500 Global and Sanabil Investments announce Batch 5 of the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — 500 Global, a leading multi-stage venture capital firm, and Sanabil Investments, a financial investment company focused on global private investments in venture capital, growth, and small buyouts, today unveiled the 14 startups in Batch 5 of the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program 2023.

The final set of companies that have been chosen are focused on developing solutions within a diverse range of sectors, including Fintech, Foodtech, SaaS, ML & Software, E-Commerce, and Proptech. Applicants come from the Middle East & North Africa, with Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt as the top three countries. The 14 companies chosen were selected out of more than 610 applicants from MENA – making it one of the most competitive Batches since the inception of the Program.

The Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program provides pre-seed and seed-stage startups across the Middle East and North Africa with the foundation they need to validate and scale their business regionally and globally. More than 50 companies have already graduated from the program.

“We have been closely working with Batch 5 founders since March 2023 to help them pave their way to success. They join the 54 companies that have already graduated from the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program since our launch back in early 2021. Despite global economic headwinds, we continue to strongly believe in the potential of the Saudi and MENA startup ecosystem,” said Amal Dokhan, General Partner at 500 Global MENA.

“We continue to see growing interest in the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Program as a new generation of entrepreneurs looks to develop their ideas and scale their businesses for success here and abroad. We’re attracting and enabling the brightest minds and best technologies that are improving the lives of people around the world, fortifying the economy and making the world a better place for all. We can’t wait to show the region and the world this next wave of innovators, thinkers, and builders,” said a Sanabil spokesperson.

The 12-week program offers founders one-on-one mentorship with a focus on business strategy development, fundraising and growth. It culminates on June 14, 2023 with Demo Day at The Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh, in front of a live audience of key stakeholders, including accredited investors, corporates, and industry professionals. The event will also be livestreamed to a general audience on YouTube.

The following is the list of Batch 5 companies that have made it through to the final round:

Barakah (Saudi Arabia): Online marketplace for food retailers to sell their surplus products and meals.
Blassa (Tunisia): Optimizes the collection of user delivery information to help eCommerce players eliminate delivery failures and increase conversion rates.
byanat (Oman): Offers a SaaS analytics platform for telcos and utilities to scale and maintain their connected infrastructure.
CADO (UAE): Marketing tool for corporates to send custom gifts to their employees and clients, while being able to measure ROI.
Dillx (Egypt): Automates investment due diligence to mitigate risk and maximize returns.
Fintesa (Jordan): SaaS platform that allows any business to compliantly collect payments in over 200 countries for their products and services in just 10 minutes.
Konn (Jordan): SaaS platform that enables real estate developers to build fully customized homes.
LISAN (Saudi Arabia): AI-writing assistant that detects errors, understands and generates high quality content in Arabic.
LivLyt (UAE): Tech subscriptions platform that helps businesses to select and manage devices and software for their teams.
LNKO (Morocco): D2C eyewear offering affordably priced trendy eyewear by digitizing the optical value chain.
NoBueno (UAE): A talent matching platform that perfectly pairs the right companies with the right candidates.
Qardy (Egypt): A lending marketplace in MENA for Financial Institutions to fund Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises.
Sadq (Saudi Arabia): Enables individuals and businesses to execute and verify documents online to make them legally binding in seconds.
Taskheer (Saudi Arabia): An online platform that facilitates ROSCA deals and guarantees timely payments.