Digital entrepreneurship and innovation remain focal points for government leaders across the MENA region as they develop their economic strategies. This investment report aims to help investors and policymakers to measure and identify the strengths and gaps in their ecosystems, while monitoring the impact of their policies and programs. The report covers more than 150 funding institutions and 760 transactions that took place between 2013 and 2016. The MENA region witnessed a record year in technology start-up funding in 2016 with more than 30 new investment institutions launched and more than $900 million invested, equaling more than the value of all investments between 2013 and 2015 combined (approximately $750 million). The report analyzes year-on-year digital investment trends in the MENA such as information on investors, investments, inactive versus active start-ups, number of female founders in funded start-ups and corporate investors. This is an annual report, which endeavors on updating both its historical and current data thus ensuring that the analysis is more robust and the findings are more comprehensive. The report utilized three data collection methods. First, findings are based on data collected from 75 investors and accelerators in the MENA region. Second, the report aggregated information from publicly available data. Third, the report collected new data from start-ups through surveys. All investments analyzed in the report are for equity-based investments only, and therefore institutions that provide grant or non-equity funding have not been included in the analysis. Hence, the paper will tackle three main themes related to technology investments in the MENA region. These four themes include: (1) investors in MENA, (2) investors in MENA by ticket size, (3) investments in MENA, and (4) valley of death.
Keywords: digital, technology, investors, investments, start-ups