Investment Details and Beneficiaries
Oraseya Capital, the venture capital arm of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ), announced more than $1 million of investment in seven innovative tech startups. With the funding round closed at the end of SANDBOX’s fourth accelerator program, each of the selected startups is set to receive USD 150,000 (AED 570,000).
PC: Arabian Business
The startups benefiting from this latest round of investments include:
- Qureos: A recruitment technology startup looking to bring automation to the hiring process.
- Herogo: A subscription-based sustainable food technology offering fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Lisan: A deeptech generative AI company specialising in Arabic linguistics.
- Sthrive: A B2B SaaS platform designed to drive sales and employee performance for retailers.
- Zoya: A Fintech startup aimed at making halal investment accessible for Muslims worldwide.
- JobEscape: Productivity startup using AI tools to upskill freelancers, employees.
- Opteam: An AI-powered venture in optimising project management in the construction sector.
Key Milestones and Strategic Importance
He shed light on his experience of the success of Oraseya Capital within a short period since it was founded in the back end of 2023 as well. Being Vice President – Corporate Finance and Treasury at DIEZ and Partner at Oraseya Capital as well, Waheed emphasised the interest level on SANDBOX and the accelerator programme and how innovative the projects that have been backed are.
“The variety of ideas and, most importantly, the various ambitious projects that we have seen today underscores the significance of this initiative towards contributing to the development of SMEs in different sectors”, commented Waheed.
Current and Future Investments
In addition to the most recent investments, Oraseya Capital has further fortified its portfolio by leading an investment round in Growdash, a Dubai-based SaaS platform designed to help marketing and operations in the restaurant space. The venture capital firm also participated in other start-up rounds, such as those of:
- RemotePass: An HR tech platform that simplifies the management of remote teams.
- iSchool: An EdTech startup focusing on equipping the youth with essential digital skills.
SANDBOX Accelerator Program
SANDBOX is part of Oraseya Capital—it is a five-month program run in two phases. Furthermore, startups can receive up to 50 hours of workshops in financial analytics, marketing strategies, and legal compliance. Participants get over 30 hours of mentoring with domain experts and exposure to about a dozen investors from the region.
The fifth edition of SANDBOX will take place in September 2024 and has confirmed over 1,100 applications, which confirms the growing reach and influence of the program.
Conclusion
Recent investments by Orasi Capital demonstrate its commitment to the development of technology startups and to building an innovative business community within Dubai’s rapidly growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. This available funding with SANDBOX and support in other initiatives demonstrates that Oraseya Capital is strategically shaped to provide grass-root backing to enterprises with enormous growth potential and transformative ideas.
