February Frenzy: UAE Startups Shine as Funding Soars
This month, the startup scene is making major headway in the UAE. Startup companies are slaying the funding scene with many raising impressive investments. The boost in funding is going to propel each of these companies to grow and expand, making a bigger impact on the UAE startup scene.
Let’s meet this month’s All-Stars:
The Cloud
Brought to life in 2019 by entrepreneurs Georges Karam and Kamil Rogalinski, The Cloud is a third-generation cloud kitchen that basically turns restaurants into cloud kitchens.
Accomplishment: They raised $12 M in funding from MENA Moonshots, which they plan to use to grow in Saudi Arabia, as well as Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK.
What Do They Do: They help underutilized restaurants cook on behalf of multiple brands. “We hope to become the Airbnb of restaurants,” Karam told L’Orient Today.
GameCentric
Creating one of the most sought-after gaming platforms in the UAE, gaming industry powerhouse Saad Khan launched GameCentric in 2023. The gaming platform is dedicated to offering immersive gaming experiences for all types of gamers.
Accomplishment: They earned a major investment of $1.5 M in funding from angel investors.
What Do They Do: GameCentric is the ultimate gaming hub for all players, as it’s home to a diverse array of games spanning multiple genres. It places many gaming brands at the forefront for MENA gamers.
Thiqa Tutoring
Picture an all-around online tutoring service that goes above and beyond to make the lives of tutors and students that much easier. That’s Thiqa Tutoring, the UAE’s trailblazing education platform that came to the fore back in 2022. Hamdan Karmustaji and Omar Bakri are the masterminds behind it.
Accomplishment: They successfully raised $300k in funding from Hope Ventures and angel investors.
What Do They Do: Offering all-around tutoring services, the platform offers a wide range of tutoring options that include home tutoring, online tutoring, and, very soon, VR tutoring. They even include customized matchmaking services where they pair tutors with students based on their needs and preferences.
Revent
Crazy price tags are a common occurrence in Dubai shopping malls, especially the shops selling electronics. That’s where Revent comes in, an online re-sale marketplace platform of used electronics that only gets sourced from qualified buyers. Entrepreneurs Dhananjay Choubey and Baldeep Singh brought it to life in 2022.
Accomplishment: They were able to raise $180k from Orbit Startups.
What Do They Do: They offer a platform that re-sells used electronics and has its own TrueCheck, a cloud-based quality assessment tool that evaluates electronic devices to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions.
Kema
Lebanese serial entrepreneur and start-up investor Michael Ghandour created the Saas platform Kema back in 2023 as a way to help B2B SMEs accelerate cash flow and, at the same time, save them time and money.
Accomplishment: They earned a major investment of $2 M.
What Do They Do: When breaking down what Kema does, it basically transforms how businesses sell to one another by digitizing and streamlining the invoice-to-cash process.
These are major investments that’ll help each of these startup companies reach new heights and become leading powerhouses in the region.
