News Update
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In the past couple of years, the startup scene in Lebanon has enjoyed a flagrant acceleration. With large funds appearing more often in the startup ecosystem, it’s sometimes hard to keep up with all the news. We’ve rounded up some of the latest major updates for you:
Major Updates:
Y Venture Partners is an early stage investment and advisory firm that mainly works with tech entrepreneurs. They invest at seed level and follow up on capital through multiple investments rounds up to $100k. They support their portfolio clients with time and effort by being very hands-on and provide mentorship. They have already invested in two companies, SerVme (restaurant reservations and analytics platform), and OnLivery (mobile app for food delivery).
Saned Partners is a sector-agnostic regional VC fund of $5 million that will double soon, offering a ticket size of $100k to $300k. Approximately 30% of their investments are intended for Lebanese companies and they often co-invest with Wamda Ventures. They have already funded Kharabeesh, a Jordanian company that produces Arabic animations, music videos and talk shows; and Instabeat, a Lebanon-based company that produces a swimming device that monitors heart rate among other
Major News:
MEVP announced its 331-compliant IMPACT fund in a signing ceremony on Saturday, co-sponsored by BLOM Invest Bank and MedSecurities Investment. MEVP has $56 million total commitments and its ticket size ranges from $500K to $5M. They have already invested $12.5M in 5 companies: Mobinets, Fuel Powered, Fadel Partners, Klangoo, and BookWitty.
Berytech got BDL clearance for their $30 million, 331-compliant fund on August 7th but the closing process is still ongoing and Berytech Fund II still has not be incorporated. The fund is expected to be fully operational in Q1 2015. Their ticket size is $500k to $3M and focus on ICT, digital content, movies, music, fashion, jewelry, accessories, and renewable energy.
Leap Ventures, set up by Hala Fadel and Henri Asseily got BDL clearance for their $50 million, 331-compliant fund on Friday. The ticket size is expected to go from $3M to $7M.
The Lebanese Parliament has passed the iSME law on October 1st after a 3-year delay, clearing the acceptance of a $30 million loan by the World Bank to encourage investments in innovative ideas and early-stage companies. The fund is to be administered by Kafalat. However, since there is currently no President in Lebanon, the law required 24 Ministers to sign the law before it may be published in the Official Gazette and only 22 Ministers have signed it thus far.
Wamda Ventures is approaching the closing of its $75 million regional fund, investing mainly in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and the GCC.
Tech accelerator Speed Lebanon launched on September 15 and will accept its first batch of companies in early 2015. Seed cash injection will be $50k, and the accelerator will be hosted in Beirut Digital District. The Board of Directors is comprised of Fadi Bizri, Maroun Chammas, Walid Hanna, Abdallah Jabbour. The CEO is an Irish serial tech entrepreneur who has gone through 2 accelerator programs in Ireland and the US.
With a quickly-growing regional startup ecosystem, banks and VCs are quickly gathering the funds to get behind these rising start. There is much to look forward to, and if you have you own startup, now is your chance to get proper funding.
