Endeavor Entrepreneurs, Endeavor Catalyst Highlighted as Major Players in MENA’s Entrepreneurship Boom

With recent investments from Amazon and China’s Didi Chuxing in MENA scale-ups Souq.com and Careem, international attention is turning the region, whose reputation as a hotbed for entrepreneurship is growing rapidly. Forbes Middle East identified 13 companies led by Endeavor Entrepreneurs, and Endeavor Catalyst, among those paving the way on the publication’s 2017 lists of the top companies and most active investors in the Arab world.

On Forbes Middle East’s list of the “Top 100 Startups in the Arab World,” six of the top ten companies ranked are led by Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Shipping logistics company Fetchr, led by Endeavor UAE Entrepreneur Idriss Al Rifai and music streaming giant Anghami, led by Endeavor Lebanon Entrepreneurs Eddy Maroun and Elie Habib, were ranked 1 and 2 respectively, with Saudi Arabia’s PayTabs, Egypt’s Vezeeta, UAE’s Mumzworld, and Jordan’s ArabiaWeather, also highlighted among the top leaders.

UAE’s ReserveOut and Souqalmal.com, Jordan’s MadfooatCom and Tamatem, Lebanon’s Scriptr and Energy24, and Egypt’s Eventtus also appeared in the top 100. See the full ranking here.

The magazine also released a list of the “50 Most Active Investors in the Arab World,” which identified Endeavor Catalyst as the top investor from outside the region, and sixteenth overall based on number of deals and total capital invested. Endeavor Catalyst has made ten investments in MENA, which is now one of the fastest-growing regions of investment for the Silicon Valley-based fund. Over the past two years, Endeavor Catalyst has invested in many of the leading companies identified by Forbes, such as Fetchr, Anghami, Mumzworld and Vezeeta.