Meet The Three Middle East Startups That Became Unicorns In 2023
With three new companies hitting a valuation of $1 billion or more in 2023, the Middle East now boasts a total of seven unicorns. Here are the fresh faces of the unicorn club, joining Saudi’s Jahez and the U.A.E.’s Vista Global, Kitopi, and Dubizzle Group
• Tabby
Country: Saudi Arabia Valuation: $1.5 billion
Date of establishment: 2019 Date of becoming a unicorn: November 1, 2023
Fintech startup Tabby allows shoppers across Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Kuwait to split payments into several installments. It was cofounded in 2019 by CEO Hosam Arab and COO Daniil Barkalov. On November 1, 2023, Tabby announced a $200 million Series D funding round, valuing the company at over $1.5 billion ahead of its planned IPO in Saudi Arabia. The funding round was led by Wellington Management, with participation from Bluepool Capital in addition to existing investors such as STV and Mubadala Capital. With the recent financing, Tabby seeks to strengthen its balance sheet to meet the increasing demand for its flagship buy now, pay later solution, which handles an annual transaction volume exceeding $6 billion. Currently, the company has 10 million users and works with over 30,000 brands.
• MNT-Halan
Country: Egypt
Valuation: $1 billion
Date of establishment: 2018 Date of becoming a unicorn: February 1, 2023 MNT-Halan, established in 2018 by Mounir Nakhla and Ahmed Mohsen, emerged with the aim of providing digital banking services to the unbanked. It has since served over seven million customers in Egypt, including more than 1.5 million active users every quarter. This customer base comprises five million financial clients and 2.5 million borrowers. In February 2023, MNT-Halan announced that Chimera Abu Dhabi had invested more than $200 million in equity in exchange for over 20% of the company. The company also raised $140 million through two securitized bond issuances, boosting the company’s valuation to hit the $1 billion mark. The startup also revealed a securitized bond issuance worth $130 million through Cl Capital in early November 2023.
• Tamara
Country: Saudi Arabia Valuation: $1 billion
Date of establishment: 2020 Date of becoming a unicorn: December 18, 2023 Tamara provides buy-now-pay-later (BPNL) solutions to over 10 million users and over 30,000 merchants across Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Kuwait. The Fintech secured $340 million in a Series C equity funding round on December 18, 2023, bringing its valuation to the $1 billion mark. This round was co-led by SNB Capital, Sanabil Investments, a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) with participation from other investors. The recent funding round follows the company’s securing additional debt financing to upsize its warehouse facility to up to $400 million, led by Goldman Sachs and Shorooq Partners in November 2023. With those recent transactions, Tamara will have raised a total of $500 million in equity funding, and well above $400 million in debt financing since its inception in late 2020.
Note: Previous Middle East unicorns, Swvl, Careem, Yalla Group, and Fawry, are either no longer members of the unicorn club or have since been acquired.