Qatar Venture Capital Funding Expands 135% In 2024: QDB

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar's VC (venture capital) funding reported a remarkable 135% year-on-year rise to an all-time high of QR115mn in 2024, defying 19% and 29% decline globally and in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region respectively, according to Qatar Venture investment Report, sponsored by Qatar Development bank (QDB).
“Qatar now ranks the fourth most transacted country in the region, capturing 5% of the region's total deals. Additionally, Qatar has climbed to sixth place in terms of total funding of Mena's venture capital funding in 2024, four times of it share in 2023,” Abdulrahman Hesham al-Sowaidi, QDB chief executive officer, said in the report, which has been made in collaboration with MAGNiTT, a leading platform for research.
QDB continued to be a key player in the Qatari VC space maintaining its growth in 2024, amidst regional investment slowdown. Over the past nine years, QDB has invested QR302.4mn, and invested in eight funds.
Despite regional VC contractions, Qatar secured QR115mn in funding in 2024, recording a five-year compound annual growth rate of 32%. At the same time, deals rose by 24% year-on-year in 2024, surpassing Mena's average growth of deals of 7%.
Similar to the performance across the overall Mena region, the $1mn-$5mn rounds size saw a 19% increase, accounting for 35% of total deals in Qatar, a record high share, planting the seeds for future deal flow.
Fintech retained dominance as most transacted industry, securing 29% of Qatar's deals in 2024, up from 12% in 2023, it said, the share of fintech to total funding in Qatar improved from 14% in 2023 to 41% in 2024.
Fintech captured QR46mn in funding, three times more than aerospace and defence and healthtech, the second and third ranked industries. This was attributed to the sector capturing three of the top five deals in the country.
Meanwhile, aerospace and defence, and transport and logistics, each saw their funding entirely driven by one standout deal, which was EMMA Systems in aerospace and defence and Pass Delivery in transport and logistics.
Finding that the top five deals accounted for 48% of Qatar's 2024 funding, highlighting a lower concentration of capital in larger deals; it said the deals secured QR55mn, twice the total of top five deals in 2023, reflecting a growing maturity of investments in the Qatar venture space.
Emma Solutions led with QR15mn, representing the largest disclosed deal, while QDB invested in two of the top five deals, it said.
QDB-backed deals underscore its pivotal role in strengthening Qatar's funding ecosystem. Through initiatives like the Startup Qatar Investment Programme and pacts with Global Ventures and Raed Ventures in 2024, QDB provided startups with essential financing, training, and international exposure, fuelling Qatar's record-breaking funding growth.
QDB was the biggest contributor to deals in the Qatari VC space in 2024, backing 20 of the 31 deals closed. Corporates including holding companies continued solidifying their participation in the Qatari VC space (63% of total investors).
While Qatari investors accounted for the biggest share of investors in 2024, the ecosystem saw global participation from Singapore's Fingular and US-based Vertex Energy and Trading.
Highlighting that the participation of the private sector and local and international investment funds has witnessed“exceptional” growth in the venture investment ecosystem in Qatar; it said 2024 was an exceptional year as the total investments of the private sector and investment funds in Qatari startups reached 57% of the total investments for the year, recording a growth of more than three times against 2020.
This major development in the ecosystem supports the achievement of the 2030 goals for Qatar. The VC ecosystem aspires to increase the participation of the private sector and investment funds in the space to 70%.

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