The Capital Quest | Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures backs UAE’s Baraka; DataLexing, KLAIM get seed money

On Nov 17, 2022

The UAE-based fintech baraka has closed a $20 million Series A round led by Valar Ventures. This is the first investment in the region by the venture capital firm.

Valar Ventures, backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was also joined in the round by investment firm Knollwood.

Founded in 2021 by Feras Jalbout, baraka is a platform offering commission-free investing in more than 6,000 US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETF). The fintech is currently working with local stock exchanges and regulators to enable access to local market trading on its app.

With this new investment, baraka will double down on its presence across the Gulf region and Egypt, and drive customer acquisition. The company will continue to evolve its app with new services anticipated to launch over the next 12 months including access to features like dividend reinvestment plans and extended hours trading.

Baraka is a Y Combinator-backed company and is also a part of Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, Hub 71. Its investors include regional and global VCs such as Class 5 Global, Global Founders Capital, and VentureSouq.

Valar Ventures has previously backed global fintech unicorns such as Wise, N26 and BitPanda, amongst others.

KLAIM

Venture investor firm Knuru Capital said it will provide UAE-based healthcare fintech startup KLAIM with a $5 million seed investment via a securitized financing structure to help scale its receivable purchase operations.

KLAIM, which provides working capital to small and mid-size healthcare providers, said it plans to increase the round to over $30 million by way of a pool of Sharia-compliant investors.

It will use the funding to support KLAIM’s medical claims receivable purchasing solution, which allows healthcare providers to access working capital by selling their insurance claims that are pending payment and typically settled between 60 and 112 days.

DataLexing

Saudi Arabia-based productivity platform DataLexing has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Sadu Capital, with participation from Impact46 and some unnamed investors.

Founded in 2018 by Rayan Alfaheid and Abdulelah Alganas, DataLexing helps organisations and individuals acquire data without relying on technical personnel, by bringing insights, apps, notifications, forms, and sheets together in one place.

The startup will use the funding to expand its regional operations and for product development.