Is a competitive funding landscape good for the ecosystem?

Is a competitive funding landscape good for the ecosystem?

Covid-19 has been the ultimate stress test for all businesses, including startups and venture capital (VC) firms. While the pandemic has played havoc across financial markets, tech investors continue to pour money into startups they find promising and have a clear path to profitability - albeit at a lower valuation these days. 

In 2020, total investments raised by the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) startups fell 7 per cent year-on-year to $654 million according to Wamda, the result of a more cautious investment community. 

Most investments in the second half of 2020 focused on the pre-seed and seed rounds, yet despite the smaller cheque sizes, investors continue to remain bullish on the early stage startups with high growth prospects. Throughout the past year, several new VCs and angel networks have launched their own early-stage focused funds in order to help startups raise investment while capitalising upon the region's growing tech market -  a trend that's likely to continue this year. 

To understand the startup funding scene better and how competition might play out in the technology sector, we spoke with Issa Aghbi, founder and managing partner of the recently-launched early stage venture capital fund, Access Bridge Ventures (ABV).

Aghabi brings 25 years' experience