MENA (ex. Israel) VC Funding still Skewed Towards Early Stage Startups vs Global Averages

According to a new study published by STV, the largest privately-held technology VC investment firm in the MENA region, there is a growing growth-stage funding gap in the MENA region amounting to $20 billion over the next few years.

Though 59% of UAE startup fundraising goes towards growth stage startups, this is still well-below the global average of 74%.

The UAE's startup ecosystem is past the infancy or nascent stage, and is now well developed over the past 15-20 years; thus, STV suggests that this indicates an impending funding gap for growth stage startups.

The gap is even larger in Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, where only 46% and 22% of funding, respectively, is going towards growth stage startups.

India has the largest % of VC funding deployment going to growth stage startups.