Month: February 2023

Flat6Labs, the MENA region’s leading seed and early-stage venture capital firm, hosted its 18th and 19th cycle startups on February 15th, 2023, at the Flat6Labs 2023 Demo Day in Cairo at the Grand Egyptian Museum. This Demo Day event introduced 12 growth-driven tech startups from the Flat6Labs Seed Program in Cairo, operating in an array of industries, namely Fintech, SaaS, E-commerce, Transportation, Food and Beverage, AgriTech, AI & Machine Learning, Recruitment, and EdTech. The portfolio companies showcased their innovative products and solutions to an audience of more than 500 attendees, including investors from Egypt and the region, representatives from our partners, and enablers in the startup ecosystem.

This Demo Day event marked the culmination of the 5 year investment period of the Flat6Labs Accelerator Company (FAC) Fund in Egypt, where Flat6Labs has successfully invested EGP 152M in seed and follow-on funding in 91 startups, 47% of which raised EGP 1.1Bn in follow-on funding.

Flat6Labs’ CIO, Dina el-Shenoufy said, “I’m proud to say that Flat6Labs has played a pivotal role in stimulating the Egyptian economy through the investments we’ve made over the past 5 years, supporting 200+ entrepreneurs in 16 different industries, creating over 81,500 indirect jobs and over 1,700 direct jobs, 31% of which are held by women. We look forward to continuing to support our 91 innovative portfolio startups, being part of their growth journey, and making an even bigger impact across Africa and the region.”

Over the course of the last year of the Cairo Seed Program, the Flat6Labs team has been working closely with the 12 startups, helping them develop their core business solutions and expand their operations by offering them business and technical training and mentorship sessions led by some of the best business leaders and industry experts in Egypt and the region.

The Flat6Labs 2023 Demo Day in Cairo was sponsored by our partner, SANAD Entrepreneurship Academy.

The 12 startups that showcased in the Flat6Labs 2023 Demo Day in Cairo are:

FilTareeq:

Facilitating the order delivery process for small and medium sellers.

HUMM:

Humm is a food-focused multimedia company at the intersection of tech, e-commerce, and the creator economy.

WellPal:

We are the only Online Healthy Food Marketplace.

Seater:

A tech-based transportation services solution for uniformly transporting commuters, students, and supply fleets for companies.

Copal:

The Friends and Family money application.

TechieMatter:

MENA’s leading tech recruitment web solution trusted by 100s of companies in 10+ countries worldwide.

BabRizk:

BabRizk is the first blue collar recruitment application with loyalty programs and fintech services.

BaytMisr:

Facilitating and Automating Mortgage Financing Online.

Fuelin:

Fuelin is a smart platform to help Companies better manage and monitor their fleet fuel consumption.

Agel:

Sharia-compliant trade finance platform, availing working capital merchandise credit limits to empower small business growth.

Katteb:

Katteb is an AI Writer that consistently learns. It can write about any recent or future events using state of the art AI technology.

Melior:

Melior is a straight-forward, effective, and robust patient engagement software.

Flat6Labs, the MENA region’s leading seed and early-stage venture capital firm, and PwC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide support to start-ups with high growth potential in the region.

“Flat6Labs has a proven track record in carefully vetting out and investing in promising start-ups, and thereby enabling thousands of passionate founders to achieve their daring ambitions, while supporting the region’s flourishing entrepreneurship ecosystem,” said Yehia Houry, Chief Program Officer at Flat6Labs. “Our partnership with PwC plays to the strengths of both our organisations, with the end result being significant value to our portfolio start-ups, as well as to enterprises across the region that will stand to benefit from the disruptive innovations they bring to market.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Flat6Labs will work to identify and position start-ups from its portfolio as potential solution providers under PwC. Initially, the focus of this endeavour will be on startups that operate across the rapidly evolving financial services and telco sectors. The companies will also set up a joint working group that will engage with prospective enterprises and priority clients to develop corporate innovation programs and innovation challenges.

World-class mentorship is a defining element of Flat6Labs’ incubator programs across the region, and the MoU seeks to strengthen the company’s value propositions in this area as well. PwC’s sector and industry experts will participate as coaches, mentors, and trainers in various Flat6Labs programs, thereby giving start-ups unrivalled access to some of the industry’s foremost advisors and thought leaders. PwC Middle East will also extend its unparalleled expertise to Flat6Labs start-ups in preparing for and navigating the later stage funding rounds, from Series A, all the way up to IPO preparedness, having worked with over 20 global unicorns.

Mark Stanley, Financial Services Partner at PwC Middle East said, “Our strategic partnership with Flat6Labs is part of PwC’s Ventures strategy and indicative of our commitment to growing capabilities beyond our own, empowering start-ups and building a world-class regional ecosystem. We believe there is untapped talent and disruptive capabilities in start-ups that lack access to the established industry incumbents that PwC proudly serves. The established VCs operating in this region are a really effective route to source, qualify and partner with these emerging startups. Together with Flat6Labs, we will mobilise our strategy through execution capabilities, to help our clients design, build and scale new ventures, powered by the market’s leading startups.”

To date, Flat6Labs has invested in 355 start-ups through its various programs across the MENA region. Collectively, these firms have gone on to raise over US$180million in funding and many of these organisations are today enterprise-scale businesses that continue to pioneer advancements in their respective sectors.

Flat6Labs announces the first close of the “Startup Seed Fund” in Saudi Arabia, with the participation of the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), subsidiary of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Bank, one of the development banks affiliated with the National Development Fund, and the “Jada” Fund of Funds, wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF). The fund enables startups to receive follow-on funding up to SAR 2.4 million, and the support and training programs provided by the program for select companies.

The Startup Seed Fund is a SAR 75 million fund dedicated to invest in early stage startups operating in the technology and innovation sectors within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The fund will adopt a highly diversified, systematic investment plan that aims to reduce the risks faced by venture capital and reduce the administrative and legal costs incurred by early-stage startups.

The fund aims to develop the capabilities of more than 180 entrepreneurs, create more than 6,000 jobs in the private sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and enable Saudi companies to expand in the region through Flat6Labs regional offices. This will contribute to completing the structural transformation that the Kingdom aspires to by increasing the share of the digital economy in GDP and enhancing the contribution of the non-oil private sector.

The first cycle of the Flat6Labs seed program has successfully started in Riyadh, investing in 10 innovative Saudi startups, with an investment value exceeding SAR 500,000 per startup. Selected startups also received a 4-month entrepreneurship training program that focused on several commercial, administrative, financial, and legal axes.

The first cycle of the Flat6Labs seed program in Riyadh saw startups operating in various industries, such as software as a system (SaaS), fintech, e-commerce, and EdTech.

Flat6Labs continues to support Saudi entrepreneurs, and we are accepting applications for the second cycle of the Flat6Labs seed program in Riyadh. The program supports a new batch of startups located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that seek opportunities for expansion and investment we offer to startups in the Middle East and North Africa region.