Between the Abu Dhabi Blockchain Centre’s new $100M VC fund, Tether’s AED stablecoin announcement, and new funding for Kem (Tether) and Mithu (Adaverse), this week's episode of the VC React Podcast feels like we're back in 2021 all over again as Web3 shunts AI off centre stage (for this week at least).
We also explored new financing options for startups in the MENA region, such as revenue-based financing and invoice factoring, in light of Pakistani startup PostEx which offers financial and logistics services to online merchants, securing a $7.3 million pre-Series A round to aid their expansion to Saudi.
To wrap up we quickly touched on the competitive loyalty cards and cash back space in Saudi, and Resal's $9m dollars series A round.
This week Ahmad and I were delighted to be joined by the excellent:
Arnav Danthi (Principal at Nuwa Capital)
Fatima A. (Associate at Plug and Play Tech Center)
We covered:
📌 Gate Ventures of Gate.io and The Blockchain Center Abu Dhabi launch a $100m global Web3 innovation fund: "Falcon Gate Ventures"
📌 Kuwait’s Kem secures $3 million investment from Tether.io
📌 Mithu | مِتهو Raises USD 500K in Pre-Seed Funding from Adaverse
📌 Tether.io wants to launch a new stablecoin pegged to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Dirham (AED) in partnership with Green Arcon Investments Ltd and Phoenix Group PLC
📌 Pakistan’s PostEx to expand into GCC after securing $7.3 million pre-Series
📌 resal Garners $9 Million Investment to Accelerate Growth within the Kingdom
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