Venture capital (VC) deals climbed to their highest level ever in emerging venture markets in 2021, increasing 267 percent compared to 2020, according to a new report.
Emerging venture markets include the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey.
In 2021, investment into emerging venture markets hit $6.8 billion, the inaugural edition of the MAGNiTT Emerging Venture Markets Report found, the highest level ever. The year was also a record one for mega-deals of $100 million-plus, with the number of these deals increasing 924 percent over 2020 and accounting for 42 percent of all capital raised across emerging venture markets in 2021.
“2021 has in fact been more than just a record-breaking year for VCs, rather it has been a defining year. While the global pandemic posed great pressures on governments, private sectors, and startup ecosystems alike; the year 2021 marked the resurgence of VC activity tenfold,” Philip Bahoshy, CEO & Founder of MAGNiTT said in a statement.
Turkey and the UAE together accounted for 44 percent of all venture capital invested. In MENA, one mega-deal was closed by a UAE, Egyptian, and Saudi start-up respectively.
Fintech was the leading industry across all emerging venture markets and attracted the most venture capital investment. Of all deals closed, 21 percent were for fintech firms, accounting for 31 percent of all funding raised. In Africa, all five mega-deals closed were for fintech deals.
“2021 has been an extraordinary year for the region’s venture capital industry. Between fundraising and deal-making, MENA’s ecosystem was in hyperdrive this year. Whether it is record-breaking amounts of funding, growing appetites for later-stage transactions, the rising occurrence of diversified deal types (from M&A to venture debt) or the increasing number of mega-rounds, the region is signalling maturity. Underpinning these quantitative metrics is a pool of increasingly sophisticated entrepreneurs building world-class tech solutions and proving, year in and year out, that some of the most exciting opportunities of tomorrow will originate from emerging markets,” Basil Moftah, General Partner, Global ventures said.
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