal: Poshmark Headquarters: U.S.

Thanks to the IPO of developer tools firm HashiCorp, generalist investor Chaddha returned to the top 10 in 2022 in his 14th Midas List appearance. The 51-yearold managing director’s investments have created over $120 billion in equity value and more than 40,000 jobs. He leads the venture practice at Mayfield and has backed 18 companies that have gone public, including Poshmark and Lyft. His other bets include blockchain software maker Alchemy. In his twenties, he cofounded three companies, including VXtreme, which Microsoft acquired to become Windows Media.

BY JAMILA GANDHI

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Chris Dixon

Money

The Growth Of Giving In The GCC

According to a report by LGT, the international Private Banking and Asset Management Group, philanthropy in the GCC area has grown over the last ten years to hit an estimated $210 billion annually, in part driven by an increase in the number of business leaders committing to philanthropic practices.

The

report

Giving In The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Evolving Towards Strategic Philanthropy by LGT, the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy, and the University of Cambridge Judge Business School reveals that in-depth research on philanthropy in GCC has been limited due to a culture of privacy and discretion in giving practices. The study considered the practice of “Zakat,” which obliges Muslims to give 2.5% of their wealth to charity, and calculated an estimated figure of $210 billion of annual giving based on expert analysis, GCC household wealth, and the net wealth of GCC billionaires, which stood at $29.8 billion, excluding Saudi billionaires, as of November 11, 2022, according to Forbes.

The study also shows that the GCC has made noticeable strides as millennials and Gen-Z take the helm of their family businesses. In general, family businesses contribute greatly to founding and supporting some of the largest philanthropic organizations in the region. They comprise up to 90% of the private sector economy and 80% of the workforce, making them a key player in the region’s voluntary sector.

Family businesses in the

50%

50% of the impact investment organizations are located in the U.S. and Canada. 2% are located in MENA.

$1.2 trillion

Value of impact investing market: $1.2 trillion in assets under management held by 3,349 organizations.

region are now moving towards impact investing, according to PwC, through venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. Globally, the impact investing market is valued at $1.2 trillion in assets under management held by 3,349 organizations, according to a 2022 report by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). While 50% of the impact investment organizations are located in the U.S. and Canada, only 2% are located in MENA.

However, philanthropic capital in the region is expected to grow rapidly with the maturation of capital markets, the growing ambitions of family offices

Net wealth of GCC billionaires, excluding Saudi

under the leadership of the next generations, and the diversification of economies away from fossil fuels. Besides generational shifts, LGT reports that GCC philanthropists are increasingly aligned with government priorities for national development, aiming to see a longer-term impact.

With mixed views on the role of philanthropy in supporting developmental goals beyond only charitable relief, there is a need for more opportunities to enhance regulations to cater to the shift towards more strategic approaches. The past decade has seen many efforts by GCC governments to reform

and improve regulatory frameworks to catalyze the growth of the sector, with countries like U.A.E., Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar releasing their economic visions that support wide-scale reforms and sustainability, to name a few.

Reports also show growth in the number of philanthropic foundations and non-profit organizations operating in the GCC, with indications that the sector will continue to boom. Over the past few years, the ecosystem has expanded from a small number of organizations to dozens, ranging from broad development funds to specific issue-focused family philanthropies led by the new generations. Traditionally placing great importance on knowledge and learning, funding for education and health dominates, with an added international focus on poverty and disaster relief.

Behavioral shifts have also been noticed after the pandemic, triggering a greater drive for systemic improvements by drawing attention to the importance of developing a robust social infrastructure, such as healthcare and education, all with the need to rely on digitization for the future of giving.

$29.8 billion

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Startups

World’s Top 5 Unicorns

There are approximately 1,191 unicorns—a privatelyowned firm valued at more than $1 billion—worldwide, worth a collective $3.9 trillion, according to estimates from CB Insights. Here are the world’s top five. Figures are as of October 2022.

had a net worth of $188.1 billion as of November 10, 2022. It became a unicorn a decade after its inception.

3. SHEIN

Valuation: $100 billion Country: China Chinese fashion and lifestyle e-retailer SHEIN is planning an IPO in the U.S. The potential IPO faces risks of tensions between China and the U.S., while the company is under scrutiny over claims of design theft, labor violations, and the environmental impact of its trendy low-cost apparel.

SHEIN’s IPO would be the largest listing since Chinese ride-hailing company DiDi went public in 2021 with a $70 billion valuation. DiDi delisted from the New York Stock Exchange just 11 months later.

5. Checkout.com

Valuation: $40 billion Country: U.K.

Checkout.com, a cloudbased payments platform headquartered in the UK, has raised $1.8 billion in total funding since launching operations in 2012. In 2022, it raised $1 billion in a Series D round, boosting the company’s valuation to $40 billion. Its primary investors are Altimeter, Dragoneer, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Insight Partners, the Qatar Investment Authority, Tiger Global, and the Oxford Endowment Fund. The company has 21 offices globally and employs over 1,900 people.

5. Canva

1. ByteDance

Valuation: $300 billion

Country: China

Beijing-based ByteDance, which became a unicorn in 2017, is valued at $140 billion according to its last fundraising round in 2020. However, secondary market transactions in 2022 have reportedly placed a higher valuation of $300 billion. The company is best-known for its social video app TikTok and its local version Douyin. Main investors in the company are Sequoia Capital China, SIG Asia Investment, KKR, and SoftBank Group. ByteDance reportedly more than tripled its operating losses in 2021 to over $7 billion.

ByteDance was cofounded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming, who was China’s second richest billionaire as of November 10, 2022, with a net worth of $49.5 billion. Zhang

owns nearly 22% stake of ByteDance. He decided to step down as the company’s CEO in 2021, handing over the position to the company’s cofounder and HR head Liang Rubo who is also a billionaire with a net worth of $2.3 billion as of November 10, 2022.

2. SpaceX

Valuation: $127 billion

Country: U.S.

SpaceX has quadrupled its value in the past three years, hitting a valuation of $127 billion after raising nearly $2 billion of total funding in 2022. The rocket producer raised $250 million in equity in July after completing a funding round of $1.7 billion in equity in May. SpaceX’s key investors are Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Rothenberg Ventures.

The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who

Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital China, and Shunwei Capital Partners are investing in the Shenzhenbased company. SHEIN employs nearly 10,000 people and serves more than 150 countries.

4. Stripe

Valuation: $95 billion Country: U.S. and Ireland Stripe, which is dualheadquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, has raised $2.4 billion in total funding to date from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Khosla Ventures, LowercaseCapital, Allianz X, and Axa, among others. The company became a unicorn in 2014, and reported a 60% increase in payments to $640 billion in 2021.

Irish billionaire brothers John and Patrick Collison established Stripe in 2010. They own 10% each of Stripe. Both co-founders were worth $8.1 billion, as of November 10, 2022.

Valuation: $40 billion Country: Australia

Canva , a design software maker, reached its current valuation of $40 billion after a $200 million funding round in September 2021, led by T. Rowe Price. Strategic investors include Franklin Templeton, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Investments, Blackbird, Felicis, and AirTree Ventures. In October 2022, the company announced that Canva’s monthly users had surpassed 100 million.

Canva launched operations in 2013. Three billionaires cofounded the company—Melanie Perkins, her husband Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams, who signed on as the startup’s third cofounder in June 2012 and now has a 9% stake of Canva. Perkins and Obrecht were worth $6.5 billion each as of November 10, 2022, while Adams’ fortune reached $3.2 billion.

Startups

Top VC-Funded Industries

AI and big data

The global AI market was valued at nearly $59.7 billion in 2021, according to Zion Market Research, and is estimated to reach $422.4 billion by 2028. While North America leads in terms of overall revenue from AI, the market in Asia Pacific is expected to develop at the fastest CAGR, with the use of AI in prominent end-user categories like healthcare, manufacturing, and automotive in China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia leading to this expansion.

According to the Business Research Company, the value of the global big data and analytics services industry grew from $107.9 billion in 2021 to $121.7 billion in 2022. This is forecast to hit $196.95 billion by 2026.

Life sciences and healthcare

Research from Savills reveals that globally the amount of capital raised by life science companies was $803 billion in 2021—43% higher than in 2020. This includes mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, VC, and other types of private equity. In 2022, this percentage is expected to be lower. However, there is considerable growth for life science companies as well as higher demand for their services. The U.S. will still dominate the funding data accounting for a 67% share of the total capital raised by companies in 2021.

Biotechnology has attracted the most life sciences funding with 77% of VC funding in H1 2022, and biotech IPOs have also been popular, with funding percentages at almost 70% between 2018 and 2021, according to CBRE. In January 2022, Baker McKenzie reported that 53% of biotech companies based in the U.S., Asia Pacific, and Europe were seeking growth via VC funding. In one to two years, 52% will pursue venture capital lending, and 51% will seek private equity funding.

Fintech

According to a KPMG report, investments in the Fintech

sector fell globally from $111.2 billion across 3,372 deals in the second half of 2021 to $107.8 billion across 2,980 deals in the first half of 2022. This aligns with the overall decline in investment experienced in the wider technology sector.

The Asia Pacific region attracted a new annual high of Fintech investment but across a fewer number of deals. This new record was driven almost entirely by three large M&A transactions: the $27.9 billion acquisition of Australia-based Afterpay by Block, the $2.1 billion buyout of Japan-based Yayoi by KKR, and the $1.5 billion merger of Australiabased Fintechs Superhero and Swyftx.

Advanced manufacturing and robotics

Advanced Manufacturing Series A funding has grown by 70% over five years, according to a report by Startup Genome, driven by global supply chain issues and a focus on improving efficiency and productivity through automation, monitoring, and failure prediction.

In robotics, the startups that raised a significant amount of investments included medical surgical system startups, including CMR Surgical which raised $600 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $3 billion in June 2021, and Memic Innovative Surgery, which secured $96 million in a Series D round in April 2021.

Blockchain

Over the last five years, early-stage funding into blockchain saw a 91% growth and 12% since last year, according to Startup Genome. Blockchain continues to be primarily used in the banking and financial services sector, where it is transforming traditional models.

Increasingly, blockchainbased solutions are also being used to build more sturdy supply chains, ensure secure health data exchanges, and enhance the hospitality industry, among many other applications.

Diving Into Deep Tech

What can you tell us about Vurse, and what kind of impact do you expect it to have once launched?

I’ve always had the desire to leverage deep tech to solve major challenges that humanity faces today. Social media has taken the world by storm. There are eight billion people living on earth today and out of those, close to five billion people are using social media.

Even though social media has changed the lives of billions, there are some major issues with the way it’s structured today. Monetization for content creators, ownership of the content and social media itself, and the lack of interaction between content creators and fans, are major issues to name just a few. With Vurse, we’re looking to solve exactly that.

Vurse proposes to offer a unique

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

and hyper-interactive platform incorporating the best of deeptech available today. This includes AI and machine learning systems that give users exactly the kind of content they want to consume; Web 3.0 technologies such as blockchain and metaverse to tackle monetization, ownership, and enhanced interaction; and high-level data science to study and predict consumer behavior.

Founder and CEO of Vurse, Shadman Sakib, is on the cusp of launching the interactive short-video platform in Dubai. He reveals more about the platform and what he hopes it will achieve.

Shadman Sakib, Founder and CEO of Vurse

Scan this QR code to open the website

It’s the seamless combination of aesthetics and technology that’s exciting and will be a game changer in the way we access and experience social media.

What is your assessment of the deep tech industry in the Middle East, and how do you see it evolving?

When we talk about technology, geography doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter where you are based. The entire world needs to sit up and pay attention if you want to create products that make a lasting impact. We refer to the global landscape and not just the Middle East. The metaverse, blockchain, and Web 3.0 simply appear to me to be the next evolutionary step in the age of connectivity for individuals who are eager for new experiences.

Having said that, I am definitely of the opinion that a lot of credit and gratitude must be given to the leaders of the Middle East. They have laid the perfect foundation for early adoption of deep tech, and Dubai has been at the forefront. The Dubai government has opened everyone’s eyes to what we should be looking forward to. The metaverse promises to bring our digital and physical lives closer together in terms of health, socializing, efficiency, shopping, and entertainment, and the U.A.E. has embraced this better than any other country that I can think of.

Why did you decide to base yourself in Dubai?

Dubai has always been ahead of the game, the announcement by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan about creating 42,000 jobs in the metaverse sector has been hugely welcomed by the tech world

globally. Even though I moved here prior to this announcement, I am happy to be launching Vurse in a city and country that is making huge strides in the world of tech by making it a national priority.

This government initiative will see a major boost in talent and the economy in the coming years. It is believed that the metaverse will infiltrate every sector and will account for more than $1 trillion in revenues, according to recent studies by JP Morgan.

Dubai will also be the place to attract the best tech minds from around the world with this announcement. A multitude of new businesses will be created in the near future and they will thrive within the metaverse as advertisers and brands understand the importance of investments within this new digital world.

Also, the risk factors in the GCC are much lower due to the fact that there is political stability and safety. Keeping up with the new policies that support technological advancements will be a challenge regionally. The U.A.E.’s lead in the metaverse space is one prime example of how a country is able to be at the forefront of it and how to create the right atmosphere for experts from all over the world to further add value.

From a global perspective, it will help the policymakers understand the need to speed up the process and have thought leaders as a crucial part of the team.

At 27 years old, you are launching this latest venture in the social media world as a young entrepreneur. How did you get to where you are today?

The journey has not been an easy one. Through a lot of trials and

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

tribulations, I’ve been blessed with some fantastic people around me—whether that’s my family, my cofounder, my friends, or my team members. My passion for technology and my business acumen have led me to this juncture in my entrepreneurial journey. From a very young age, I’ve had the inclination towards solving major problems in the tech space, and I channelled this desire towards building Vurse.

Beyond Vurse, what is next for you? What is your ultimate goal?

I truly believe that we need to bring about a change in the entrepreneurial mindset of today. Most founders today are chasing higher valuations and exits. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that, but my belief is that when you build a company, you build it with the mindset of creating value that lasts centuries. And to be able to successfully do that, a founder must encapsulate the company through their entire lifetime.

I envision Vurse to be a global leader in the technology landscape for generations to come. Therefore, I cannot think of a life beyond Vurse. Vurse is it for me. All my experiences in life so far have led me to Vurse and it is as if I’ve finally found my true calling. It is with Vurse that I want to leave my mark on the world.

Startups In Numbers:

MENA’s Gender Gap In Startup Funding

Investments in MENA startups hit $2.4 billion in the first nine months of 2022, but less than 2% of this was invested in startups solely founded by women, according to a report by Wamda, TiE Dubai, and TiE Women. Here’s a look at other insights from the report, which was based on responses from 125 female founders in MENA.

•

65.9% of women startup founders have faced issues raising investment.

• 61.8% •

61.8% believe that more women should be partners in venture capital firms to connect the gender investment gap. • 64.2% •

64.2% believe that startups led by women benefit from women-only investment funds.

$127 million

MENA startups cofounded by men and women raised $127 million in the first nine months of 2022.

Among the femalefounded startups yet to raise any investment, 29.6% say their pitches have been rejected.

38.1% of female-founded startups secured investments in the seed funding stage. Other stages, such as pre-seed and angel, each make up 26.2%. 40.5% •

The majority of investors are equally based in the Middle East and globally. The remaining 19% are in the GCC. • 57.8% •

Compared to international investors, 57.8% of women surveyed said MENA-based investors are less likely to invest in startups led by women.

Billionaires

World’s 5 Richest Investment Billionaires

Here are the richest five people in the world who built their fortunes from investing, according to Forbes. All five reside in the U.S. and are self-made billionaires. Net worths are as of November 11, 2022.

1. Warren Buffett

Net worth: $106.3 billion

Country: U.S.

Seasoned investor Buffett runs Berkshire Hathaway, which owns dozens of companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen. He first bought stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13. As of November 2022, Berkshire’s $296 billion investment portfolio comprised 49 companies.

The 92-year-old has promised to give away over 99% of his wealth. So far, he has donated more than $49 billion, mostly to the Gates Foundation and his kids’ foundations. Buffett established the Giving Pledge with Bill Gates in 2010, asking billionaires to donate at least half of their wealth to charitable causes.

2. Ken Griffin

Net worth: $31.9 billion

Country: U.S.

Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel, a Miamibased hedge fund firm that manages roughly $59 billion in investment capital, as of November. He launched Citadel in 1990 but first began trading from his Harvard dorm in 1987, where he put a satellite dish on the roof to get real-time stock quotes. Griffin is also non-executive chairman of Citadel Securities, one of Wall Street’s biggest

market-making firms. The 54-year-old has given $1.5 billion to philanthropic causes.

3. Stephen Schwarzman

Net worth: $31.7 billion

Country: U.S.

Private equity firm Blackstone’s chairman and CEO Schwarzman founded the company with the late

Peter Peterson in 1985. Initially a boutique mergerand-acquisition advisory business, Blackstone grew into the world’s largest alternative asset manager, with $951 billion in assets under management, as of September. The 75-yearold’s first entrepreneurial attempt was a lawn-mowing operation at age 14, employing his younger twin brothers to mow while he brought in clients.

4. Jeff Yass

Net worth: $30 billion

Country: U.S. Yass cofounded Susquehanna International Group, one of Wall Street’s largest and most successful trading firms. Yass started trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1981, backed by billionaire Israel Englander. The 64-year-old established Susquehanna with a handful of partners in 1987, with no outside money, naming the firm after the Susquehanna River. The firm made millions in the Black Monday crash of October 1987. It has since invested in hundreds of private companies, including its most valuable holding in TikTok parent ByteDance.

5. Jim Simons

Net worth: $28.1 billion

Country: U.S.

Simons founded Renaissance Technologies, a $50 billion quantitative trading hedge fund firm. Established in 1982, Renaissance is famous for its Medallion Fund, a $10 billion black-box strategy that is only open to Renaissance’s owners and employees. Simons retired in 2010 but still plays an active role in the company and benefits from its funds. The 84-yearold has given $4 billion to philanthropic causes, including Math For America and autism research.

Ken Griffin

The Art of Managing Disruption

The past few years have seen their fair share of disruption, from a global pandemic which put businesses, economies, and individuals under extreme strain to climate concerns, wars, and energy shortages.

As a company that relies heavily on delivering shipments in the shortest time possible, any glimpse of a scenario which can potentially result in broken links, delays, border closure, and more, is considered a risk to service continuity.

While the logistics industry is prone to emergency situations, and global players have robust risk management mechanisms to fall back on, it is worth remembering that no two crises are ever the same. With this in mind, a critical step once the initial shock of an event subsides, is to take note of the lessons learned and set clear priorities for the post-recovery phase. Here, DHL has consistently prioritized three winning verticals as the winning formula for business rebound and operational resilience during crises, centering on employees, customers, and technology.

Adopting an employee-first approach has remained top on DHL’s agenda, especially as the industry continues to witness a transformation in the labor makeup, labor shortages, and talent-retention challenges. The company has always gone above and beyond, investing substantially

in new-age HR practices to foster a culture of unity and trust, where people feel safe, protected, and willing to give it their all, even during the most challenging circumstances.

Customer-centricity is also deemed important, more so now than ever before. Emerging trends in retail and technology, concerns over the environment, and shifting buying habits, have all compromised customer loyalty. The traditional depiction of brand loyalty has taken an evident turn, reversing the roles and putting more pressure on brands to demonstrate commitment, versus customers. DHL has willingly placed customers at the forefront of its value system and pledged to continue to excel in this regard by training and inspiring its employees to set customer success as their ultimate goal.

Next on the list of DHL’s priorities

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is technology. Technology innovation and digitalization is something DHL has been heavily focused on, with substantial investments made to improve both DHL’s offering to its customers and the work of its employees. As e-commerce continues on its upward trend, expectations for last-mile delivery innovation remain high, calling for the integration of new technologies to enhance the service offering and guarantee a seamless delivery experience.

The enhancement of predictive capabilities through data and analytics has also proven successful in minimizing operational risk through better planning, visibility, and efficiency of complex operations. In addition, DHL has embraced automation technologies to improve health and safety in the workplace, by facilitating manual activity and reducing risk of injury.

While the world may never be free of disruption, organizations can better safeguard their future by building a resilient and agile business model based on lessons learned and winning formulas that tap into business strengths, to secure operational effectiveness against any future crises.

Nour Suliman, CEO of DHL Express MENA, shares the company’s winning formula for operational resilience.

Nour Suliman, CEO, DHL Express MENA

Growing A Solid Portfolio For Long-Term Sustainability

How has MNH withstood the changes and challenges of the past 75 years?

MNH started with a single drugstore in the heart of Kuwait City, meeting the essential needs of a society that was seeing a tremendous change in its economy and infrastructure thanks to the discovery of oil a few years earlier. The growth of the company came naturally. We expanded by becoming distributors of products needed in the local market, whether relating to health or primary needs. And here is where our success of the decades lies.

As a family business, our growth warranted being innovative and at the forefront of developments across sectors, as well as adapting to changes in consumer behavior. This started shifting significantly in the 1970s, and economic challenges rose globally. This was when MNH accelerated its

diversification plans by expanding its partnerships with world-class brands as well as venturing into innovative homegrown brands beyond pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare, moving as well into medical equipment, FMCG, food and beverage, and perfumes and cosmetics.

This is how MNH maintained its market position year-on-year, serving its local market far beyond just the mere distribution of products, offering products and services that mirror the company’s business integrity and values.

How has the company’s strategy changed over the years?

Our strategy has changed since the beginning, but one element has remained integral, and that is the importance we place on providing products we truly believe in and that are beneficial to our customers. In the 1940s, the market

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was untapped, and there was vast room to grow a strong portfolio of products. As the local market grew, our strategy became more defined and focused on providing products and services that we qualify as “human care.”

Our focus on the quality and benefits of what we offer are the foundation to the success of our business.

How has the pandemic affected business? Is the company ready for possible challenges in the future?

Without a doubt, the pandemic had a negative impact on parts of the business. But what it affected on one side of our portfolio was compensated by the products that we carry on the other.

Pharmaceuticals and food and beverage are two of the safest, if not the safest, sectors in times of crisis. Individuals will always need food and medication. While

As Kuwait’s Mohamed Naser AlHajery and Sons Company (MNH) celebrates its 75th anniversary, CEO Musaed Ibrahim AlHajery discusses the family conglomerate’s growth, challenges, and vision for the future.

other sectors were affected by restrictions and lockdowns, pharmaceuticals and food and beverage increased in market share and recorded higher revenues, compensating for the loss in our other sectors.

The growth we saw in 2020 was sustained in 2021 thanks to a bold plan to continue marketing our products, investing more in digital infrastructure, and encouraging our human capital to maintain our newfound market positions.

The pandemic was a testament to the flexibility and strength of our strategy, first and foremost. It was also a catalyst for fresh opportunities and a drive to maintain new market share.

Can you tell us more about the company’s performance across the sectors it serves?

Our products have a very high penetration in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and food and beverage. Food specifically can be found in wholesalers, groceries, and retail stores, as well as online on B2B and B2C platforms. This penetration is supported by strong investment in marketing, which we believe is one of our strengths.

What are the company’s other key strengths?

Our diversity gives MNH stability. Diversity in our portfolio and diversity in our capabilities, including our people. Our people are our pride. We all truly believe in what we are selling, and this is how we are able to expand our footprint.

In which industry sectors do you expect to see MNH grow and invest further in the future?

Without a doubt, in the digital world. We started to invest heavily in online platforms years before the pandemic, and that investment yielded fruit in the past three years. We have a major ownership in two ecommerce companies, which enables us to gain from integrated platforms that also sell our products in addition to everything else needed by consumers.

What are your business priorities for the next year?

To ensure we continue providing to our local consumers despite international and external challenges that have a direct impact on our local economy. MNH has weathered economic and geopolitical challenges in the past thanks to its diversified business, and we believe that the challenges we see ahead of us, such as inflation, will be overcome as well.

How has the family involved in the business contributed to its success?

We have a motto as a family: the success of a family business can only be sustained with the

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

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contribution of family members. We are not just investors. On the contrary, we are hands-on, and you will find members in every rank contributing to the business.

Knowledge transfer is an essential element in our strategy, and we have invested in structuring the family succession to ensure the next phase of growth.

Do you have any plans to go public?

It is true that family businesses have been turning to listing in recent years to capitalize on their growth. The appetite for investing in them has also been significant as they are seen as conductors in the diversification of local Gulf markets that have been historically dependent on oil and gas.

MNH enjoys very healthy growth today. Our cash flows have been at their best levels in recent years. Our partnerships are growing, and our operations are acquiring new segments. As both an investor in and operator of brands, we do not see the need to expand to finance growth that we are more than capable of driving ourselves. We already have the capabilities both financially and operationally. What opportunities a listing could bring to our business in the future will be looked at when the time is right.

By Nermeen Abbas

Seizing Opportunities

Ajlan Bin Abdulaziz Alajlan, Chairman of the Ajlan & Bros Group, is poised to gain ground as new windows open for the private sector in Saudi Arabia.

Ajlan Bin Abdulaziz Alajlan, Chairman of the Ajlan & Bros Group.

Family businesses are a key economic force in the Middle East, and with governments increasingly focused on pushing for privatization along with the non-oil private sector, family-owned groups are expected to seize opportunities in new areas while facing global unrest and digitization challenges. “Today, huge industries are further open to the private sector, including tourism, mining, manufacturing, and media,” says Ajlan Bin Abdulaziz Alajlan, Chairman of the Ajlan & Bros Group, an investment conglomerate already working across more than 25 countries.

The Saudi businessman co-founded the family business in 1979 alongside his brothers Mohammed, Fahad, and Saad. The four siblings started off with a small shop in Al-Deira in Riyadh, specializing in fabrics and garments. Since then, they have ventured into several sectors, including manufacturing, construction, real estate, power, logistics, Fintech, retail, mining, entertainment, and healthcare, among others.

Over the last five years, the group has made efforts to align its strategy with the Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to develop and diversify the kingdom’s economy, reduce its dependence on oil and maximize the role of the private sector. Family businesses—which contribute approximately 60% to the GDP of the GCC and about 90% to its private sector economy, according to the Family Business Council—are poised to play a key role in the transition. The Ajlan & Bros Group became a holding company in 2017, approaching diversified sectors. “We’ve been focusing on expanding through partnerships with foreign investors,” reveals Alajlan.

“Family businesses in the region are key partners of governments and are integral to meeting their ambitious goals for the growth of the private sector and the economy,” says Adnan Zaidi, PwC Middle East Entrepreneurial, Private, and Family Business Leader. “It is, therefore, a prime time to further leverage their status and capitalize on the opportunities presented.”

The Ajlan & Bros Group—as part of a consortium with the Olam International Group, the Al Rajhi International Investment Company, and the National Agricultural Development Company—acquired the Second Milling Company in Riyadh in December 2021 in a deal worth $600 million. More recently, a consortium between Moxico and Ajlan & Bros won a $68 million exploration license for the Khnaiguiyah mining site in 2022, which covers an area of 353.8 square kilometers west of Riyadh in the Al Quwaiiyah governorate. And the group is part of the $800 million Jubail 3B Independent Water Project, which is set to filter 570,000 m3 of water per day, enough to supply two million people across Riyadh and Qassim once it becomes operational in 2024. The 25-year water purchase agreement between SWPC and the consortium was signed in June 2022, with Ajlan owning 30%.

Looking across other sectors, in 2020 Ajlan & Bros established the facilities management company Dussmann Ajlan & Brothers LLC with German’s Dussmann. In 2021, it launched the logistics company AJEX in partnership with SF Express, ventured into the defense sector through Scopa and TAL, and its Pure Beverages Industry Company launched two new bottled water brands, Ival and Oska. And in 2022, it partnered with Saudi Aramco in carbon fiber manufacturing, plastic recycling, and semiconductor manufacturing, and launched Tiqmo in partnership with SwiftPass.

Despite the new ventures, the industrial and real estate arms seem to remain the safe bets against market fluctuations. Alajlan explains that Saudi Arabia has huge potential as it witnesses an increase in demand in several locations. “The population is soaring rapidly in Riyadh, creating a great demand for real estate,” he adds. “Mecca and Medina have a great development and attract pilgrims who create strong activity, while the rising number of factories in the eastern region is spurring demand on housing.” With demand skyrocketing, Ajlan & Bros has many projects on its radar. The group today owns 150 million sqm of developed land, as well as over 70 million sqm yet to be utilized.

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Beyond Saudi Arabia, Alajlan is eying expansion regionally, targeting mainly other gulf countries and Egypt. “There is huge potential in these countries, with population growth spurring demand, unlike Europe, for example, where the population is decreasing,” he says. “I believe this is the perfect time to invest in Egypt. There are several promising sectors such as power, water, healthcare, education, and food and beverages, and the currency devaluation works as a catalyst to investment and manufacturing.”

Investments are already flooding into Egypt from Gulf countries, led by the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. “Egypt has received around $4 billion in investments from GCC countries since the beginning of 2022,” says Hany Gnena, an Economic Analyst and Lecturer at The American University of Cairo. “Green hydrogen, maritime and transportation, agriculture, automotive, and tourism are currently the most attractive sectors.”

As for the Ajlan & Bros Group, ambitions go far beyond regional borders. “We are planning to pump in more investments in the U.S. and Chinese stock markets, leveraging the low prices,” says Alajlan, without naming specific companies. “In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity, and I believe there are a lot of attractive opportunities in the global markets right now.” And as the Saudi economy starts to recover, Alajlan is bullish about the future.

“When the economy becomes more solid and national reserves climb, the government tends to pour more investments into mega projects, and the private sector benefits from the hype,” says Alajlan. For someone who has been leading his family business for 43 years, the ups and downs of the economic cycle are something he has gotten used to.

Alajlan recalls his family’s modest beginnings. “My father was a merchant, working in fabrics and garments and food. As children, we used to work with him; this is how we gained our experience in trade,” he remembers. Inspired by their late father and building on what he started, the four brothers decided to establish their own business, “We started off with a small amount of capital that now wouldn’t even buy a flight ticket today,” Alajlan reveals. The fabrics and garment activity grew fast, and they were soon signing dealerships with notable brands, including Yashmagh Projaih, Drosh, and Yashmagh Alsami, along with Ival and Oska for bottled water.

Top Arab Family Businesses

Later, it began direct trading with China and established its first factory there in 1999. Today, the group has more than 5,500 employees working in its factory complex in Shandong, China. While it was venturing into textile manufacturing in China, Ajlan &Bros also entered the real estate sector in its home country. In 2000, it established Abdulaziz Alajlan Sons for Trading & Real Estate Investments Co., which today owns real estate assets worth more than $10 billion and has an international investment portfolio of $3 billion across Asia, Europe, and the U.S.

1. Olayan Financing Company

Country: Saudi Arabia

Sector: Diversified Establishment: 1947 Chair of the Executive Committee and Deputy Chair: Lubna S. Olayan

As the business continues to grow, responsibility is now being handed down to the third generation to preserve the family’s legacy. “All family members from the new generation are working in different sectors within the group. They are not in managerial positions but rather in mid-level positions since they are still learning,” explains the chairman.

2. Mansour Group

Country: Egypt

Sector: Diversified Establishment: 1952 Chairperson: Mohamed Mansour

According to PwC’s Zaidi, the transition of ownership from the current generation to the next generation is a key obstacle being faced by many family businesses today. “Given the current demographic trends of family businesses in the region, many of them are at a critical juncture with respect to their business ownership lifecycle phase, with transitions set to happen over the next five to ten years,” he stresses. But this is not the only challenge facing the private sector. A lack of qualified local workers, high interest rates, and the rising cost of power and raw materials are also major challenges.

3. Al-Futtaim Group

Country: U.A.E.

Sector: Diversified Establishment: 1930 Chairperson: Abdullah Al Futtaim

For Alajlan, these are not big concerns. With the business overcoming several crises over four decades—not to mention the pandemic, which he believes was the worst crisis he has ever faced—the leader is now optimistic about the future, seeing promising opportunities lying ahead.

“Our region is growing fast thanks to its huge consumer base,” he reassures. “And we believe this is a very suitable moment to take advantage of it.”

Here are the top three Arab Family Businesses from our September 2022 ranking.

Positive Insight

PepsiCo was a key attendee at COP27. Which theme took prominence?

COP27 gave PepsiCo AMESA the opportunity to showcase the catalytic potential of regenerative agriculture in addressing food insecurity, the circular economy, and climate change. In Africa—a continent extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change and highly dependent on agriculture— PepsiCo has been accelerating its sustainable farming program, which aims to engage with over 250,000 stakeholders in farmer profitability and the economic empowerment of women. COP27 also presented the opportunity to relay key elements of our sustainable strategy—PepsiCo Positive—to co-create climate solutions with a diverse range of stakeholders that could help us reach the net zero target by 2040 and push the envelope on circularity through innovation and youth collaboration.

How is PepsiCo strengthening food security in the region?

Sustainable agriculture is at the core of delivering a resilient future. PepsiCo in AMESA is currently utilizing approximately 200,000 acres of land for regenerative agriculture programs, aiming to raise that to over two million acres by 2030. In Africa, 90% of

Having recently attended COP27 in Egypt, Eugene Willemsen, CEO for PepsiCo for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia (AMESA), reveals what

our directly sourced potatoes were sustainably sourced in 2021, whereas in Egypt, 100% of the cane sugar used in our operations is BonSucro certified, ensuring sustainable practices in our value chain and reducing emissions. From partnering with global organizations

like CARE and USAID in Egypt and Uganda, to spreading sustainable farming practices and working on the ground with partners like the World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy, and the Water Resources Group in South Africa, we recognize the importance of partnerships and utilizing our reach to make a difference.

Can

entrepreneurs across MENA for a three-day ideation bootcamp followed by mentorship. Continuing the momentum to COP28, winning ideas will be incubated and awarded seed capital to bring their sustainability visions to life.

PepsiCo recently launched recycled plastic bottles in AMESA. Can you tell us more about this initiative?

tell us more about PepsiCo’s recent hackathon launch at COP27?

We believe that hackathons can go a long way in encouraging future changemakers to create ideas for a sustainable tomorrow. PepsiCo and the Arab Youth Centre announced the launch of the ‘Arab Youth Hackathon #HackforChange’ at COP27. Funded by the PepsiCo Foundation and implemented by Plug and Play Tech Center, this regional program invites youth

was discussed and some key announcements. www.pepsico.com

you

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Packaging circularity is key to our sustainability goals. With only one country in AMESA allowing the use of recycled plastic bottles in food and beverage packaging in 2020, we continue to partner with local governments and industry coalitions to hopefully introduce recycled plastic bottles across 10 AMESA countries by 2023 and five African countries by 2025. We were the first large-scale food and beverage company to introduce locally manufactured, 100% recycled plastic bottles in Qatar and Kuwait in 2022, which will be followed by other GCC countries in 2023. Our commitment to accelerating investment in recycling infrastructure will advance our efforts in waste management and the circular economy.

AHS Properties Takes Ultraluxury To The Next Level

In the space of one year, Dubai’s AHS Properties has achieved a gross development value of $550 million. Here, the company’s 23-year-old founder, Abbas Sajwani, explains how he got started and why ultra-luxury is the way ahead.

In the span of just one year, AHS Properties has grown into a thriving business. What is your proudest achievement to date? Our most impressive achievement has been launching our new project on the Dubai Canal — ONE CANAL. We’ve spent a lot of time designing it and the feedback we’ve had is excellent. We’ve done well in terms of the architecture, the interior, and the location of the site. I believe it is ultra-luxury that Dubai hasn’t seen yet.

Who have you collaborated with on ONE CANAL when it comes to architecture and design?

We’re working with HBA, who has done the interior, as well as Killa Design, who has done the architecture. As you know, Shaun Killa is the architect of the Museum of the Future in Dubai. We decided to bring the best of the best in both interior and architecture and have them work together to create something that we would be proud of. To top it off, the project will be in collaboration with Fendi Casa. The building contains 24 units. They are all ultra-big penthouses and sky villas, and every unit has a pool. So, we think we’ve created something that hasn’t been seen before.

Aside from your Dubai Water Canal project, what properties have you completed so far, and

what can we expect from AHS Properties moving forward?

We launched last year with three villas on the Palm Jumeirah and one in Emirates Hills. The three villas on the Palm have all been sold out with a combined value of $75 million. The villa in Emirates Hills is $45 million and will be completed in Q4 2022, so we’re very excited about that and we’ve had lots of interest.

AHS Properties has achieved a gross development value of $550 million in just one year. Looking

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

ahead, we want to continue focusing on luxury, including villas and ultra-luxury mini boutique buildings. We don’t want to go into making skyscrapers, we want to stick to the G plus 10 or G plus 12 ultra-luxury buildings where clients feel as if they are living in a villa in the sky. That’s our concept.

How would you describe Dubai’s ultra-luxury market and how do you see it developing in the near future?

I think Dubai’s ultra-luxury market

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ABBAS SAJWANI

Founder, AHS Properties

has really picked up the last year. You have buyers who were never buying in Dubai before. Many of those who typically invest in London and New York have moved here and are all looking to buy. That has driven the market in a big way, and I think that the ultraluxury market now has a shortage of supply, especially when it comes to properties with the ‘wow factor’.

In terms of the factors driving demand, Dubai has significant advantages that many cities in the world don’t: safety, quality of life, and the way it handled the coronavirus, to name a few. A lot of people are very comfortable

with Dubai and want to move here, and I think that’s not going to stop. The demand for ultra-luxury will continue to rise. In particular, there are many Europeans from Germany, France, Belgium, and the U.K. coming over, as well as Russians and Chinese.

Your father, Hussain Sajwani, is a stalwart of Dubai’s real estate industry. How influential has he been in your professional development?

I am now 23 years old, and since the age of 10, everything that I have learned in terms of property has come from my father. He instilled

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

the property instinct in me from an early age; I used to go to the office with him regularly, and every conversation over lunch and dinner centered around business. Even now, no matter if it’s a weekend or a family trip, my father is always discussing business. He’s really passed that down to me—property is in my blood.

It was my father’s encouragement and knowledge that drove me to start in this industry. Now, as I work to grow the business, I want to continue focusing on ultra-high-end luxury, both in the U.A.E. and internationally.

www.ahs-properties.com

The three villas on the Palm have all been sold out with a combined value of $75 million

Uber luxurious Amara Villa at Emirates Hills

One Canal

Private Pool Deck, One Canal

By Claudine Coletti

Back To Business

William E. Heinecke, billionaire Founder and Chairman of global hospitality group Minor International, sees plenty of reason for optimism in the travel markets. As his hotel company moves forward with a raft of Middle East openings, he’s betting on a steady and profitable period ahead.

Billionaire William E. Heinecke is a busy man. As I sit down to speak to the founder of Bangkok-headquartered hospitality, restaurant, and lifestyle company Minor International Pcl, he’s between meetings at the Anantara

BDowntown Dubai, the latest hotel to be under Minor’s management in the buzzing emirate. Having just landed from London that morning, Heinecke’s next two days in the U.A.E. are packed. As he witnesses his industry recover post-pandemic, the hotelier is glad to be back on the road, keeping an eye out for new opportunities, while checking in on his already locked-in investments.

William E. Heinecke, billionaire Founder and Chairman of global hospitality group Minor International.

The high-rise luxury hotel where we meet in the heart of the city’s downtown district rebranded from Oberoi to Anantara in July 2022, and is on the cusp of an extensive refurbishment. Anantara is Minor International’s own hotel brand, and while this is Dubai’s third Anantara, it’s the brand’s first city offering here—the other two Anantaras being sprawling resorts on the Palm Jumeirah and the World Islands. For Heinecke though, there’s little difference these days. “We see it now as bi-leisure,” he explains. “People always think of the Anantara as a resort brand because we started in the Maldives and Phuket, and places like that, but in fact we try to do the same thing when we’re in a city. And I haven’t found any traveler yet that doesn’t mind thinking they’re in a resort even if they’re there on business.”

“We have a 10 year track record with the Minor Group as they run our Anantara and Avani properties in Mozambique,” says Dave Anderson, Group CEO of the Aujan Group Holding, which owns the Anantara Downtown. “When it came to a decision on the operator for our Downtown Dubai hotel, the Anantara brand was a compelling choice as the brand positioning will enable us to focus on both the business and leisure markets. In addition, the Minor team brings a strong commercial focus, regional scale and a commitment to people development that resonates with our corporate values.”

Hotels are not Minor International’s only forte. While Minor Hotels currently owns, manages, or has investments in more than 530 hotels, resorts, and serviced suites worldwide, Minor Foods has a portfolio of over 2,400 restaurants and food outlets in 23 countries, and Minor Lifestyle has over 390 points of sale for fashion and lifestyle brands. As of 2021, Minor Hotels accounted for 68% of Minor International’s revenues, with Minor Foods bringing in 28%. More than 75% of the global group’s revenues came from international business.

Still, it’s been a rough couple of years to be in hospitality and retail. In 2021, the Stock Exchange of Thailand-listed company reported total revenues of nearly $2 billion. This put it almost on par with its 2018 performance, but still a long-way from the $3.4 billion it reported in 2019. Heinecke is confident that things are now back on track. “We

had eight quarters of losses,” he admits. This turned around in Q2 2022, when the company reported nearly $850 million in total revenues and $44.6 million in profit. This turnaround continued into Q3 2022, with the company reporting $128.2 million in profit.

For the first nine months of 2022, Minor Hotels reported $66.9 million in profit, up from a $323.3 million loss in the same period in 2021. “I would predict that our fourth quarter this year will be bigger than our fourth quarter in 2019. I think that’s going to be a fairly easy thing to achieve,” adds the founder.

While the global hotel industry has been through arguably one of the toughest periods it’s seen, 2022 has witnessed a major resurgence towards travel. In the Middle East alone, Minor Hotels is now pushing ahead with a raft of new openings in the U.A.E., Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Egypt.

This year has already seen the launches of the Anantara World Islands Dubai Resort, the Avani Muscat Hotel, and the Anantara Downtown Dubai, with Q4 set to welcome the Plaza Doha Hotel by Anantara. Next year will see the openings of the NH Collection Doha Oasis Hotel & Beach Club, the NH Dubai The Palm, the Anantara Mina Al Arab Ras Al Khaimah Resort, and the NH Collection Dubai La Suite Hotel. And over the next couple of years the company expects to open the Anantara Sharjah Resort, the Avani Bilaj Al Jazayer Bahrain Resort, Tivoli Bilaj Jazayer Bahrain Resort, and Oaks Egypt New Capital Apartments & Suites.

Heinecke has also confirmed that Minor Hotels will be making its debut in Saudi Arabia, with an Anantara set to launch as part of the vast Diriyah Gate development, which is currently under construction on the outskirts of Riyadh. “Diriyah Gate Development Authority is bringing an unprecedented array of leaders in the luxury hospitality industry to Riyadh,” says Imran Changezi, Director of Hospitality at the Diriyah Gate Development Authority. “Each and every hotel brand has been carefully chosen to compliment the heritage, culture, and historic significance Diriyah represents.”

Aside from its planned hotel openings, Minor International is also now exploring opportunities to expand its fine-dining offerings in the Middle East. In April 2022, the group took over Corbin & King and subsequently absorbed it into the Wolseley Hospitality Group, which it acquired

WILLIAM E. HEINECKE Stay connected with our latest business news.

E. HEINECKE

in 2017. Minor International now fully owns highend London restaurants including The Wolseley, The Delaunay, and Colbert. “We’re certainly in discussions to bring one of our Wolseley brands here,” Heinecke reveals. “We’re thinking about what we’ll do with them in the Middle East and Thailand.”

As of June 2022, Minor International’s total assets were worth $9.57 billion, and Heinecke says the company’s got the funds for new acquisitions if needed. “We certainly have the cash, now it’s a case of finding the opportunities. We have some fire power if something exciting presents itself,” he divulges. But while he’s in Dubai for business, he says the company doesn’t have a large amount invested in the emirate outside of its restaurants and food franchises. “We’re very big in terms of equity in Europe, but we haven’t really had to invest a lot of money in Dubai because there’s already a lot of money here that’s just looking for good management,” he explains. “We’ve tended to grow with our owners. We only have a handful of owners but they are very influential. We find that if you do a tremendous job for them on one hotel they very quickly reward you with more.”

Europe.” As well as entering Saudi Arabia in the next couple of years, the U.S. and Japan are also now on the radar for further expansion, according to the founder. Minor Hotel’s first property in the U.S.—the NH Collection New York Madison Avenue—opened in 2022.

Today, Minor Hotels has a presence in 56 countries through its Anantara, Avani, Oaks, Tivoli, Elewana, NH Collection, NH, and nhow brands, as well as its management agreements with Marriott, Four Seasons, St. Regis, and Radisson Blu. Heinecke’s personal net worth stood at $1.5 billion as of November 2022.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though, with the pandemic years presenting costly challenges. “We suffered. In the course of that we lost close to $1 billion,” admits Heinecke. The asset-rich company was able to weather the storm, partly by selling property. “We sold a handful of hotels, we increased our capital, and today our balance sheet—which was extremely weak due to the NH purchase back in 2018—is stronger than it was pre-covid.”

And while 2022 has proved to be a year of recovery for hospitality—with eager and more-demanding travellers willing to pay much higher-than-normal prices after two years of trepidation—it’s ending with its own set of challenges. Inflation is high, labor is sparce, and energy prices are soaring. “The days of cheap labor, cheap money, and cheap energy are gone,” warns Heinecke. The veteran is unsure that prices seen this year are sustainable, foreseeing that as flights increase and more hotels open, competition will rise and once again the scales will tip to the consumers’ favor.

Having been running his businesses for over 55 years, Heinecke is well-versed in spotting good prospects. Born in the U.S., he grew up in Thailand and founded two businesses in Bangkok in 1967 when he was just 17—an office cleaning company and an advertising company. He created Minor Holding three years later, naming it in recognition of his young age. The company grew slowly and steadily, first venturing into hotels in 1978 with the Royal Garden Resort in Pattaya, Thailand. It entered the food sector in 1980 and lifestyle in 1982, and Heinecke officially became a Thai citizen in 1991 before opening the first Anantara in 2001 in the coastal district of Hua Hin.

Minor Hotels began expanding outside of Thailand in 2005, acquiring Oaks Hotels & Resorts in 2011 and Tivoli in 2016. By 2018, the company was managing or operating around 150 hotels, which more than trebled when it acquired 94% of the NH Hotel Group that year for a reported $2.6 billion. “One of the things that was attractive to us was the fact that NH covered parts of the world that we don’t cover,” says Heinecke. “We had a handful of hotels out there when we bought Tivoli in Portugal and Brazil, but when we acquired NH we got all of South America and

However, travel businesses also have reason for optimism. In 2022, Saudi Airlines resumed flights to Thailand following a three-decade hiatus, leading to a rush of Saudi visitors to the Southeast Asian tourist trap. The reopening of some other key markets could signal similar good news for other hubs. “China cannot stay locked down, and when they open up again you’re going to see a rush of pent-up demand from the Chinese,” predicts Heinecke. “There’s going to be a lot more demand for Dubai than there ever was, demand for Doha, demand in Europe and Africa.”

As the weathered industry waits to see what comes next, for the seasoned hospitality leader the future will remain steady and sustainable. “We’re not aiming to be the largest in the world, but I think in our area we hope to be growing at a very good clip, which is hard to do when you’re a big company,” reasons Heinecke. “Part of being nimble and agile is also staying close to the market and close to your consumers and close to your owners and close to the opportunities.

“I think we’re in an ideal position to take advantage of that.”

“The days of cheap labor, cheap money, and cheap energy are gone.”

Banking Fit For The Future

Banking Report 2022

The advancement and adoption of digital technologies is ushering in a new era in banking, with exciting opportunities for the taking.

These Are Exciting Times

MENA’s banking industry is in the midst of an unprecedented overhaul that promises to fundamentally change the way the region saves, spends, and transacts. The Middle East isn’t just one of the world’s fastest growing markets when it comes to banking, it is one of the most rapidly changing. The banking population is becoming younger, more tech savvy, and more demanding, spurring the development of a product offering that is both diverse and unmistakably digital. From fintech and cashless payments, to cybersecurity and data analytics, MENA’s banks are preparing for a future fueled by advanced technology and fastpaced change.

The Cashless Economy Front and center of the industrywide transformation is the topic of payments. Despite technological knowhow and a smartphone

penetration rate exceeding 90% in some parts, the region has remained dependent on cash and slow on the uptake where digital payments are concerned. But the landscape is changing fast.

Today, digital adoption is disrupting the value chain. Demand was already on the up pre-2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst, accelerating the adoption of digital technologies among consumers and companies alike as the world steered clear of cash. Now, a plethora of new technological solutions is facilitating the growth of a cashless economy, with wearables, biometrics, QR codes, and digital wallets all in the mix.

Mastercard’s New Payments Index 2022 highlight’s the region’s appetite for emerging digital payment solutions. According to the index, in the U.A.E. alone, 88% of the consumers surveyed have used at least one such payment method in the last year. Of these,

39% used a tappable smartphone mobile wallet, 29% used buy now, pay later (BNPL), 20% used cryptocurrency, and 18% used a payment-enabled wearable tech device. More broadly, noncash payments are anticipated to account for almost 70% of transaction volumes in the region next year, generating $120 billion in revenue in 2023, up from $65 billion in 2018, according to SHIFT, a new report by the MENA Fintech Association.

The Rise Of Fintech

As digital technology continues to impact the banking sector, MENA’s fintech ecosystem is advancing, with dynamic tech startups vying for market share. Research published by Market Data Forecast suggests that the fintech market in the Middle East and Africa could be worth $3.45 billion by 2026, with deals in the past year alone running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. In

2022, U.A.E-based Tabby secured $275 million in funding, followed by Saudi company Tamara raising capital of $216 million.

Looking towards the end of the year, non-profit thinktank, the Milken Institute, predicts that capital funding in the region will reach $2 billion. In Saudi Arabia alone, the fintech market grew 147% between 2018 and 2020 and is expected to grow by a further 55% by 2033, according to KPMG.

As the fintech economy matures, digital banks are now emerging across MENA too, with Saudi Telecom Bank (STC Bank) counting as the kingdom’s first. More broadly, Saudi Arabia’s regulatory sandbox has accepted more than 20 fintech solutions following stringent evaluation. Meanwhile, across the border in

Research

excluded from the traditional banking system. In 2020, Bahrain became the first country in MENA to pass open banking legislation, with Saudi Arabia’s framework going live earlier this year.

Securing Cyberspace

As the digital ecosystem continues to evolve, so too do the risks. Just as new technologies are emerging–almost on a daily basis–to make banking easier, other technological developments are putting the industry at risk.

A joint study by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank illustrates the scale of the problem. The study findings reveal that cyberattacks in the financial services sector outweigh other sectors by 65%, and that the average annual losses from

by Market Data

to grow by 22.6% CAGR, from $70 million in 2020 to $129 million in 2023.

Blockchain

In the security stakes, blockchain is emerging as a valuable tool for banks. The digital ledger technology offers transparency and a secure and organized way to record data in a single place, with clear benefits for a wide range of financial institutions, from investment banks to accounting firms.

the U.A.E., financial free zones and government initiatives including the National Innovation Strategy, Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031, and Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021, are encouraging investment and innovation in digital banking. Today, digital banks in the Emirates include Zand, Liv, NOW, Rise, and Neo, while legacy banks are also increasing their digital offerings.

Open banking, facilitated by central banks in the region, is also rising to the fore. With features such as fast-track authentication, mobile accessibility, and a range of other digital finance offerings, open banking appeals to MENA’s large unbanked population–a group that has typically been

cyberattacks may be as large as 9% of the net income of banks worldwide, or $100 billion. According to the report, this figure could hit $350 billion if the trend continues.

Fortunately, countries in the MENA region are tackling the issue of cybersecurity head on. Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. ranked among the five most cybersecure countries globally on the ITU Global Cybersecurity Index 2020, with Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait also ranking highly. These countries have been notably active in their online protection efforts in conjunction with global partners. Meanwhile, end-user spending on data security in MENA is expected

Beyond security, blockchain also enables banks to keep up with the pace of digital change, delivering speed, efficiency, and an alternative to traditional finance on several fronts. As a secure and efficient peer-to-peer method for data distribution, blockchain technology can eliminate inefficiencies across an organization, reduce the reliance on intermediaries, and deliver significant cost savings for the industry as a whole. Such is its appeal to the banking world, the application of blockchain technology in the financial sector is expected to reach a market size of around $22.5 billion by 2026, up from $840 million in 2020, according to Statista.

Data And AI

If blockchain offers the security and efficiency, data analytics and AI offer the understanding that banks need to grow their customer bases. When it comes to attracting and retaining customers, banking is a competitive industry – and the competition is getting hotter as digital banks, fintech startups, and other agile rivals enter the market with innovative offerings. Against this backdrop, customer experience is more important than ever, and banks are turning to data analytics in order to up their game.

published

Forecast suggests that the fintech market in the Middle East and Africa could be worth $3.45 billion by 2026

Banks possess deep pools of customer data and the latest AI solutions can transform this data into valuable insights. Armed with new understanding, banks can tailor their products and services and engage with customers in a more meaningful way. By analyzing historical customer behavior, AI tools can also enable banks to predict future scenarios, which helps to inform decision-making and identify criminal activity and data patterns.

Indicative of the growing importance of data analytics, a report from Mordor Intelligence states that the AI, cyber security, and big data analytics market in the Middle East and Africa was valued at $11.78 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $28.36 billion by 2026.

The Metaverse

Looking to the future, new digital developments are set to make technologies such as AI and blockchain even more relevant

– and the role of banks more important. At the forefront of digital evolution is the metaverse. While still at the nascent stages of development, the metaverse is intended to serve as an immersive, virtual universe facilitated by VR and AR. Touted as the next generation of the internet, this new space will allow users to socialize, collaborate, shop, transact, and even access banking services via their individual avatars.

A report from Citi claims the metaverse could be worth between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, and the significance for banks is great. According to Arjun V. Singh, partner at Arthur D. Little Middle East, the metaverse creates demand for money in various forms, including tokens, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and fiat currency – and it creates a critical role for the financial services sector as the new virtual realm evolves.

“From currency exchange to

the provision of virtual real estate mortgages, the opportunity is sizeable for financial players looking to expand their operations within the metaverse, and several banks are already tapping into the potential,” says Singh, pointing to JP Morgan, HSBC, and Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank as first movers. Meanwhile, fintechs and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms including U.A.E. payment processor, Magnati, have also entered the virtual sphere.

No Going Back

With the metaverse still under construction its success remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: in a world of rapid technological advancement and under the weight of consumer demand, there is no going back. The digital banking era is drawing near and financial institutions across MENA must adapt or be left behind. The stakes are high, but so too are the rewards in an industry in transformation.

Empowering Egyptian Fintech

Egypt’s fintech landscape is helping to bring more people into the digital economy. New players are emerging, their scaling strategies are maturing, and investments are increasing. By enabling fintechs, Mastercard is powering innovation, delivering seamless experiences, and building an inclusive future for all.

According to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), financial inclusion rates in the country over the past six years have grown considerably. The number of citizens who have accounts that allow them to complete financial transactions stands at 56% of the population, or 36.8 million people. And that extends beyond mere access to a traditional bank account; as consumer behaviors change, more emerging payment options are being adopted.

The Mastercard New Payments Index 2022 found that 64% of consumers in Egypt, compared to 61% globally, increased their use of at least one digital payment method in the last year, including digital cards, SMS payments, digital money transfer apps, and instant payment services.

Fintechs are contributing to this rapid digital transformation, making consumers’ lives convenient, simple, and rewarding. The ecosystem has witnessed huge growth, particularly because of the

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

Adam Jones, Country General Manager, MENA Central for Mastercard, explains how Mastercard’s innovative technology is empowering Egypt’s burgeoning fintech sector.

Adam Jones, Country General Manager, MENA Central for Mastercard

thriving e-commerce sector, which was pushed further forward by the pandemic. Last year, investments in fintech increased to $159 million compared to just $1 million in 2017, with over 112 fintech companies established by 2021.

Over the past decade, we have witnessed the launch of several fintechs across the country, with examples including Paymob, Khazna, Lucky, and Mozare3. What these fintechs have in common is that they are funded and empowered by Nclude, a fintechfocused VC investment platform designed to further boost Egypt’s vibrant fintech ecosystem and help position the country as a leading hub for fintech innovation across the Middle East and Africa.

Launched in March 2022 upon approval by the CBE, Nclude initially saw an investment of $100 million from Egypt’s leading national banks—Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, and Banque Du Caire—as well as Egyptian Banks Company (EBC) and eFinance. With Mastercard—a

pioneer in advancing financial inclusion in Egypt and the world—joining in with a strategic investment, the Nclude fund is quickly becoming a go-to fund for fintechs looking to grow their operations and services.

Mastercard’s partnership with Nclude is a testament to its commitment to driving financial inclusion in key markets like Egypt, underscoring its global goal of connecting one billion people to the digital economy. Together, we aim to empower the country’s rapidly evolving fintech ecosystem, providing individuals and businesses access to quality financial services, and promoting the growth of an inclusive digital economy.

Both Mastercard and Nclude share the same vision to further financial inclusion through technology and innovation. By working together, the two organizations have the ability to unleash the vast entrepreneurial potential that exists within Egypt’s dynamic and evolving

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

startup ecosystem. In particular, Mastercard’s solutions and expertise will support the country’s fintech entrepreneurs to drive innovation, boost financial inclusion, contribute to the development of Egypt’s digital economy, and compete on the local, regional, and global levels.

The expanding talent pool, regulatory breakthroughs, and the growing number of fintechs in Egypt are combining to create a driving force to push the country towards a cashless, digital future where access to digital financial instruments and payment solutions has huge potential to bridge the gap to the unbanked population.

As a global pioneer in payment innovation and technology, Mastercard works tirelessly to support Egypt by connecting all ecosystem stakeholders, providing them with fast, efficient, and affordable payment solutions that help build and strengthen the financial ecosystem.

Last year, investments in fintech increased to $159 million compared to just $1 million in 2017, with over 112 fintech companies established by 2021

Facilitating A New Digital Economy

There are many drivers for the development of an advanced economy, but economic productivity is fundamental.

Growing economies drive GDP growth, create jobs, and within

the context of a free market, stimulate innovation. Those outputs combined deliver social mobility and opportunity. Digital payments— which are only a thin operational layer for a business—connect everything else together. They are an essential ingredient in enabling SME and corporate success,

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

connecting merchants everywhere and anywhere with the digital economy and e-commerce.

Indeed, our entire economy is being reshaped around the digital economy, which would be nothing without digital payments. In this respect, it is inherently an enabler of opportunities that are

How do payments help a country to become an advanced economy?

Fintechs can reach parts of the economy that banks can’t.

Abdullah AlOthman, Founder and Chairman of Geidea, explains how Fintechs can also be the engines of widely-shared economic growth.

Abdullah AlOthman,

Founder and Chairman of Geidea

inclusive in nature. Whether you’re operating in tourism, shopping, entertainment, or e-commerce, your business is powered by digital payments and payment technologies—and they are vitally important in being able to transact across borders and approaching new markets and customers. This is perhaps the pure definition of a modern, advanced digital economy.

How can fintech companies help with inclusive growth?

Fintech companies have a significant role to play in widening economic opportunities and ending financial exclusion. Being able to sell your products across long distances or in other countries means that small traders and merchants can sell more, earn more, and create new jobs, which is at the heart of Geidea’s vision— empowering merchants and businesses to grow and scale.

Digital payments also make it easier for those living in remote communities and for marginalized people to access financial services such as bank accounts, financing, money transfers, and general participation in the digital economy. Home-based businesses, for example, are predominantly run by women in Saudi Arabia, so fintech firms like neobanks can provide access to more affordable and accessible payment and banking solutions. This is particularly important given that Saudi Vision 2030 aims to create a million jobs for women.

What can fintechs do that other financial players can’t?

As a fintech, we can play an essential role in filling many of the gaps in the market, meet untapped demand, and knit it all together through seamless, intuitive,

highly secure, and affordable digital payments. Our merchants don’t need expensive IT, finance, and accounting teams, which means we can step in to help hundreds of thousands of merchants grow across the economy.

How do you assess the record of Saudi Arabia in helping fintechs support economic growth?

It has rapidly become extremely easy for fintechs to support economic growth in Saudi Arabia, thanks in no small part to the impressive work of the government and central bank, which has created an excellent climate for fintech innovation. Geidea was the first fintech in Saudi Arabia to be awarded an acquiring license, which enabled us to process secure, fast, and seamless endto-end payment solutions directly to merchants. That’s a gamechanger.

Saudi Arabia is now not only a good place for fintechs but also for exporting innovation and knowledge. I am incredibly proud of that, and excited, because in the kingdom we can be leaders, not just followers. Acting as a global innovator and exporter of talent, products, skills, and knowledge is fundamental to the development of an advanced economy.

How can innovation make the economy more efficient and inclusive?

Innovation isn’t about dreaming up fantastic new tech or jumping on the latest craze—innovation succeeds when the starting question is: how do we meet customer needs? My job is to understand precisely what is happening within the business community, the broader economy, and consumer needs so that we

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

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can innovate digital payment solutions that serve all of their respective interests and needs.

If we are to fully understand what our customers and consumers need, we have to work as a team with a variety of ideas and outlooks. That’s why talent is so important and why it is one of the four vital factors for innovation in fintech: talent, culture, financial resources, and time. These are essential ingredients for success as a fintech and in our ability to understand what is needed right now in the industry. That’s why in some respects, it’s foolish to predict the future. If we focus on developing solutions that enable inclusive growth here and today, the future will take care of itself.

Fintech valuations have been crashing. How can they play such a positive role if many can’t even survive?

It is a challenging time for funding globally. The market is, quite understandably, sorting out the strong companies from the weak ones. So, to survive and thrive, you need to have a proven model that meets real needs. That’s why every company—whether a startup or an established player— cannot make assumptions about the market or rest on its laurels. Geidea is growing, profitable, and expanding, but only because we focus 100% on the merchants that we’re here to serve and help succeed.

www.geidea.net/merchants/en/

MENA Banks Remain Optimistic Towards Year End

New research by EFG Hermes has found that in the banking sector, the current credit quality backdrop is generally favorable, with shortterm macro being supportive in the GCC. However, higher borrowing costs and a challenging global economic environment pose potential risks in 2023. In the medium term, infrastructure spending, a push towards greener economies, and potential legal reforms, will all contribute towards loan growth. Here are some of our detailed country insights:

Saudi Arabia is facing a slowdown in mortgage growth due to base effects and rising interest rates coupled with a tightening supply of affordable homes. Despite the slowdown short-term, mortgages’ long-term prospects are attractive, as the population is young, women’s participation in the workforce is rising, and there is still room for an increase in homeownership relative to the country’s Vision 2030 targets. Banks are generally upbeat on the SME opportunity as an additional area of growth.

Meanwhile, the U.A.E.’s rollout of 10-year golden visas clubbed with a recovery in hospitality, real estate, and aviation has led to buoyancy in terms of loan growth and credit quality. Also, retail credit appetite remains strong. Corporates leveraging up

post IPOs and the U.A.E.’s goal of transitioning towards clean energy and net-zero emissions are seen as long-term credit growth drivers for the country.

In Kuwait, a positively developing political climate could bring long-awaited legal reforms. There is increased optimism as a result of better collaboration between the legislative and executive powers leading to the passing of key pending reforms. This includes the Debt Law and the Mortgage Law, which is key, due to the current difficulties young Kuwaitis face in accessing housing. The recent approval of the 2022/23 budget could also unlock corporate loan growth opportunities in 2023 via the implementation of government projects.

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

Qatar’s increased LNG production capacity for 20252027 and enhancement of the country’s infrastructure will bolster the economy. Loan growth prospects look better for 2023 than 2022, which has been negatively impacted by government repayments. However, Qatari banks’ net interest margins may face some pressure in 2023 as the regulatory authority is encouraging banks to reduce foreign currency deposits. Also, for some banks, the cost of risk may be elevated in the second half of 2022-2023 because of the Qatar Central Bank’s comprehensive loan review.

For their part, Egyptian banks could see a slowdown in underlying credit growth in 2023 after a strong 2022, as higher inflation and higher interest rates may dent consumer demand. Credit quality has been resilient in the corporate and retail loan segment although higher borrowing rates and difficulties relating to certain imports may impact credit quality in the SME segment. The recent downward adjustment of the Egyptian pound should not lead to material credit quality pressure for banks due to strict regulations in place on foreign currency borrowing.

Elena Sanchez, Managing Director and Co-Head of Financials and Banking at EFG Hermes Research, provides key insights into the banking sector in MENA.

Elena Sanchez, Managing Director and Co-Head of Financials and Banking at EFG Hermes Research

As investors try to identify the turning points for inflation, interest rates, and growth against a complex geopolitical backdrop, we look ahead to a year of inflections that will shape the investment landscape.

In our base case scenario, we expect the investment backdrop to become more constructive as 2023 evolves, as inflation falls and investors start to anticipate rate cuts and rebounding growth. For now, however, we still favor a relatively defensive investment stance with high inflation, further policy tightening, and slowing growth to lead to more downside pressure on risk assets and elevated volatility.

In this context, we currently recommend investors to focus on defensives and value in equity. Defensive sectors should prove relatively insulated from a weakening economy, while value stocks tend to perform well when inflation is high. More opportunities to buy cyclical and growth stocks may emerge later in the year, as inflation slows and growth picks up.

Further, earning more predictable returns from income strategies is appealing against an uncertain backdrop, while high market volatility itself can

Looking Ahead To A Year Of Inflections

Michael Bolliger, Chief Investment Officer Emerging Markets at UBS Global Wealth Management, shares his expert insight into the trends shaping the investment landscape in 2023 and beyond.

also offer a means of generating income. Once rates and growth stabilize, elevated yields among lower-rated issuers could present an attractive opportunity.

Relatively high U.S. rates and slowing global growth should help keep the U.S. dollar strong in the coming months, and the Swiss franc’s safe-haven appeal is likely to attract inflows. But investors will need to prepare for greenback weakness as the Fed eventually softens its hawkish policy stance.

Meanwhile, for 2023 and beyond, there won’t be any alternatives to alternatives. Macro, low net equity long/short and multi-strategy funds can help diversify portfolios in the context of periodically elevated equitybond correlations, which are likely to persist as swings in monetary policy continue driving markets.

Taking a longer-term view, a decade of transformation has already brought significant changes to the global economic, political, societal, and environmental picture. But with central banks determined to bring inflation under control, a transition to green energy spurring investment, security driving public spending on infrastructure and R&D, and the digitalization of

business models–all amid lower asset class valuations–a more positive outlook remains possible.

In the year ahead, we expect a further shift toward prioritization of energy security, food security, and technological security by governments and businesses. For the Middle East, this represents a great opportunity to strengthen its position as a partner of choice for both fossil fuels and renewable energy supplies. At the same time, we expect policymakers in the region to remain committed to economic reforms and fiscal discipline, which should help to strengthen local economies and attract foreign investors.

Fostering the non-hydrocarbon sectors and thereby achieving economic diversification is an important multi-year priority in our view and features prominently in national development programs. Further investments in tourism, transportation and education, and an increased focus on sustainable developments, should progressively underpin the region’s growth potential.

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

ON COURSE

Over six years, Gaurav Biswas, Founder and CEO of TruKKer, has raised over $203 million in funding for the truck aggregator and expanded it across the Middle East. Now it’s time to plan for an IPO.

BY SAMAR KHOURI

Gaurav Biswas, Founder and CEO of TruKKer.

Many entrepreneurs dream of their startups reaching a billion-dollar valuation, becoming unicorns, and ringing the Nasdaq bell. Moving aside a challenging year for venture-backed startups, TruKKer founder and CEO Gaurav Biswas says he’s not one of them. “If we become a unicorn and if I ring the bell at Nasdaq, then yes, I would definitely love it. But no, I don’t think like that,” he says modestly.

However, the Saudi-headquartered freight network may become a public company in the next 24 to 36 months. “We are already very well-structured again because of the involvement of the kind of investors who came in earlier in our business,” explains Biswas. “It gives us enough time right now to prepare the business from a public governance perspective, and that’s what we’ll be working on over the next few months.”

In February 2022, TruKKer secured $96 million in a Series B funding round, comprising a combination of equity and debt financing from investors, including Abu Dhabi’s ADQ and Mubadala Investment Company. Seven months later, in September 2022, TruKKer raised $100 million in a pre-IPO Series C round led by Bahraini investment firm Investcorp, alongside new and existing investors, bringing its total funding to over $203 million. “In normal times, it is significant, and in current times I think it is super significant,” says Biswas on getting that vote of confidence from investors amid current economic uncertainty. “If you see our revenue growth, it has always been quite measured in terms of what can be achieved. So, I think Investcorp to come in right now, for us as a private equity business very focused on an IPO, is the right time.”

Companies such as Uber and Airbnb have successfully built conglomerates on a global scale by making existing businesses—such as taxis and food delivery—mobile. TruKKer is among the Middle East’s startups forging its own path in the market

Mby following the same concept for trucks. Today, TruKKer is among the largest digital freight networks in MENA, serving over 700 clients, including SABIC, RAK Ceramics, Unilever, Maersk, and P&G, for cargo movement needs, including freight forwarding, cross-border movements, and domestic distribution. According to Biswas, it’s on track to cross $200 million in revenues in 2022. Today, the startup has nearly 10,000 drivers generating more than 70% of their monthly income on the TruKKer platform.

“[TruKKer’s] talented management team combined with its growth and business model focused on reducing carbon emissions by eliminating empty miles, increasing carrier utilization and reverse truck loads, makes it an ideal candidate for an IPO in the next two to three years,” says Walid Majdalani, Head of Private Equity MENA and Southeast Asia at Investcorp. “The company is the leader in the MENA B2B road freight tech industry, it benefits from a strong first mover advantage, and it has managed to scale up rapidly, spanning over eight countries representing a total addressable market of over $50 billion.”

The idea for Uber-like services for transportation by truck came to Biswas in 2016 while he was on holiday. One of his travel companions was on the phone trying to book a truck for seven containers in his home country of India, and he was struggling. “I Googled to figure out whether this is extremely fragmented on the supply side and whether there was an Uber kind of technology that connects this network and provides an interface,” Biswas recalls. A month later, he registered TruKKer.

Biswas and his childhood friend Pradeep Mallavarapu took a leap of faith and contributed over $300,000 of their own money to get the company off the ground and create the region’s first technologyenabled truck aggregator. The duo launched TruKKer in Dubai in October 2016 as a homemoving business—a stepping-stone into entering the transportation sector, which both cofounders were unfamiliar with at the time. Mallavarapu’s

GAURAV BISWAS

“I think we can do much more than double, but with all the right metrics in place, I think doubling is very healthy in our business. We target to double again next year.”

background was in technology, whereas Biswas has previously worked in engineering and real estate.

“The complexity of Uberizing trucks compared to cabs is so high that if I knew about the sector, I probably would not have tried,” admits Biswas. “But I think the more we do this now, the more we feel that that complexity is actually creating the competitive edge. That is what is helping us to scale because we’ve now ended up solving quite complex problems, putting together technology layers that are creating more efficiency.”

The startup—purely operating on a digital network—grew 2,000% in its first year and went on to achieve 11,000% growth in its first two years. Focused on the medium and heavy-duty segments, TruKKer recorded 5,000 transactions and inducted 1,400 trucks in 2017. It grew to generate over 150,000 transactions and induct over 40,000 trucks in 2021.

Biswas says that 99% of its revenue comes from large truck rental, moving long-haul industrial cargo. “Between last year to this year, we’ve doubled. We think that’s extremely sustainable in the kind of market we are in,” he clarifies.

TruKKer’s CFO, Amit Agarwal, believes that its growth is 100% to 150% year-onyear and that this trajectory will continue due to the size of the market. “The revenue growth that we have seen is a combination of entering into new markets,” he explains. “But then we have been seeing a lot of growth in our existing markets like the U.A.E., Saudi, and Egypt as well.”

The on-demand truck aggregator has also sparked growing interest from regional and international venture capital firms, starting with its $1.4 million in a seed round in December 2017, which was led by Saudibased Raed Ventures before TruKKer’s launch in the kingdom. In November 2019, it hauled in what was at the time one of the largest Series A funding rounds in the Middle East, with $23 million gathered from investors, including Saudi Technology Ventures, the PIF-backed Riyad TAQNIA

Today, TruKKer is among the largest digital freight networks in MENA, serving over 700 clients, including SABIC, RAK Ceramics, Unilever, Maersk, and P&G.

Fund, the Oman Technology Fund, Iliad Partners, and Shorooq Ventures. This came at a time when TruKKer was in the process of expanding into Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, and Turkey. In November 2022, the startup extended its reach to Kazakhstan and Poland to further expand haulage operations from Turkey to EU and CIS nations.

Investcorp led TruKKer’s latest fundraising round with a $51 million

contribution, marking the Bahraini investment firm’s eighth investment in Saudi Arabia. This investment is part of the Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund LP, a $500 million fund that targets equity growth capital investments in Saudi Arabia. “Saudi Arabia and the wider region are rich in highly-investible enterprises. TruKKer is one such example,” says Investcorp’s Majdalani. “In TruKKer, we are lending our strategic and capital market capabilities, as well as our local and international expertise, to help the company move quickly through its next growth phase.”

“We have been doing well from an evaluation perspective, even in the current funding round. We got the right valuation for the business, and in the current environment, we did a fairly good job,” Agarwal adds.

Mattia Fugazza, Head of MENA Ventures at the Mubadala Investment Company, believes the startup is playing a key role in digitizing the region’s land freight. “Since

its inception, TruKKer has successfully demonstrated its ability to leverage advanced data and real-time technology to execute on its vision to become the region’s largest digital freight network,” he says. “Ultimately, we are working together with the management team, investors, and stakeholders to build a champion for the MENA region and beyond.”

Startups are playing a key role in the region’s logistics value chain and the economy. Ashley Koussa, PwC Middle East Partner, Transport & Logistics, says that freight transport and logistics contribute 5-8% to the GDP of Middle East countries, where there has been a recent “substantial level of investment” in the sector. Saudi Arabia—one of TruKKer’s biggest markets—plans to invest up to $150 billion in transport and logistics over the next nine years. Over the last five years, the sector’s market size has grown steadily at a

CAGR of 4-5%. “Realization of the longterm visions of major regional economics, for example, Vision 2030, will significantly enhance this growth rate to an average of 6-7+% as a result of both the substantial investment being made in the sector and the dependency of the growth of adjacent sectors on a solid logistics platform,” Koussa adds.

And as the sector grows, the cofounders of TruKKer are looking at investing in new Fintech technology, launching a mobilityfocused Fintech business, which will start in the GCC before expanding into Egypt and Turkey. “That’s going be a big part of how some new team members will be coming into the business, focused on Fintech,” says Biswas. “I think we can do much more than double, but with all the right metrics in place, I think doubling is very healthy in our business. We target to double again next year.”

Logistics Billionaires

Rodolphe Saadé is the son of late shipping magnate Jacques Saade, who died in 2018. Jacques founded CMA CGM, now one of the world’s largest shipping companies, in Marseille, France in 1978.

Logistics magnate Klaus-Michael Kuehne is honorary chairman of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, based in Schindellegi, Switzerland. He joined the company, cofounded by his grandfather, in 1958, eventually taking over as CEO in 1966.

A captain by training, Gianluigi Aponte entered the shipping industry in 1970 with his wife Rafaela. Their company MSC has become the second-largest shipping line in the world by vessel capacity, just behind global leader AP Møller Maersk. John Fredriksen

Fredriksen’s empire includes oil tankers, dry bulkers, LNG carriers and deepwater drilling rigs. He first got into oil trading in the 1960s in Beirut, bought his first tankers in the 1970s, and ran crude for Iran in the 1980s.

Dennis Washington

Dennis Washington parlayed an early love of machinery into a diversified business group called Washington Companies. Washington owns a copper mining, marine transportation and heavy equipment businesses.

Sports Boulevard

The Longest Linear Park In The World

Sports Boulevard is a new, unique development that will create a vast and vibrant outdoor park for residents and visitors in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia’s Sports Boulevard project is one of the largest urban development projects in Riyadh and the longest linear park in the world, which was launched by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, on March 19, 2019. The project is set to reach a distance of more than 135 km. It is located on Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Road, linking Wadi Hanifa in the west of the city and Wadi Al-Sulay in the east, through a grid of safe green pathways for pedestrians, cyclists, athletes, and horse riders, in addition to many diverse sports facilities.

The project comprises eight districts: Wadi Hanifah, Wadi Alsulai, Wadi Alyasen, the Arts District, the Entertainment District, the Athletics District, the ECO District, and Sand Sports Park. The districts are rich in cultural, artistic, entertainment, and environmental activities. They contain more than 50 sports facilities and cycling stations, and several artistic landmarks.

The project aims to help promote Riyadh as one of the most liveable cities in the world by contributing to achieving a sustainable urban environment. Once complete, it will be home to more than 170,00 trees, creating open and green spaces of more

than 4.4 million square meters, increasing green space share per capita, reducing travel time by approximately 64.8%, and enabling a reduction of 100 tons of CO2 emissions. It will also contribute to achieving the highest standards of sustainability through irrigation, which aims to use treated water for irrigation purposes and use renewable energy, with almost 70% of the project’s rooftops allocated to solar panels.

Sports Boulevard offers an innovative combination of sports with cultural, artistic, and environmental opportunities, creating a modern destination for residents, moving towards an urban future for the city of Riyadh, and achieving the quality-of-life objective of Saudi’s Vision 2030. More importantly, the project encourages people to follow a healthy lifestyle by exercising and participating in different sports, particularly walking, cycling, and horse riding.

Construction on the project

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has already begun and is making great progress. In December 2021, the project took a huge step in the first phase of improving the urban landscape by starting work on converting overhead transmission lines into underground cables to facilitate better project development.

The Sports Boulevard Foundation has announced the launch of the design code for the areas located on Prince Mohammed bin Salman Road. The code details architectural and urban regulations and requirements. It aims to achieve harmony and integration in the urban form in terms of the shape of the buildings and their relationships with their surroundings. It also imparts a distinctive local identity through the implementation of the principles of Salmani Architecture.

The project represents a futuristic vision aiming to enrich the lives of Riyadh’s residents and visitors by providing a modern, world-class infrastructure that will reflect a modern destination extending from the east to the west of Riyadh city.

The Journey To ESG Success

At Alba, we aim to be the ESG change that we want to see in the world. To that effect, in 2021 we rolled our new vision, mission, and values to set us on the right course to achieve our ambitious goal. Today, Alba’s vision is to be the number one aluminum supplier for the generations to come, and we are on a mission to be a responsible corporate citizen that creates value for all our stakeholders and for society at large. Every step of the way, our work is underpinned by clear values that can be summed up in a handful of powerful yet simple

words: Safe & Green, Together, Ethics, Excellence, and Resilience. Our ESG roadmap, launched in April 2022, was a further step in underlining our commitment to Bahrain’s objective of net zero emissions by 2060, pledged under the leadership of HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain and in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Through our roadmap, we aim to inspire change across our business and go above and beyond to achieve the right balance between our economic gains and social returns.

Our ESG roadmap highlights six

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strategic pillars: Decarbonization, Green Energy & Aluminium, Circular Economy & Secondary Aluminium, Employee Welfare, Collaboration & Partnerships, and Transparency, Communications, & Due Diligence.

One of the most important ESG initiatives is the establishment of the Spent Pot Lining (SPL) Treatment Plant, which is a key project that translates Alba’s commitment towards the environment into action. The plant is the first of its kind in the region and transforms SPL material through a zero-waste process into value-added products to be used in other industries.

Ali Al-Baqali, CEO of Alba, explains how the aluminum giant is meeting its ambitious environment, social, and governance (ESG) targets for Bahrain and the greater good.

In addition to this important initiative, Alba has initiated numerous different programs to integrate ESG fully in its operations. For example, we are incorporating advanced technologies and investing in digitalization to improve operational efficiency, and we have formed a taskforce committee to evaluate ESG-linked initiatives associated with each of the six pillars outlined above. We have also signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with several government and international companies. These MoUs are designed to address energy efficiency, renewable energy, decarbonization, and green initiative solutions.

Several of Alba’s other missioncritical initiatives include:

Solar farm project: With an aim to diversify our energy sources and adopt clean energy, Alba is developing a 5-7MW solar farm project in collaboration with Bahrain’s Sustainable Energy Authority. The solar farm will spread over an approximate area of 37,000 square meters across the

company’s operational areas, car parks, and Alba Club.

Energy efficiency: Plans are underway to improve the efficiency of energy consumption across the company’s facilities. Here, the aim is to enhance Alba’s contributions towards the government sector’s efforts to support the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan and the National Renewable Energy Action Plan.

Fish farm: We are developing a fish farm at Alba’s calciner plant, which contributes to enhancing marine life, biodiversity, and food security.

Multilateral agreement: Alba has signed an agreement with Mitsubishi and the SEPCOIII Consortium to be the engineering, procurement, and construction company for the fourth additional block in Power Station 5 (PS5). Through the agreement, we will drive higher efficiency and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Alba’s overall power generation. Currently under construction, the fourth block at Alba’s PS5 will enable the company to use a mix

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of hydrogen and natural gas to reduce its GHG emissions and set a benchmark in sustainable power generation.

Boosting biodiversity: Alba has run a campaign called ‘A Tree for Every Employee’. The campaign is designed to boost biodiversity and fight climate change by distributing saplings to every employee at the company. A Tree for Every Employee aligns with Bahrain’s COP26 climate change goal to double the number of trees in the kingdom by 2035, as set out by HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain.

Financial support: Alba has provided more than $355,500 (BD134,000) in financial aid to support the National Initiative for Agricultural Development in its efforts as part of the Ras Sanad Mangrove Nursery Project.

Alba’s commitment to sustainability has gained recognition across the kingdom in recent years. In fact, for the third year in a row, we have ranked as the top company in Bahrain on the environmental, social, and governance ratings list by ESG Invest—the investment research arm of Sustainability Excellence. Looking ahead, our pledge to our country, our community, and the planet we all share will continue to make tangible impact across Bahrain and beyond.

We aim to inspire change across our business and go above and beyond to achieve the right balance between our economic gains and social returns

MOST-FUNDED STARTUPS

RIDING HIGH

Noureddine Tayebi, Founder and CEO of North African-based multi-sided marketplace Yassir, scratched the surface of an untapped market when he launched the company five years ago. The startup now has the upper hand in the Maghreb region, backed by $193.25 million in funding.

BY HAGAR OMRAN

In November 2022, on-demand services marketplace Yassir raised a $150 million Series B round led by BOND, taking its total funding to $193.25 million. There’s a reason why investors have been eager to sign up. Yassir is today the only app in the Maghreb region—Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia—that offers a combination of ride-hailing, food, and grocery delivery services, as well as payment services, giving it a sizable competitive advantage over other players.

Careem started operating in Algiers, Yassir’s largest market, in 2019, focusing on ride-hailing only—it quit operations there in the summer of 2022, although it still competes with Yassir in Morocco. French ride-hailing app Heetch also operates in Yassir’s markets. On the

food and grocery side, Yassir’s main competitor is Jumia Food, which is present in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Senegal. Glovo is among its competitors in Morocco and Tunisia. “The first-mover advantage allowed us to build trust,” he explains. “It is hard for new entrants to overcome the barrier because there is already a very strong player dominating.”

Lead investor BOND is one of Silicon Valley’s largest VC firms, with investments in many iconic companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Snap, DoorDash, Uber, and Airbnb. “Yassir has emerged as a beloved consumer platform in a largely underserved region with powerful, multi-decade, demographic tailwinds,” says Daegwon Chae, General Partner at BOND. “Yassir’s expansive

Noureddine Tayebi, Founder and CEO of North African-based multi-sided marketplace Yassir.

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product approach creates both high service quality for customers and strong operating efficiencies, setting the foundation for an enduring business.” Other investors in its most recent funding round include DN Capital, Dorsal Capital, Quiet Capital, Spike Ventures, and Y Combinator.

The Maghreb region has very large cities and high-density populations, while its transport systems are traditionally archaic. When Tayebi first founded Yassir with his business partner El Mahdi Yettou, on-demand services weren’t as developed as other Middle Eastern markets. Despite this, they noticed that people were spending high on transportation and food and saw an opportunity.

Tayebi, who holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and Yettou were old university friends. They established Yassir—meaning “easy” in Arabic—as a ride-hailing platform in October 2017, hiring regional engineering talent, and initially funding themselves. Tayebi was not new to the startup game—he had previously founded U.S.-based InSense Inc and Multidisciplinary Emerging Technologies Inc.

Yassir became profitable eight months after its commercial launch, helped by minimal operating expenses and a low cost of living in the Maghrib region. In July 2018, it raised $3.25 million in a preseed round, followed by a $10 million seed round in April 2020 and a $30 million Series A funding round in August 2021.

At the same time as raising capital, it expanded its services. In 2019, it launched in Morocco and Tunisia and launched its food delivery service, which became a lifesaver for the company when the pandemic hit and it converted its ride-hailing customer base to food delivery. In January 2022, the company rolled out grocery delivery services, and it is now launching its payments services, which include a mobile money wallet through which p2p and merchant payments can be processed. “Yassir products offer a whole ecosystem that is created at a large scale. It’s really like an aggregator at a regional level,” says Tayebi. Today, the company operates in six countries and 45 cities. As of November 2022, it had eight million users, 100,000 drivers and couriers, and 20,000 merchants on its platform, with plans to grow at least threefold in 2023.

London-based DN Capital was one of Yassir’s investors. Thomas Rubens, Partner at DN Capital, says that the vision of building a superapp for North Africa is extremely compelling as the region is economically vibrant but often passed over by venture capital. “As the business

has grown, the most exciting development has been Yassir’s ability to cross-sell multiple on-demand services to the same engaged user base,” he explains. “If you know that a ride-hailing user will in time become a food or grocery delivery customer, it allows you to invest much more confidently in growth.” Offering users Fintech services such as peer-to-peer and merchant payments is also a huge opportunity as digital payments are underpenetrated in these markets. Adding payments for Yassir has been a strategic move. Although cash is still king in Africa, a McKinsey survey suggests the continent’s domestic e-payments market will witness revenue growth of nearly 20% annually to hit $40 billion by 2025. While working in cash heavy-economies, Yassir allows its customers to use its wallets as channels to buy other commodities beyond its own ecosystem. According to the founder, switching Yassir’s consumer base to payments has been much easier than creating a new base for payment activities, as they already trust Yassir’s products.

Tayebi is now planning to use Yassir’s recent funding to expand further, including in-house. “We aim to quadruple the engineering and product teams to keep up with our product ambitions,” he reveals. The founder doesn’t disclose exactly where he plans to expand to next geographically, but there is a lot of opportunity out there. Similar business models, such as the Latin American super app Rappi, and Southeast Asian apps Gojek and Grab have at least 10% population penetration.

“As inflation continues to increase and purchasing power declines, there are more opportunities for more affordable ride-sharing options which are able to significantly reduce cost to the riders while maintaining the quality of experience and safety,” says Youssef Salem CFO of Swvl. “Similarly, on the drivers’ side, as their own purchasing power declines as well, there are more opportunities to enhance the utilization of the vehicles and generate higher earnings.”

“There’s a lot to do in the region we operate in and we are imminently launching in big markets regionally,” says Tayebi. “We will never compromise on our healthy unit of economics, to accelerate our growth.”

“Yassir products offer a whole ecosystem that is created at a large scale. It’s really like an aggregator at a regional level.”

Planning For The Day After Tomorrow

Tom Shea, CEO of OneStream Software, shares his insights into the steps and technologies that can help businesses plan for the future – whatever it may hold.

Navigating complexity and economic disruptions are forcing organizations to rethink the way they plan. Relying on Excel and manual processes are no longer viable options because much like the film The Day After Tomorrow, leaders have no idea what the next day will hold.

Disruptions, whether geopolitical, pandemic, or workforce related, never seem to end. To plan for the day after tomorrow, leaders need to consider fine-tuning the financial brain of their organization, increase agility in planning and reporting, and ensure everyone in the organization is on the same page.

Fine Tune Your Financial Brain

No matter what is happening in the world, the money flowing through an enterprise affects every part of the organization. Finance teams play a crucial role in helping organizations optimize cash flow by navigating volatile markets and inflation. In fact, a recent survey of finance leaders found that 66% of CFOs are preparing for inflation trends to continue into 2023, while 78% expect COVID-related supply chain disruptions to last into 2023 and beyond.

Equip finance teams with the technologies and resources needed to keep your organization’s financial brain, active, agile, and focused. They need solutions that provide the ability to turn sales,

operations, and performance data into actionable, financially intelligent information that helps companies pivot and predict.

If your finance department is still leveraging Excel and email for forecasting and analysis, you’re leaving optimization opportunities on the table. With modern, cloudbased planning solutions, finance teams have access to advanced analytics, AI, and ML technologies, that help organizations leverage the vast amounts of data they are generating to drive intelligent forecasts and plans.

Provide One Source Of Truth

As technologies, markets, and regulations change, ensure everyone in the organization is aligned on goals, plans, and resource allocations so that everyone is working with one source of truth through effective data quality management.

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Poor data quality over time poses a risk for decision-making based on inaccurate data and lack of confidence. It also causes organizations to waste resources, miss opportunities, and spend time reconciling data–time that could be spent on other valueadded activities. And all of this translates into increased costs. According to Gartner, poor data quality costs an organization $12.8 million per year, on average.

To fix this, consider cloudbased planning solutions that support extended planning and analysis (xP&A). According to Gartner, xP&A is the evolution of planning, combining financial and operational planning on a single composable platform. With xP&A, business planning and forecasting are integrated across the organization and supercharged with AI.

Disruptions happen. This makes running a business difficult, but there are steps and technologies that can help organizations better plan for what’s on the horizon. As you prepare for the day after tomorrow, I hope that fine-tuning your financial brain, increasing agility, and ensuring one source of truth resonates with you as a path to success.

Tom Shea, CEO of OneStream Software

Follow The Data

When Visa decided to expand its ‘She’s Next’ global advocacy program to the MENA region, its first priority was to get the facts and figures straight. That’s because the global digital payments company has a commitment to equipping women entrepreneurs with the opportunities, tools, and resources they need to achieve success with their business ventures. For Visa, it is more than a nice-to-have initiative, it is a must. After all, diversity and inclusion are a part of

the company’s DNA.

She’s Next is an effective platform for inspiring women entrepreneurs to get funding on one hand and, on the other hand, gain access to worldclass mentoring, coaching, and networking opportunities to help them advance their businesses.

Alongside the initiative, Visa commissioned a YouGov survey of entrepreneurs in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco to better understand the challenges and aspirations of female entrepreneurs in the region, and

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the type of support women need to build their businesses. The study showed that the majority of women in the region were motivated to start their businesses to become financially independent and realize their dreams.

However, despite the significant milestones achieved in gender equality in the region, Visa’s research showed that women in the business world were still subject to gender stereotypes and prejudices. For example, the study revealed that nearly four in 10 (38%) male business owners in the U.A.E.

Visa’s Dr. Saeeda Jaffar, Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for the GCC; and Leila Serhan, Group Country Manager and Senior Vice President for North Africa, the Levant, and Pakistan, explain why MENA needs more than cookie-cutter female empowerment programs.

Dr. Saeeda Jaffar, Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for the GCC, Visa

Leila Serhan, Group Country Manager and Senior Vice President for North Africa, the Levant, and Pakistan, Visa

believed men had better business instincts than women and about a third (34%) said women-founded businesses couldn’t compete with those run by their male counterparts.

It’s no surprise then that 86% of women find it challenging to get funding. In fact, a regional study by Wamda showed that women in the region are less than half as likely as men to receive funding. Women entrepreneurs in Egypt (63%), Morocco (55%), K.S.A. (54%), and the U.A.E. (62%), also said they were interested in hearing and learning from other women entrepreneurs about the challenges they faced and how they solved them.

Furthermore, 41% of women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia said they were actively searching for programs and platforms as tools for business development and management, while in Egypt, getting funding was considered one of the most difficult tasks for 69% of female founders. More broadly, almost half of women entrepreneurs said they wanted to learn how to set a goal for profitability and scale their businesses.

When it comes to addressing these issues, Visa believes that organizations cannot simply roll out cookie-cutter plans and expect them to make a difference. Rather, insights garnered from reliable data are required to build tailored approaches. On this front, Visa uses data to help women develop the specific capabilities they need

to build their businesses, grow their profits, and make their voices heard.

Based on in-depth findings and by leveraging Visa’s strong network and partnerships in the region, the She’s Next program was developed to shine the spotlight on womenled small businesses and support them with coaching, mentoring, and a network of relevant regional connections, along with access to $10,000 capital injection grants.

She’s Next awarded a total of $190,000 in grants to 19 female

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Asmae Hajjami, Managing Director at Société Générale Maroc; Mirna Arif, General Manager of Microsoft in Egypt; and Hany El-Dieb, Head of Business Banking Segments and Products & Credit Relations Management at Commercial International Bank (CIB).

First Abu Dhabi Bank, the Dubai Business Women Council, Al Rajhi Bank, CIB, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from Egypt, and Société Générale Maroc, also partnered with Visa for this initiative.

founders in MENA this year, spanning the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco.

The women also received one year of free business coaching and mentorship from U.S.-based IFundWomen, as well as access to educational tools to grow and develop their businesses and the opportunity to engage with strong female role models in leadership positions.

As part of the initiative, She’s Next organized in-person and virtual events where influential business leaders and entrepreneurs from various industries spoke with female founders about the challenges they faced and how they overcame barriers to growth.

Insights came from inspirational professionals and business leaders including Mona Ataya, Founder and CEO at Mumzworld; Karen Wazen, Owner of Karen Wazen Eyewear; Madiha Sattar, Vice President at Careem Pay; Azza Fahmy, Chairwoman and Creative Director at Azza Fahmy Jewellery;

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She’s Next is a clear demonstration of the potential of collective action to take economies to new horizons and achieve gender parity. On the latter, research from Boston Consulting Group indicates that global GDP could rise by 3% to 6% if women and men participated equally as business owners, translating to an economic boost to the global economy of between $2.5 trillion and $5 trillion.

The path to success for women business leaders in MENA is still uphill, but the Visa initiative is proudly supporting the dreams and ambitions of women across the region, and indeed, beyond. To date, Visa has invested over $2.2 million globally covering more than 200 She’s Next grants for women small business owners including in the U.S., Canada, India, and Ireland. This investment falls in line with the company’s goal to digitally enable 50 million small businesses around the world.

She’s Next awarded a total of $190,000 in grants to 19 female founders in the MENA this year

MOST-FUNDED STARTUPS

BACKING BUYERS

Jad Antoun, Cofounder and CEO of Huspy, has raised $45 million in less than three years for his end-to-end property-buying tech startup. With three new acquisitions under his belt, he’s now looking to Europe for expansion.

BY JASON LASRADO

Jad Antoun, cofounder and CEO of Huspy.

In June 2022, proptech startup Huspy raised one of the largest Series A funds round the Middle East has ever seen, raking in $37 million from global and regional investors, including Sequoia Capital India, the Founders Fund, Fifth Wall, Chimera Capital, Breyer Capital, VentureFriends, COTU, VentureSouq, and BY Venture Partners. As of November 2022, the company had raised more than $45 million.

This is an impressive accolade considering that Huspy was launched less than three years ago in the U.A.E. in the second half of 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic and national lockdowns. But Jad Antoun, cofounder and CEO of Huspy, had already spent some time zeroing in on his idea to digitize property buying. “Real estate is the largest asset class in the world, the biggest market size available. The opportunity is tremendous,” he explains. “But still, in this asset class, we don’t have an equivalent to Amazon or Facebook or Google, even though the market is already there. And we believe that we’re in a good position to create a new category, at least in EMEA.”

The U.A.E.’s real estate market has been booming in recent years. According to JLL, in the U.A.E.’s residential sector, around 6,500 units were added to Dubai’s stock in Q2 2022 while in Abu Dhabi nearly 1,300 units were completed. Demand remains strong for prime residential properties, especially across waterfront developments. In Dubai, property prices and rents increased 11% and 19% respectively in Q2 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

Proptech companies are not new in the region— leading players propertyfinder.ae and Bayut.com were launched in 2007 and 2008, respectively. However, according to Antoun, existing competitors

are mostly listing platforms or classified businesses that serve as a search function. “In the majority of markets, you have classified businesses, which we call portals, and usually they cater for a search of the property, which is the first 5% of the transaction, but then the transaction moves directly offline,” he clarifies. Huspy is designed to offer an end-to-end solution. Buyers can use the platform to find properties that they are interested in, but it will also help them with other formalities—most importantly, finding financing. Huspy partners with banks and mortgage lenders, so that home buyers can find a property and calculate their loan size, then view personalized bank offers, submit mortgage applications and documents, and get preapproval, all online.

“Proptech in the Middle East and Africa is off to a quick start with wide scale adoption of various solutions, which improve processes, integrate disparate data and improve business processes and user experience,” says Samit Sheth, Digital Delivery

Lead MEA for PDS at JLL. “As new players enter the market we are seeing clients across the real estate sector adopting a wide array of technology and point solutions to fill gaps in the market and add value to traditional building technologies.”

The process of getting a home loan can be complicated and expensive, with limited use of technology. Real estate customers are often underserved, with a lack of visibility, poor customer experience, and overpayment being common problems. “We strongly believe that whoever will win the proptech space will be someone who controls the customer experience. We aim to build a one-stop shop for all ecosystem players,” says Antoun. In just two years, Huspy has achieved gross merchandise value of more than $2 billion, according to the cofounder.

At only 28 years old, Antoun is experienced in the startup and investor ecosystem. He grew up in Lebanon before moving to the U.S. to attend the University of San Francisco After graduating in

“Depending on the size of the acquisition, we either do [the integration] fast, or we do it a bit slower to optimize, to not lose value.”

applied economics, he joined a healthcare startup, and by 2018 he decided he wanted to get more exposure on investing. That year, he moved to Dubai for a role with BECO Capital, one of the leading venture capitalists in the Middle East, and an early investor in some of the largest techbased companies in the region, including Careem, Property Finder, Kitopi, Swvl, Fresha, and MaxAB. The role gave him the opportunity to study the evolution of tech-based startups. “If you generally look at the impact of tech across industries, it used to be high-volume, low-ticket transactions. So, for example, ridehailing, food delivery, and so forth,” he explains. “With time, it moved a bit more to medium-volume, medium-ticket, like cars. And recently, for the past four or five years, it has moved to low volume, high ticket transactions.”

In 2019, Antoun headed back to San Francisco where he met with Khalid Ashmawy, an EgyptianAmerican software engineer who had been with Uber for three years as a senior tech lead manager. With the right technical expertise as well as business knowledge he became Antoun’s cofounder. They established Huspy in March 2020 and set out to raise capital, but then the pandemic struck. “We started building Huspy just before the lockdown happened, so there was a lot of ambiguity around where the world was going in general,” he recalls. “It was a challenge to even register a company and get a license because everything was shut down.”

To raise initial money, Antoun tapped into his contacts. His first investor was Amir Farha, former Cofounder and Managing Partner at BECO Capital. Farha had also just started his new venture fund, called Champions Of The Underdog (COTU) Ventures. Farha had also been

In just two years, Huspy has achieved gross merchandise value of more than $2 billion, according to the cofounder.

Antoun’s boss at BECO. “Jad had all the ingredients of an incredible founder from the start. He was very thoughtful in building his vision and strategy for Huspy, he was resourceful when finding and building his co-founding team, and he was persistent when dealing with banks in the initial stages of Huspy,” says Farha. “These founder ingredients, alongside a massive and growing market that is broken and highly fragmented, can result in the perfect combination for someone to build something special.”

By early 2022, the company was growing 20% month-on-month. It raised its Series A with a team in place and a solid business model and was able to raise more than first targeted with tier-one global investors. “We were extremely oversubscribed for our Series A round and we feel very blessed. I think what the team did in a year and a half at that stage is a big achievement,” adds Antoun.

As well as growing organically and armed with funding, Huspy has also grown inorganically through three acquisitions in 2022. In January 2022, it acquired Home Matters, one of the oldest mortgage consultants in the U.A.E. In August 2022, it acquired Just Mortgages and Finance Lab, both of which were already partnering with

Huspy. Just Mortgages is a mortgage broker with 15 years of experience, and Finance Lab is a financial advisory firm specializing in lending requirements with a specific focus on mortgages and property transaction consultations in the U.A.E. “Proptech is still early in the adoption cycle and there is still a lot of opportunity to scale over the next few years as the technology is adopted across the market fueled by the large anticipated capital expenditure on mega and giga projects in the region,” says JLL’s Sheth.

Integrating these companies will prove a challenge for the cofounders, given that all three acquisitions were companies that are much older than Huspy. This is a complex process involving the CRM, the data, the product, and the operations. “Depending on the size of the acquisition, we either do [the integration] fast, or we do it a bit slower to optimize, to not lose value,” says Antoun. “But eventually, every single acquisition that we do will operate under the Huspy brand, but also our tech stack and processes.”

made it onto our latest list of the Middle East’s Top 100 Listed Companies, which was published in June 2022.

are as of December 2021.

Huspy is also expanding geographically and outside of the Middle East, with a focus on Europe. In 2022, Huspy launched in Spain. While there are bigger markets to tap, Spain was attractive due to the size of the potential market, and the fact that users are still facing several problems when it comes to buying and financing properties. “The journey of a home buyer is not smooth across the globe. You start on a classified or a portal, then the transaction goes offline quickly,” explains Antoun. “Our goal is to build a platform where a person can find a property, schedule a visit, get a mortgage and close the deal all in one place.” explains Antoun.

Having been an employee, an investor, and a founder, raised millions in capital, and expanded globally, all under the age of 30, Antoun’s goal now is to make Huspy the leading endto-end proptech globally, something like Amazon but in real estate. “I love Huspy,” he insists. “I think it is helping solve one of the hardest problems to crack in the world.”

The Future Is Decentralized

Futurist and tech-entrepreneur, Kazé A. Onguene, explains how his company, Datachain Foundation, is creating a new paradigm and unlocking the true value of data through decentralized data management infrastructure.

Based in Paris, France, Datachain Foundation is currently achieving the development of a fully decentralized data management infrastructure (DDMI) designed for IoT, smart cities, and predictive maintenance. The paradigm underlying Datachain’s DDMI is predicted to become a key component of the upcoming Internet of Everything (IoE) revolution.

By leveraging federative network architecture, the company’s DDMI makes data sovereignty and critical data protection a reality. The underlying decentralized data management infrastructure facilitates peerto-peer digital ecosystem implementation, allowing the secure, structured, and safe exchange of heterogeneous data between individuals and private or public entities.

The internet of the future will require a new paradigm for big data. In order for the internet to keep evolving and reach its full potential, it is important to reshape the way we collect, process, and store data. Moving from centralized information distribution nodes to AIaugmented proximity data centers will help achieve this goal.

The current version of the metaverse is merely a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). And for data scientists, it is just another data visualization tool, with all the

gamification features lacking in Tableau, Qlik Sense, and Klipfolio.

In his cyberpunk novel, Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson coined the term ‘metaverse’ in 1992 to describe an online, VR-ish world where humankind could interact and escape the dystopian unpleasantness of the physical world, or ‘meatspace’. Social and cultural interpretations of Stephenson’s work may have turned our attention away from the true benefits of a persistent AI-augmented information ether. For AI, big data, and blockchain innovators, Dubai is the perfect sandbox in which to test disruptive ideas. Vision coming from the top, through policy-driven innovation zones like Dubai Internet City, works in tandem with business needs at the bottom, enabling engineers and innovators to unleash their creativity and problem-solving skills. Together, they’re transforming

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

cities into a smarter and ultimately conscious environment.

State of the Block is the latest initiative launched by Datachain Foundation.

Dalila Belkhiri, the company’s COO responsible for QCIC, Datachain’s decentralized smart oracle, is gathering some of the greatest minds in AI, digital art, NFT makers, and luxury watchmakers. During the event, these industry experts will share their experiences with AI and blockchain to explore how the use of these technologies is disrupting art, luxury, investment, finance, and the automotive industry.

During this first edition of State of the Block, we unveil how the internet is mutating into a persistent information stream that, when endowed with computation power, will open the era of the ‘internet of outcomes’.

We will highlight how the convergence of AI, big data, and DLT into a metaverse accessible through augmented reality and virtual reality isn’t creating Web 3.0, but rather transmuting the cloud into an interactive ether bringing us into unexplored quantum dimensions.

Kazé A. Onguene, Founder of Datachain Foundation

A Great Getaway

sustainable attractions and hotels to open in the next three years, as well as new attractions like the recently launched and popular Jais Sledder. Towards the end of 2022, Jebel Jais will also open new paragliding and eco-golf facilities.

For us as a 715-key resort, we are already well positioned to cater to the anticipated increase in visitors to the emirate. Our strategy is to constantly monitor what guests want, when they want it, and to deliver exactly that.

How is Rixos Bab Al Bahr and Ras Al Khaimah more broadly contributing to the global drive for sustainability?

Ras Al Khaimah aims to become the regional leader in sustainable tourism by 2025 and recently announced its Balanced Tourism vision aiming to nurture a tourism industry which is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable.

Ras Al Khaimah is taking steps to grow as a tourism hub. What do these developments mean for Rixos Bab Al Bahr?

In 2021, Ras Al Khaimah received nearly one million visitors, not far off the 1.1 million pre-pandemic visitor volume. A large segment of the international market is becoming more aware of Ras Al Khaimah as a tourist destination and choosing this emirate as their preferred vacation destination in the U.A.E.–something which has been confirmed across Accor Group properties based in the emirate.

The emirate hasn’t disappointed as a go-to tourist destination and with the support of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Authority (RAKTDA) will only continue to improve and impress. Already, activities on offer include the classic desert safari, the RAK historical sites tour, the famous Jebel Jais zipline, and the Wadi Shawka pool.

Furthermore, the emirate has announced a strategic vision focused on nature, leisure, adventure, culture and history, and authenticity. Ras Al Khaimah has already invested $136 million into 20

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

In line with this, Rixos Bab Al Bahr has implemented numerous sustainable initiatives including internal waste management systems for crushing cans, glass, carton, and general waste; replacing single-use plastic items with biodegradable ones; and using eco-friendly chemicals. As part of the bigger Accor Group, Rixos Bab Al Bahr aims to eliminate all singleuse plastic by the end of Q1 2023.

Rixos Bab Al Bahr was acquired by Aldar Properties in 2022. How does this affect your short- and longterm plans for the resort?

Opened in 2014, Rixos Bab Al Bahr offers guests an ultra-all-inclusive

Horst Walther-Jones, General Manager of Rixos Bab Al Bahr, explains what makes his hotel a go-to destination for luxury holidays, MICE, and weekend staycations.

Horst Walther-Jones, General Manager of Rixos Bab Al Bahr

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experience including luxurious accommodation, a diverse choice of upscale dining options, and a host of recreational activities and entertainment.

An established staycation destination in Ras Al Khaimah, the property benefits from solid occupancy levels, with significant growth potential as the emirate rolls out progressive initiatives to advance tourism and position Ras Al Khaimah as an international leisure destination. All this made Aldar’s desire to acquire the property an obvious one.

Where the future is concerned, all I can say on the matter is that Aldar has plans to enhance the facilities as part of the deal. Aldar Investment has also secured development rights for an additional 250,000 square feet for residential and commercial use—a clear indication of further development plans. Watch this space and expect an announcement in the first half of next year.

How does Rixos Bab Al Bahr stand out from the competition as a staycation destination?

Rixos Bab Al Bahr manages to stand out without much effort. This most authentic all-inclusive resort in Ras Al Khaimah offers an oasis of relaxation away from the city hustle. We are an award-winning family resort in the truest sense of the term. Rixos Bab Al Bahr is an entertainment hub for the whole family, with daytime games, live music, and evening classic and

original musical shows. The hotel also features seven upscale to casual restaurants, along with six bars and pubs, so we never find a guest whose palette is not catered to.

Speaking of indulgence, limitless fun is on the itinerary all day every day for all-ages with live entertainment, the Rixy Kids Club, Rixy Teens Club, and our exclusive sports club. We also offer eight swimming pools, including an aqua pool, activity pool, adultsonly infinity pool, a children’s dedicated pool and play area, and our Avitane Spa, which offers unique hammam and signature experiences

Marjan Island, where Rixos Bab Al Bahr is located, is the ideal getaway for a weekend and offers numerous luxurious resorts. In addition to being a popular vacation destination, the emirate is also a go-to for MICE events. So, I think based solely on the variety of offerings we provide, we stand out.

How would you define your leadership style?

Having started my career in 1977, I am bringing 44 years of expertise to my role as GM of Rixos

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including Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, the Jumeirah Group, Mariott, and Hyatt International. I worked my way up the ranks, first as Executive Sous Chef to the Director of Food & Beverage and Executive Chef at the Hyatt Cancun Caribe Villas & Resort in Mexico and the Hyatt Regency in Macau, China. Having that wide spectrum of experience is hugely beneficial in my GM role as it brings a comprehensive understanding of the operational side of things, as well as both staff and guest needs.

In my current role, I have spearheaded several initiatives to increase the staff’s productivity and satisfaction. This has not only contributed significantly to the property reaching one of the highest occupancy rates in its history, but has also helped me retain many experienced employees—especially during a time when the pandemic severely disrupted the industry.

I believe being hands-on ensures smoother operations and better workflow. It’s important to me to always be visible and easily accessible to any member of the team.

Bab Al Bahr. I have served in extensive managerial roles working for leading luxury hotels

MENA’S TOP 50 MOST-FUNDED STARTUPS

Despite the global economic downturn, startups in MENA have continued to attract significant funding in 2022, with a total of $3.2 billion raised by the 50 most-funded startups, compared to $3 billion in 2021.

Fintechs reign this year, with 21 companies attracting $1.3 billion in total funding, followed by 10 e-commerce players with $576.7 million, four delivery and mobility startups with $299.6 million, and three logistics firms with $292 million.

The U.A.E. is the most represented country, with 18 startups raising $964 million in total funding. Saudi Arabia follows with 12 startups raising $946.7 million, and Egypt with 11 startups raising $508.5 million.

U.A.E.-based agri-tech business Pure Harvest Smart Farms tops the 2022 list, having raised $387 million in total funding, followed by buy now, pay later Fintechs Tabby and Tamara, which secured $275 million and $216 million, respectively. Ride-hailing, delivery and payment platform Yassir became the most-funded startup in North Africa after securing $150 million this year, bringing its total funding to date to $193.25 million.

While new startups emerge amid the global turmoil, others have witnessed downfalls. For example, Egyptian B2B e-commerce platform Capiter, which raised more than $33 million over a year ago, has been hitting headlines in Egypt since the cofounders of the cash-strapped company were dismissed by its investors in September 2022. Other startups have experienced cost-cuts and layoffs, including Brimore—which raised $25 million earlier this year yet said later it will be restructuring and cutting costs—and Swvl.

Methodology

To qualify for the list, startups had to be no more than seven years old. They had to have raised at least $20 million in total funding. Cut off for funding was November 10, 2022. We excluded startups that were acquired or merged, went public, or didn’t provide sufficient information about funding and investors. New entries are marked with an asterisk (*).

Disclaimer: All data given was provided by the startups. Forbes Middle East holds no responsibility for any investment decisions.

To nominate yourself or someone else for our lists, email: info@forbesmiddleeast.com

1 Pure Harvest Smart Farms

Total funding: $387 million

Technology-enabled agribusiness

Founders: Sky Kurtz, Mahmoud Adi, Robert Kupstas Nationality: American, Emirati, American/Lithuanian Investors: Metric Capital, IMM Investment, Olayan Group, Shorooq Partners, Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), ADQ, Franklin Templeton, Sancta Capital, SHUAA Capital, Wafra International Investment Company, 2040 Fund, Archer Private Investments, other institutional and individual investors

Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2017

Pure Harvest designs, builds, and operates controlledenvironment agriculture growing solutions to sustainably produce fruits and vegetables. It secured $180.5 million in convertible funding in June 2022, led by Metric Capital Partners, IMM Investment Corp, and the Olayan Group. The company operates in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia and is constructing projects in Kuwait and Singapore. In June 2022, the company formed an alliance with the Al Dahra Group, increasing the total operating capacity under its management to over 22 hectares. It sells to retailers, including Carrefour, Spinney’s, and Waitrose, and hotels and restaurants, such as the Four Seasons and the Hilton Group. It plans to expand across the GCC, Southeast Asia, and the Far East.

2 Tabby

Total funding: $275 million

Buy now, pay later platform

Founders: Hosam Arab, Daniil Barkalov Nationality: Canadian, Russian

Investors: Global Founders Capital, STV, Arbor Ventures, Mubadala Investment Company, Delivery Hero, CCVA, Raed Ventures, Global Ventures, MSA Capital, VentureSouq, Outliers VC, JIMCO, HOF, Sequoia Capital India

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2019

Tabby provides buy-now-pay-later solutions to over 2.5 million active shoppers across the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait. It sells over 8,500 brands, including H&M, adidas, IKEA, Bath & Body Works, Nike, and Swarovski. In March 2022, the company raised $54 million, led by Saudi venture capital firm STV and Sequoia Capital India, followed by $150 million in debt financing from Atalaya Capital Management and existing investor Partners for Growth (PFG) in August 2022. In May, Tabby announced the launch of Tabby Card to tap into offline retail.

3 Tamara

Total funding: $216 million

Buy now, pay later platform

Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah, Abdulmohsen Albabtain Nationality: Saudi Investors: Sanabil Investments, Checkout.com, Coatue, Shorooq Partners, Endeavor Catalyst Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2020

Tamara allows online and in-store shoppers in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Kuwait to split their payments across three installments with no fees. Today, it has over four million customers and more than 4,000 partner merchants, including IKEA, SHEIN, adidas, Namshi, and Jarir. It processed transactions of around $275 million in 2021. In August 2022, Tamara raised $100 million in a Series B round. It employs over 270 people across its offices in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Germany, and Vietnam and expects to reach profitability between 2023 and 2024, with a potential IPO in the future.

4 TruKKer

Total

funding: $203 million

Digital freight network

Founders: Gaurav Biswas, Pradeep Mallavarapu

Nationality: Indian

Investors: STV, Investcorp, ADQ, RTF, Mubadala Investment Company

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2016

The truck aggregator operates a fleet of 45,000 trucks and drivers across Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Türkiye, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The startup currently serves over 700 enterprises. In September 2022, TruKKer raised $100 million in a pre-IPO round led by Bahraini investment firm Investcorp with participation from Mubadala Ventures and other investors.

5 Yassir

Total funding: $193.25 million

Ride-hailing, delivery and payment platform

Founder: Noureddine Tayebi

Nationality: Algerian

Investors: BOND, Y Combinator, DN Capital, Quiet Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Stanford Alumni Ventures (Spike Ventures), FJ Labs, other institutional, strategic and angel investors.

Headquarters: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco

Date of establishment: 2017

Yassir, which means “easy” in Arabic, provides three core services: ridehailing, food and grocery delivery, and financial services in six countries and 45 cities across Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and parts of Frenchspeaking Africa. It has more than 100,000 partners, including drivers, couriers, merchants, wholesalers, gig workers, and vendors, serving over eight million users. In November 2022, the startup raised $150 million in a Series B funding round. It plans to expand into multiple geographies within the EMEA region.

6 Rain Management *

Total funding: $118 million

Regulated crypto-asset exchange

Founders: Abdullah Almoaiqel, Yehia Badawy, Adam Nelson, Joseph Dallago

Nationality: Saudi, Egyptian, American, American

Investors: Paradigm, Kleiner Perkins, Coinbase Ventures, Global Founders Capital, MEVP, Cadenza Ventures, JIMCO, CMT Digital Headquarters: Bahrain

Date of establishment: 2017

Rain allows traders to buy, sell, and store approved cryptocurrency across the GCC and Türkiye. In December 2021, the company secured $110 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Paradigm and Kleiner Perkins. Rain Management was licensed as a regulated crypto-asset service provider by the Central Bank of Bahrain in 2019. It has received in-principle approval from ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority for permission to conduct certain regulated financial services activities relating to virtual assets.

7

Sary

Total

funding: $112.5 million

B2B marketplace

Founders: Mohammed Aldossary, Khaled Alsiari Nationality: Saudi Investors: Sanabil Investments, Wafra International Investment, Endeavor Catalyst, VentureSouq, MSA Capital, STV, Raed Ventures, Derayah, Rocketship.vc, Musaab Hakami

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2018

Sary connects small businesses such as minisupermarkets, restaurants, cafes, and hotels with manufacturers via mobile and web apps. It has secured over $112 million in funding, including $105.5 million in 2021. Today, the company has a presence in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan and serves over 70,000 businesses in the F&B sector across MENAP. In February 2022, the PIFbacked startup acquired the Egyptian B2B platform Mowarrid. In March, it bought a significant stake in the Pakistani B2B ecommerce platform “Jugnu” after leading its $22.5 million Series A.

8 MaxAB

Total funding: $102 million

B2B e-commerce platform

Founders: Belal El Megharbel, Mohamed Ben Halim Nationality: Egyptian, Jordanian

Investors: Silver Lake, British International Investment, DisruptAD, BECO Capital, 4DX Ventures, Flourish Ventures, RMBV, IFC, Crystal Stream Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, Endure Capital, Africa Platform Capital, Rise Capital

Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2018

MaxAB is a B2B e-commerce platform that connects food and grocery retailers to suppliers across Egypt and Morocco. By November 2022, it had served over 150,000 retailers and fulfilled more than 2.5 million orders. In June 2022, MaxAB raised $40 million in a pre-Series B round, bringing its total funding to $102 million. The startup plans to use the new funding to expand across the Middle East and North Africa. MaxAB’s cofounders Belal El-Megharbel and Mohamed Ben Halim were featured on Forbes Middle East’s 30 Under 30 2022 list.

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. • Total Funding: $305 million • Number of Startups: 2 * New to list

10 Paymob

Total funding: $68.5 million

Omnichannel payments infrastructure

Founders: Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj, Mostafa Menessy Nationality: Egyptian Investors: Global Ventures, FMO, A15, Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, Clay Point, Helios Investment Partners, Nclude Headquarters: Egypt

Date of establishment: 2015

Paymob enables merchants to accept online and in-store payments. It offers over 40 different payment acceptance methods. It serves over 18 million registered users on its infrastructure railways for mobile wallets and operates in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Kenya, and the U.A.E. It processes transactions for over 150,000 businesses, including Tabby, Foodics, Uber, Vodafone, the Chalhoub Group, and LG as well as SMEs and microbusinesses across MENAP. In November 2021, Paymob partnered with Mastercard to introduce tap-onphone payments, contactless cards, and mobile wallets in Egypt. In May 2022, Paymob raised $50 million in a Series B funding led by Kora Capital and PayPal Ventures, bringing its total funding to $68.5 million.

9 Nana

Total funding: $79 million

Online grocery platform

Founder: Sami Alhelwah Nationality: Saudi Investors: STV, Quencia Capital, MEVP, IMPACT46, FIM Partners, Jahez, Watar Partners, several FMCG companies Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2016

Nana allows shoppers to buy groceries online in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and it plans to expand regionally. In 2022, the startup raised $50 million in funding to expand its “dark store” coverage to reach more than 150 stores in Saudi Arabia. Cofounder and CEO Sami Alhelwah previously cofounded cloud management solutions company Sadeem and e-commerce firm Matajer. He was also the CEO of ExaServe, a cloud service provider.

11 Postpay

Total funding: $63.5 million

Payments solutions provider

Founders: Tariq Sheikh, Dani Molina Carmona Nationality: Mauritian, Spanish Investors: Afterpay, Touch Ventures Ltd, IMPACT46, other investors Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2019

Postpay allows shoppers to split payments across three monthly installments with no interest or fees. It has over a million active users and works with more than 1,500 brands, such as Ounass, Namshi, and Alshaya, as well as other regional merchants. It handled over $500 million in transactions in 2021. As of July 2022, its app had 400,000 downloads. Postpay currently operates across the GCC, including in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia.

12 Zid*

Total funding: $59 million

Retail Enablers

Founders: Mazen AlDarrab, Sultan AlAsmi Nationality: Saudi Investors: Elm, Arzan Agility, MSA, Global Ventures, IMPACT46, Wa’ed Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2017

Zid enables retailers to set up online stores and integrate directly with payment, warehousing, and delivery providers. Its merchant network exceeds 7,500 stores across 19 categories. In October 2022, Zid secured $50 million in a Series B funding round led by IMPACT46. According to Zid, it doubled its revenues from subscriptions and transactions in 2021, with a 50% increase in orders via its merchants by over seven million lifetime consumers. The startup’s solutions include ZidShip for retailers in shipping and ZidPay for payments.

13 Opontia

Total

funding:

$54 million

E-commerce aggregator

Founders: Manfred Meyer, Philip Johnston Nationality: Austrian, British Investors: STV, VentureSouq, Raed Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Hosam Arab, Salman Butt, other investors

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2021

Opontia acquires e-commerce brands and helps them scale, with a focus on businesses in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Europe. It raised $46 million within nine months of launching in 2021, from investors, including STV, Raed Ventures, VentureSouq, Global Founders Capital, Upper90, and Kingsway Capital, among others. The startup has operations in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Poland and employs around 100 people. It has acquired ten brands, including Novimed and Beauty Pillow, and it plans to double that in the next year.

14

Khazna Tech *

Total funding: $50 million

Financial super app

Founders: Omar Saleh, Ahmed Wagueeh, Fatma El Shenawy, Omar Salah Nationality: Egyptian Investors: Quona Capital, Algebra Ventures, Speedinvest, Khwarizmi Ventures, Disruptech, Nclude, Lendable Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2020

Khazna Tech provides financial services to unbanked Egyptians by digitizing cash transactions. It provides diverse financial products, including multipurpose credit, BNPL offline services, peer transfer services, and bill payment services. In April 2022, the company launched its prepaid “Khazna Card” in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank to serve unbanked cardholders. As of November 2022, Khazna had 300,000 active users and employs over 340 people.

15 Trella

Total funding: $49 million

Digital freight marketplace

Founders: Omar Hagrass, Ali El Atrash, Pierre Saad, Muhammad El Garem Nationality: Egyptian Investors: Maersk Growth, Foundation Ventures, Flexport Capital, Raed Ventures, Algebra Ventures, 4DX Ventures, Next Billion Ventures, VentureSouq, Vision Ventures Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2019

Trella is a B2B technology platform and trucking marketplace that connects shippers with carriers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the U.A.E. It has more than 30,000 carrier partners, over 45,000 driver partners, and more than 725 shipping partners, including Amazon, Maersk, Hassan Allam, LG, and Unilever. Trella has raised a total of $49 million, including $31 million in equity funding.

16

Lucky Financial

Total funding: $48 million

Credit products and cashback rewards

Founders: Ayman Essawy, Momtaz Moussa, Marwan Kenawy

Nationality: Egyptian

Investors: Endeavor Catalyst , Lorax capital partners, Nclude, Naspers(PayU), other investors

Headquarters: Egypt

Date of establishment: 2019

Lucky Financial allows users to pay for goods in installments, as well as get discounts and instant cashback from over 40,000 stores, including Jumia, KFC, Hardees, Tradeline, and adidas. It operates in Egypt and Morocco. The startup claims to have more than 10 million users, of which over a million are monthly active users across Egypt. In 2022, the startup raised $28 million in a Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to $48 million.

17 ekar

Total

funding: $45 million

Personal mobility

systems

Founder: Vilhelm Hedberg

Nationality: Norwegian Investors: Polymath Ventures, other investors

Headquarters: U.A.E.

Date of establishment: 2016

ekar offers on-demand access to a network of carshare and subscription leasing vehicles, along with other mobility options, including peer-to-peer rentals. The startup operates across nine cities in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., with a fleet of 3,000 vehicles and 350,000 users. By November 2022, it has facilitated 1.75 million bookings. In 2022, it launched a digital peer-to-peer carshare service in Saudi Arabia, which allows car owners to rent their cars on the ekar platform. ekar partners with companies like Talabat, ENBD, ADCB, Saudi Aramco, Etihad Airways, Emirates Airlines, and leading car rental and leasing companies in the GCC.

Madinaty Golf Club Hosts International Golf Tournament In Egypt

Madinaty Golf Club— owned by the Talaat Moustafa Group—hosted the Asian Tour series from 10 to 13 November, 2022, with the participation of more than 120 international professional golfers and a total prize pool of $1.5 million, becoming the first club of its kind in Egypt to host a world golf championship. This comes as part of Talaat Moustafa Group’s vision to host world championships and events in various sports.

The club provided all necessary elements for participants in the International Series, which is organized under the Asian Tour by IMG, while preparing the course to be up to standard for holding

world-class competitions. The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., one of the world’s most prominent golf course designers.

Global company, Troon International, manages Madinaty Golf Club. One of the leading companies in organizing international golf events, Troon specializes in managing and maintaining golf courses and provided all the equipment throughout the duration of the tournament in cooperation with the Madinaty Golf Club team.

Madinaty Golf Club also provided the capabilities for broadcasting the tournament to 60 international channels around the world, enabling millions of fans to follow the tournament. It was

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

broadcasted in Egypt exclusively on Ontime Sports.

International Acclaim

Cho Minn Thant, Executive Director of the Asian Tour Series; Mohammed Attallah, Board Member of the Egyptian Golf Federation (EGF); Youssef Kadry, Sports and Golf Clubs Commercial Director at Talaat Moustafa Group; and Josh North, General Manager Madinaty Golf Club, participated in a press conference for the Asian Tour Series at Madinaty Golf Club. All participants expressed their admiration for Madinaty Golf Club and its international standards. They also applauded the hospitality in Egypt and the remarkable infrastructure of the club.

Thant described Madinaty Golf Course as spectacular, praising the organization and its readiness to host world-class championships, confirming that choosing Egypt and Madinaty Golf Club was a successful decision.

World No. 8 ranked golfer Bernd Wiesberger expressed his surprise at the high-quality of the golf club and Cairo, stating that he hoped they would play more golf in the city in the future. Egyptian golf champion Issa Abu El-Ela said that he thought holding the championship in Egypt was a wonderful opportunity to motivate the youth and contribute to the development of the sport.

Arab participation in the Asian tour series

A total of 20 players from nine Arab countries participated in the International Series Egypt 2022 tournament. Three players from the region finished in the top 40 in the series, with Jordan’s Shergo Kurdi being the highest placed in the regional representation on T27 with a seven-under total. El Mehdi Fakori, an amateur player from Morocco, came in at T33 on a six-under total, whereas fellow Moroccan, Ayoub Lguirati, came at T37 on a five-under total.

Events to raise Golf awareness in Egypt

In light of the International Series, Madinaty Golf Club, in cooperation with the Egyptian Golf Federation, has held various interesting activities to help develop the level of Egyptian golfers and increase the base of the sport in the country.

These activties have included a training session for young and future golfers, presented by EGF’s Mohammed Attallah, Issa Abou ElEla, and American golf star, Chase Koepka. Around 20 young boys and girls received guidance and tips from the experts before they all participated in a fun competition.

The Asian Tour Series donated $25,000 in support of the EGF youth development program, which aims to promote local talent through a specific path of development, including training programs and a tournament schedule.

Andy Ogletree claims title at International Series Egypt 2022

On the closing day of the tournament, Ashraf Sobhy, Egyptian Minister of Youth and Sports, attended the event and handed the championship cup to the winning player, American golfer Andy Ogletree, in the presence of Cho Minn Thant; the President of the Egyptian Golf Federation, Eng.

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Ayman Hussein; and a number of other members of the federation.

Despite being the first tournament in which he participated as a professional, Ogletree was able to win with a tournament total of 23-under, surpassing Austrian golfer, Bernd Wiesberger, who came in second, with 19 under par. Korean, Jeunghun Wang, came third with 16 under par.

Ogletree expressed his admiration for the level of competition in the tournament, saying that his first trip to Egypt was one he wouldn’t forget.

Ashraf Sobhy said that the country had proven its presence as an outstanding global destination with facilities and infrastructure suitable for leading world-class sporting events and professional players.

Youssef Kadry said that hosting the Asian Tour Series in Madinaty Golf Club was just the beginning as it is preparing to host the Women’s World Squash Championship in December 2022.

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17

Huspy *

Total funding: $45 million

A one-stop proptech platform for buying and financing properties

Founders: Jad Antoun, Khalid Ashmawy

Nationality: Lebanese, Egyptian/ American

Investors: Sequoia Capital India, Founders Fund, Fifth Wall, Chimera Capital, Breyer Capital, VentureFriends, COTU, VentureSouq, BY Venture Partners, Plug and Play, regional family offices

Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2020

Huspy supports home buyers throughout their purchase journey, from finding a property to financing and closing the deal in the U.A.E. and Spain. Its U.A.E.-based partner network includes over 1,400 agents and 250 agencies. Huspy claims to achieve 25% monthly growth, with over $2 billion in gross merchandise value. In June 2022, the startup raised $37 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India. In 2022, Huspy acquired three brokerages in the U.A.E.: Home Matters, Just Mortgages, and Finance Lab.

17 Retailo

Total

funding: $45 million

B2B e-commerce platform

Founders: Muhammad Talha Ansari, Wahaj Ahmed, Muhammad Nowkhaiz.

Nationality: Pakistani Investors: Graphene Ventures, Shorooq Partners, IMM Investment Global, AgFunder, Abercross Holdings

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2020

Retailo digitizes supply chains for SME retailers in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Pakistan. Its warehousing space covers almost 250,000 square feet, with a fleet of more than 500 vehicles serving over 50,000 retailers. The company works with almost 500 brands, including Nestlé, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Reckitt. As of November 2022, it had received over two million orders. In 2022, Retailo acquired the U.A.E.-based B2B platform DXBUY and secured $36 million in a Series A round, bringing its total funding to $45 million.

17 YAP *

Total

funding: $45 million

Financial super app for individuals and businesses

Founders: Marwan Hachem, Anas Zaidan

Nationality: Lebanese, Saudi Investors: Angels, family offices Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2021

The digital banking app offers consumer debit cards, virtual cards with Apple pay and Samsung pay spending analytics, YAP 2 YAP, money transfers, bill payments, and real-time notifications of purchases. In the U.A.E., YAP has partnered with RAKBANK for consumers and the Emirates Development Bank for SMEs. It has onboarded 190,000 users and 8,000 SME partners. In July 2022, it raised $41 million in funding to fuel expansions in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Ghana. Yap has partnered with Bank AlJazira to launch its consumer and business banking platforms in Saudi Arabia in 2023.

Headquarters: Lebanon • Total Funding: $24 million • Number of Startups: 1 * New to list

21 Hala *

Total funding: $43.4 million

Digital financial platform

Founders: Maher Loubieh, Esam Alnahdi Nationality: Lebanese, Saudi Investors: Banque Saudi Fransi, IMPACT46, Wamda Capital, Mazen Al Jubeir , Raed Ventures, MEVP, Mosa Alomran, Abdulkarim Abualnasr Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2017

Hala allows SMEs to digitize their payments and manage their sales and operations. Its services include digital wallets, cards, cashier solutions, and POS devices. The company operates in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. It employs more than 250 people and serves over 40,000 customers. The startup has 35,000 terminals and processed transactions worth $4 billion in 2021. In 2022, it secured $25 million in a pre-Series B round led by Raed Ventures, IMPACT46, and MEVP. Hala is licensed as an EMI Financial Institution by the Saudi Central Bank and as a Fintech company by the Abu Dhabi Global Market.

22

Homzmart

Total funding: $40 million

Online e-commerce platform for home goods and furniture

Founders: Mahmoud Ibrahim, Ibrahim Mohamed Nationality: Egyptian Investors: MSA Capital, STV, Nuwa Capital, IMPACT46, Outliers Venture Capital Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2019

Homzmart connects home goods and furniture manufacturers with end consumers. It employs more than 600 people and has over 2,000 suppliers selling their goods across more than 70 categories, including seven main categories: home furniture, storage, office, décor, kitchen, appliances, and sports. Homzmart launched operations in the Saudi market in early 2022, starting with an online presence. In March 2022, it acquired Berlin-based technology company MockUp Studio to digitize its interior design process, allowing customers to visualize their furniture in their homes before clicking through to buy.

22 iMile Delivery

Total funding: $40 million

Logistics and courier services provider

Founders: Rita Huang Zhen, Naveen Joseph, Gao Wenli, Nancy Chen Nationality: Chinese, Indian, Chinese, Chinese Investors: ByteDance, HK Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2017

iMile Delivery provides logistics and last-mile delivery services to e-commerce companies in 13 countries in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Australia. It raised $40 million in 2021, with investors including TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. In 2022, it launched operations in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, South Africa, Türkiye, and Brazil. iMile’s CEO, Rita Huang, was previously CTO for the Alibaba Joint Venture in Dubai and a country manager for Huawei.

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22

Pyypl *

Total

funding:

$40 million

Mobile-led financial services app

Founders: Antti Arponen, Phil Reynolds Nationality: Finnish; Australian Investors: Confidential Headquarters: U.A.E.

Date of establishment: 2017

Pyypl offers virtual and physical prepaid cards, instant domestic and international user-to-user transfers, and remittances to 38 currency destinations. In November 2022, it secured $20 million in a Series B fundraising round to expand the reach of its digital payments and financial services across the Middle East and Africa. It currently operates in the U.A.E., Bahrain, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Kazakhstan. It aims to be fully operational in more than 20 countries in the next five years. Pyypl claims that its user numbers, transaction volumes, and revenues have grown over four times since its Series A funding round in 2021.

25 MoneyFellows *

Total funding: $38 million

Digitized ROSCA system

Founder: Ahmed Wadi Nationality: Egyptian

Investors: CommerzVentures, Arzan, MEVP, Partech, Sawari Ventures

Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2017

MoneyFellows digitizes money circles or rotating savings and credit associations, widely known as “Gameya” in Arab countries. As of June 2022, its app had been downloaded 3.5 million times, and it had 301,000 active users. In October 2022, the company raised $31 million in a Series B funding round. It aims to expand geographically and diversify its portfolio of services.

26 Shgardi *

Total funding: $37.25 million

On-demand food delivery platform

Founder: Abdulaziz AlMousa

Nationality: Saudi

Investors: Prominent family offices, such as: AL Rajhi, Alswailem, Alhabib, other investors

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2020 Shgardi provides food delivery, grocery, and package services. It works with 650,000 couriers and more than 5,000 stores.

As of November 2022, it had served over three million customers in 85 cities across Saudi Arabia. The startup processes over 1,500 transactions per month and has six offices in Saudi Arabia, and one office in Egypt that handles customer services and tech. Its store app allows stores to accept or reject orders and edit their menu, while its courier app provides instant cash out, live chat support, and map tracking to drivers.

27 Lean Technologies *

Total funding: $37 million

Open Banking platform

Founders: Hisham Al-Falih, Aditya Sarkar, Ashu Gupta

Nationality: Saudi, Indian, Indian

Investors: Sequoia Capital India, Raed Ventures, Shorooq Partners, Outliers VC, Liberty City Ventures, angel investors

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2019

Lean Technologies is an open banking technology service provider that connects companies to their users’ bank accounts to initiate instant payments and retrieve account information. The company says it covers 97% of retail bank accounts in the U.A.E. and it plans to cover all banks in Saudi Arabia by the end of 2022. It has offices in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, and London. Its clients include Binance, e&, Careem, and Sarwa. In January 2022, it raised $33 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.

28 RedSea

Total funding: $36.5 million

Agri-tech startup

Founders: Ryan Lefers, Mark Tester, Derya Baran

Nationality: American, Australian, Turkish

Investors: KAUST, RPDC, Wa’ed Ventures, FII Institute, Global Ventures, Savola, AppHarvest, Bonaventure Capital, UbbenOlsen

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia

Date of establishment: 2017

RedSea enables commercial farming in hot climates. In April 2022, the company secured $18.5 million in a strategic bridge funding round co-led by Wa’ed—the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco and the Savola Group. The fresh capital will fuel its global and regional expansion plans. In January 2022, RedSea expanded into the U.S. and completed a new commercial-scale six-hectare technology retrofit site near Riyadh. The company also has an R&D facility at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal.

29 NymCard *

Total funding: $35 million

Banking-as-a-service platform

Founder: Omar Onsi Nationality: Lebanese Investors: DisruptAD, Reciprocal Ventures, Shorooq Partners, Chimera, DFDF, Knollwood, Endeavor Catalyst, OTF Jasoor Ventures, other investors Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2017

NymCard is a banking-as-a-service platform and card issuer that enables Fintechs, SMEs, and banks to create, control, and distribute virtual and physical cards. The company has a presence in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan. More than 300 Fintechs use its platform and sandbox environment. In June 2022, NymCard raised $22.5 million, bringing its total funding to $35 million. In October 2022, the company was certified by Mastercard as a principal issuer in the U.A.E. Its clients include Samsung, Verity, and Pluto.

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29 VUZ *

Total funding: $35 million

Immersive social video mobile app

Founder: Khaled Zaatarah Nationality: Jordanian Investors: e& Capital, Caruso Ventures, SRMG, Dubai Future District Fund, other investors Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2017

VUZ—previously known as 360VUZ— allows users to stream and experience the digital world in XR and the metaverse. Its library contains more than 20,000 hours of exclusive content, including entertainment, creators, and sports segments and XR, VR, and AR experiences. VUZ claims that its extended reality platform has reached over a billion screen views. It aims to reach three billion screen views in 2023. In October 2022, the company secured $20 million in a Series B funding round. It plans to use the new funding to expand across Asia, Europe, and the U.S. It is also launching Web3 products and NFT projects with an aim to own and trade virtual assets derived from the metaverse.

29

Kaykroo

Total

funding: $35 million

Cloud kitchen platform

Founders: Jihad El Eit, Fawaz Al Otaibi Nationality: Lebanese, Saudi Investors: Abdulmajid Abdulaziz Al Hokair, Abdulrahman Al Rashed, Alkhorayef group, Thara Investment Company , other Investors Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2020

Kaykroo operates 30 cloud kitchens across the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. Over the next four years, it aims to offer 50 million unmatched experiences and double its revenues every year. Its portfolio of brands includes The Good Bowl, Wrapped, Manoushe Street, Sodo, Good Day, and Society Sandwich. The company employs 800 people and has 20 new brands under development.

32 Floward

Total

funding: $34.2 million

Flowers and gifts e-commerce platform

Founders: Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, Mohammed Al Arifi Nationality: Kuwaiti, Saudi Investors: IMPACT46, STV, other investors Headquarters: GCC Date of establishment: 2017

Floward sells fresh-cut flowers, gifts, and products such as cakes, chocolate, and perfumes, offering same-day delivery. It employs more than 1,000 people and operates in 36 cities across nine countries, including the GCC, Egypt, Jordan, and the U.K. The Floward app has been downloaded more than a million times, with over a million customers browsing per month. Floward claims to allocate 1% of its revenue to CSR activities. In September 2022, the company announced its appointment as an official FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 licensee.

33

PaySky *

Total funding: $34 million

Digital payment solutions company

Founder: Waleed Sadek Nationality: Egyptian

Investors: Alfalaj Investment, TBN Investment, strategic investor

Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2017

PaySky provides digital payment solutions to financial institutions, businesses, and individuals across 10 countries, including Egypt, the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan, Libya, Sudan, Uganda, and Botswana.

PaySky helped build the national payment gateways for multiple central banks in MEA. In 2022, PaySky partnered with Visa to launch the Yalla Card and Yalla Super App in the Middle East, with two offerings for individuals and businesses, targeting Egypt, the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. The app was downloaded over 1.7 million times, with more than 1.5 million transactions worth more than $100 million in the first nine months of its launch in Egypt.

35 eyewa

Total funding: $30 million

Eyewear omnichannel direct-to-consumer retailer

Founders: Anass Boumediene, Mehdi Oudghiri, Abdullah Al Rugaib Nationality: Moroccan, Moroccan, Saudi Investors: Kingsway Capital, Nuwa Capital, French Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Derayah, Palm Drive, Hardy Capital, EQ2 Ventures, Wamda Capital, GS Shop, 500 Startups, Khwarizmi Ventures, Faith Capital

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia, U.A.E.

Date of establishment: 2017

eyewa is an eyewear omnichannel direct-to-consumer retailer with operations in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain. It started as a pure-play e-commerce company before expanding into a physical retail network, having opened 16 stores in 2021 in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. It has since built house brands, including lifestyle eyewear brand 30Sundays and fast fashion brand Blackout, as well as natural color contact lens brand Layala.

34 Blnk*

Total funding: $32 million

Digital consumer finance platform

Founders: Amr Sultan, Tarek Elsheikh Nationality: Egyptian Investors: Emirates International Investment Company, Sawari Ventures, other angel investors Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2021

Blnk allows merchants to underwrite and finance their customers’ purchases at the point of sale, with repayments spread over six to 36 monthly installments. It has disbursed over $20 million in loans to date. Its network includes more than 300 merchants with 60,000 active customers. In November 2022, the company raised $32 million, including $23.7 million in equity and debt funding. It also secured $8.3 million in securitized bond issuance. Blnk aims to accelerate financial inclusion within underserved communities across Egypt.

35

justclean

Total funding: $30 million

Digital cleaning service

Founders: Athbi & Nouri Al Enezi, Ahmed Al Morsy Nationality: Kuwaiti, Kuwaiti, Egyptian Investors: Faith Capital, GIC, angels Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2016 justclean was founded as an on-demand laundry marketplace and has since added SaaS and logistics to its business model. Its services also include car wash and home cleaning. It operates in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain, with plans to expand into more of the GCC. justclean works with over 1,500 service providers and serves more than 250,000 customers.

37 Abwaab

Total funding: $27.8 million

Ed-tech platform

Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, Sabri Hakim, Hussein AlSarabi Nationality: Jordanian Investors: BECO Capital, 4DX, GSV Ventures, Watar Partners, EQ2 Ventures, Foundation Ventures, Spartech Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Endure Capital Headquarters: Jordan Date of establishment: 2019

Abwaab aims to improve the learning experience for secondary school students in Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. It offers video lessons, assessments, and performance-tracking features, among other services. Abwaab employs 140 people and helps over two million students. In 2020, it collaborated with Jordan’s Ministry of Education to build “Darsak,” which supported learning continuity for 1.5 million students. In May 2022, the startup launched its “EQUAL: Equal Access to Learning” initiative to educate a million vulnerable students by 2025.

38 Calo *

Total funding: $26.5 million

Personalized meal subscriptions platform

Founders: Ahmed Alrawi, Moayed Almoayed Nationality: Bahraini Investors: STV, Nuwa Capital, Khwarizmi Ventures, Alfaisaliah Group, Vision Ventures Headquarters: Bahrain Date of establishment: 2019

Calo is a direct-to-consumer foodtech startup that offers personalized meal subscription plans through nutritional algorithms. Its app automatically calculates the calories and macronutrients that users need and delivers personalized and ready-to-eat meals portioned to fit their fitness goals. Calo employs over 600 people and operates in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the U.A.E., and Kuwait. The startup secured a pre-Series A funding round of $13 million in November 2022.

39 Expensya

Total funding: $25.6 million

Cloud-based expense management software

Founders: Karim Jouini, Jihed Othmani Nationality: Tunisian Investors: BPI France, ISAI, Seventure Partners, TDR, MAIF Avenir, Silicon Badia, business angels Headquarters: Tunisia, France Date of establishment: 2015

Expensya offers cloudbased expense management software, which automates the business spend management process for more than 6,000 clients, including H&M, Credit Agricole, and Volvo. It is currently used in more than 100 countries with over 600,000 active users. Its partners include Orange, BNP Paribas, Grant Thornton, and Microsoft. In 2021, Expensya raised $20 million from MAIF Avenir, a French innovation capital fund, and Silicon Badia.

39 Okadoc

Total funding: $25.6 million

Patient engagement platform

Founder: Fodhil Benturquia Nationality: French Investors: Basim Ibrahim Hayel Saeed Group, IGan Partners, Alesayi Group, Bupa Arabia, Bunat Ventures Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2018

Okadoc offers instant consultation booking, virtual appointments, and document sharing in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. The company says it saw a 202% increase in appointment bookings between June 2021 and January 2022. Bupa Arabia, Daman, Mediclinic, Emirates Hospital, and Dubai Healthcare City are among the healthcare groups and insurers using Okadoc’s services. The company has acquired several pharmacies in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. It also plans to introduce home healthcare and cloud pharmacy soon. Before launching Okadoc, founder and CEO Fodhil Benturquia was the Group CEO of Noon.com.

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41

baraka *

Total funding: $25 million

Investment platform

Founders: Feras Jalbout, Kunal Taneja Nationality: Canadian, Indian

Investors: Valar Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, Y Combinator, FJ Labs, VentureSouq, Class 5 Global, Global Founders Capital, Raptor Hold Co LLC Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2020

baraka is a commission-free investment app that allows users to invest in over 6,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs without a minimum investment amount. The Robinhood-like startup operates in the DIFC, with plans for expansion across MENA. In 2022, baraka secured $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures. Cofounder and CEO Feras Jalbout was previously an investor at a family office and worked in banking at Barclays and Standard Chartered, while cofounder and CTO Kunal Taneja headed several departments at the digital payment and Fintech solutions company Arab Financial Services.

41 Sarwa

Total

funding:

$25 million

Online independent investment platform

Founders: Mark Chahwan, Nadine Mezher, Jad Sayegh Nationality: Canadian, Lebanese, French Investors: Mubadala Investment Company, 500 Startups, Kuwait Projects Company (Holding)-KIPCO, Shorooq Partners, Middle East Venture Partners Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2017 Sarwa is an investment and personal finance platform that provides a hybrid model with access to on-demand investment experts and a customer support team. The startup employs 50 people and has more than 100,000 registered users. Sarwa Trade is a commission-free stock trading platform that allows investors to trade on all U.S. exchanges with zero-transfer fees for local AED accounts, while Sarwa Crypto is a crypto-trading service where users can buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Sarwa Invest is a hands-off auto-investing service with customized passive globally diversified portfolios.

41 Tarabut Gateway

Total funding: $25 million

Open banking platform

Founder: Abdulla Almoayed Nationality: Bahraini

Investors: Tiger Global Management, Target Global Headquarters: U.A.E.

Date of establishment: 2018

Tarabut Gateway is a regulated open banking platform that provides data and payments infrastructure that enables banks, Fintechs and merchants to build advanced financial products and experiences. The platform has a market presence in Bahrain, the U.A.E., and Saudi Arabia. In May 2022, it announced partnerships with Riyad Bank, Saudi British Bank, Alinma Bank, and Banque Saudi Fransi. The company claims to have acquired 90% bank coverage in Bahrain.

41 Telda *

Total

funding:

Financial Services

$25 million

Founders: Ahmed Sabbah, Youssef Sholqamy

Nationality: Egyptian

Investors: Sequoia Capital, Global Founders Capital, Block Inc., Class 5 Global Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2021

Telda is a money app that allows users to create an account and receive a free Telda card to use online and in stores. Its card allows users to withdraw cash from ATMs, pay bills online, and send and receive money for free. The startup operates in Egypt in partnership with Banque du Caire and Mastercard. It has onboarded 80,000 cards to date and has a waiting list of 200,000 customers. In October 2022, Telda raised $20 million in a seed funding round. Cofounder, Ahmed Sabbah, was also the cofounder and chief technical officer of Swvl.

45 Toters

Total funding: $24 million

Q-commerce delivery tech platform

Founders: Tamim Khalfa, Nael Halwani Nationality: Canadian, Lebanese Investors: IFC, BY Venture Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Caruso Ventures, Merit Ventures, March Holding, Saks Capital, Phoenician Funds, MEVP, Azure Fund, Saned Partners

Headquarters: Lebanon Date of establishment: 2017

45 Rasan

Total

funding: $24 million

Insurtech and banking solutions

Founders: Moayad Alfallaj, Suliman Alfallaj, Thamer Alfallaj, Ayman Alfallaj

Nationality: Saudi Investors: IMPACT46

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Date of establishment: 2016

Rasan offers insurance and banking solutions through Tameeni Motor, Tameeni SME Health, Awalmazad Motor Auctions, and TrezaMotor Leasing. It has eight million users. Tameeni enables retail customers to compare insurance prices and coverage, then select and pay for a policy. Treza supports vehicle leasing teams at banks. Rasan launched Awal Mazad, an online auction platform for bidding on vehicles in Saudi Arabia. The company operates in Egypt, the U.A.E., and Saudi Arabia. In 2021, customers used the platform to buy insurance policies worth over $674 million.

Toters connects customers with retailers and local couriers to deliver goods from any grocery store, restaurant, or other retail shops in Lebanon and Iraq. With over 600 employees, the startup operates in 10 cities with 4,000 partners. It has more than 500,000 customers. Toters also operates a chain of dark grocery warehouses, “Toters Fresh,” which deliver within 15 minutes. In June 2022, Toters closed an $18 million Series B funding round led by the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.

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47

Thndr *

Total funding: $22 million

Digital investment platform

Founders: Ahmad Hammouda, Seif Amr

Nationality: Egyptian

Investors: Tiger Global, Prosus Ventures, BECO Capital, Y Combinator, 4DX Ventures, Endure Capital, Rabacap, MSA Capital, Global Ventures, JIMCO, fristminuite, Base Capital, other investors

Headquarters: Egypt Date of establishment: 2020

Launched in late 2020, Thndr is a digital investment platform that allows users to invest in Egyptian mutual funds and publicly listed companies in addition to the U.S. stock market. Thndr has more than 800,000 downloads. The startup has partnered with Fawry and Vodafone Cash to expand funding methods for customers. Cofounder and CEO Ahmad Hammouda is a former general manager of Uber in Egypt, while Cofounder and COO, Seif Amr, is a former operations manager of Uber MENA.

48 Grubtech

Total funding: $21.9 million

Cloud kitchen and restaurant management platform

Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed, Mohamed Hamedi, Omar Rifai Nationality: American, British, American

Investors: Family offices, Addition, Oryx Fund, BY Ventures Partners

Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2019

Grubtech is an end-to-end solution for restaurants and cloud kitchens, which offers cloud-based POS, online order integration, inventory management, and in-house delivery management, among other services. It operates in 20 countries and serves more than 2,500 restaurants, with more than eight million orders delivered. Grubtech has witnessed an annual growth of 300% in a number of locations, with over $150 million processed through its system. Its clients include Subway, Dunkin, REEF, Freshii, Majid Al Futtaim, and Zooba.

Sector: Edtech

Sector: Social media

• Total Funding: $27.8 million • Number of Startups: 1

• Total Funding: $35 million

• Number of Startups: 1 * New to list

49 Seez*

Total funding: $21 million

Auto marketplace

Founders: Tarek Kabrit, Andrew Kabrit Nationality: Lebanese, Danish Investors: Wamda Capital, B&Y, Phoenician Capital, Crealize Ventures, Nuwa Capital, angel investors Headquarters: U.A.E. and Denmark

Date of establishment: 2015

Seez is a vertical SaaS platform offering e-commerce functionality to car dealers. The startup has over 2.6 million users on its mobile app in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, with more than 1.6 million cars viewed monthly. It is also available in Denmark and plans to launch in Portugal. Seez uses AI technology to offer image recognition, negotiations, and car valuations, among other services. It has worked with the RTA to develop digital car registration using blockchain technology.

50 GluCare.Health

Total funding: $20 million

Hybrid digital therapeutics company

Founders: Ali Hashemi, Ihsan Almarzooqi Nationality: American, Emirati Investors: Polymath Ventures Headquarters: U.A.E. Date of establishment: 2020

GluCare.Health treats metabolic disorders, including diabetes and obesity, through its hyper-personalized care pathway, which comprises both in-clinic and virtual continuous metabolic monitoring. Through its platform, patients can connect with a care team remotely, monitoring a range of parameters in real-time. In June 2022, the company launched an obesity program in partnership with Novo Nordisk, to act as a companion platform to their drug therapies. In August 2022, it launched an insurance-free subscription program for diabetics. It plans to launch a virtualized “clinicin-the-cloud” medicated obesity program in Q1 2023 called Zone Health.

A Memorable Stay Amidst Maldivian Charm

Traveling to the Maldives, which is known for being a paradise on Earth, is everyone’s dream. When someone mentions the Maldives, you instantly imagine the turquoise ocean and the sound of waves, the clear sky, the golden sands, and the mesmerizing green nature. To make this dream come true, the JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa, located on the

island of Shaviyani Atoll, is one of the most wonderful options for a holiday in the Maldives. Here you can be sure you’ll have a memorable trip, whether on your own, with your family, with friends, or for a special honeymoon.

A Welcoming Reception

The adventure to the resort begins with boarding a water plane. The trip may take about 55 minutes, but you will not have time to get bored, thanks to the breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean, the endless

This content was created in partnership with the JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa.

sky, and the clouds floating past. Once you reach the island, you will be warmly welcomed by the resort’s team, who will offer you tropical, cold drinks and greet you with a delightful performance of applauses, drums, and necklaces made of palm leaves. It is an unforgettable experience.

Perfect Accommodation Surrounded By Nature

The resort is a simply perfect destination for leisure travelers to experience a piece of heaven on

Earth, surrounded by lush natural green trees, plants, and flowers. There are 61 magnificent villas, including beach and overwater pool villas and duplexes—all with their own private pools—for a great time and convenient stay suitable for everyone and all occasions.

Located within a few steps of the sandy beach, the luxurious duplex beach villas are ideal for families. They feature two bedrooms, one with a king-sized bed and one children’s room, separate bathrooms, a secondfloor lounge, and a balcony overlooking a stunning sea vista. The villas are equipped with all the appliances and amenities you might need and are designed with exquisite taste, reflecting the Maldivian culture. You can enjoy the best family time in a pleasant and distinctive natural setting

This content was created in partnership with the JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa.

that floods you with the fresh smell of the ocean while the sound of waves helps you relax and feel the embrace of nature.

The overwater pool villas offer great views of the open ocean through large glass windows. The villas are equipped with a large bed, modern appliances, indoor and outdoor bathrooms, and a terrace with a private pool, including sun loungers, where you can watch sunsets and sunrises. Alternatively, you can choose to head towards steps that lead straight into the turquoise sea for when you feel like swimming.

A Range Of Tastes

The resort is home to a wide selection of restaurants where you can enjoy various delicacies and international cuisine, as well as three bars. You can start your day with a varied and delicious

breakfast that suits all tastes and ages at the Aailaa restaurant. It serves mouthwatering food throughout the day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—that can be enjoyed on its open-air terrace overlooking the sea. Taste the flavors of delicious Italian specialties such as pasta and pizza at Fiamma’s outdoor restaurant by the pool and sip tropical drinks at the Horizon bar in one of its fun swinging seats. Enjoy exquisite and unique Thai cuisine at Kaashi, the Thai restaurant set in a stunning treetop location for a cool air breeze and panoramic views. Next door, the Rum Baan bar offers delicious cocktails. Don’t forget to try the serene Shio restaurant, featuring a variety of delicious meats and fresh seafood, and a magnificent location with a balcony above the ocean, ideal for a romantic dinner under

This content was created in partnership with the JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa.

the stars. Also situated over the water, Wabi Sabi offers Japaneseinspired and signature smoked cocktails, including Japanese sakes and teas. No journey to the Maldives is complete without experiencing a floating breakfast in your own pool, which will remain a beautiful memory. Or you can have an amazing experience by spending an unforgettable night

on the beach, tasting Maldivian cuisine, dancing, and singing under the moonlight, amidst candles, lanterns, and flowers, feeling as if you were in paradise.

Endless Entertainment For Kids And Adults

The island offers many activities that are suitable for families, groups of friends, and couples. Choosing the right activities to share with your family is fun. There are individual or group activities, such as yoga and cooking classes, in addition to adventure sports, such as kayaking, flying jet skis, sailing, and many others. You can also book daily trips to watch the wildlife up close, such as dolphins, or you can practice diving and fishing.

If you are concerned with keeping your children entertained throughout the duration of the trip,

the JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa has its own Little Griffins Kids’ Club, which is one of the largest clubs for children in the Maldives. It offers lots of recreational and educational activities, endless fun and interesting classes, from arts and crafts to learning how to make pizza and decorate cakes. The club also offers children the chance to explore the island, get involved in treasure hunts, and practice yoga and various sports. When the kids work up an appetite, the Little Griffins Kids’ Club serves up delicious meals too. Last but not least, the club has a private and secure children’s pool and a pirate ship that children can enjoy, allowing their parents some time to relax and rejuvenate.

Treat Your Senses

For some peaceful relaxation away from the stress of travel and daily

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life, you will find a quiet sanctuary in the spa and treatment rooms that have been built to sit just above the surface of the water. Among other things, you can enjoy a massage that suits the needs and nature of your body from specialists in the field. The massage room is beautiful, serene, and fragrant, with soothing aromas of flowers. For more relaxation and energy regeneration, you can do yoga at sunrise or sunset. Don’t miss out on the sensation.

Staying at the JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa is truly an unforgettable traveling experience that uncovers the natural beauty of the Maldives.

THOUGHTS ON

Inspiration

My friends are my inspiration, and all of them are true friends that support me. On a daily basis, I know that I have my friends to rely on.

Reem Acra

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

Queen Elizabeth II

Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire teammates and customers.

Robin S. Sharma

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

Elon Musk

I take inspiration from everyone and everything. I’m inspired by current champions, former champions, true competitors, people dedicated to their dream, hard workers, dreamers, believers, achievers.

Conor McGregor

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

Ella Fitzgerald

Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.

Madeleine L’Engle

When I was CEO, and I’d listen to music, a lot of people listen to music and you get inspiration from it. And a lot of things in hip hop are very instructive for being in business. Particularly, hip hop is a lot about business, and so it was very useful for me in any job.

Ben Horowitz

No matter how many people say you can’t do something, use that as inspiration to prove them wrong.

Eddie the Eagle

Inspiration is some mysterious blessing which happens when the wheels are turning smoothly.

Quentin Blake

We’re taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they’re of equal value to happiness, excitement and inspiration.

Alanis Morissette

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.

Igor Stravinsky

PHOTO BY STEVE REIGATE / POOL / AFP

Queen Elizabeth II