The MENAT region's investment landscape is significantly shaped by a diverse array of investors, each playing a key role in driving entrepreneurship, innovation, and supporting startups along their development journey. These top ten investors include:
Sovereign Wealth Funds are instrumental in providing substantial capital inflows, enabling large-scale investments that drive regional economic growth and support ambitious, high-impact ventures.
Venture Capital Firms are vital in offering early to growth-stage funding, mentoring, and strategic support to startups, nurturing innovation, and fostering a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Angel Investors provide crucial seed funding and early-stage investment, bridging the gap between idea conception and venture capital funding, thereby playing a critical role in the initial growth phases of startups.
Six out of these ten leading investors are headquartered in the UAE, collectively deploying nearly US $37 billion across $571 funding rounds, supporting 609 startups. These UAE-based investors are pivotal in positioning the country as a central hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in the MENAT region, driving technological advancement and economic diversification through their substantial and strategic investments.
Dubai's Venture Capital Ecosystem
There are 749 scale-ups that have raised over US $1 million in fundraising in the Middle East and North Africa region; collectively raising over US $19.5 billion, cumulatively, as of December 2022. Over 40% of these scale-ups call Dubai home.