MENA Investors' Forecasts for 2018: Noor Shawwa, Managing Director, Endeavor UAE Investors are out with their forecasts for the MENA entrepreneurial ecosystem money and they are bullish, to say the least.

By Tamara Pupic • Jan 2, 2018

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We picked the brains of investors looking at the Arab world for their expectations of the MENA entrepreneurial landscape in 2018, and their thoughts on sectors that we should keep an eye on next year. Here's what Noor Shawwa, Managing Director, Endeavor UAE, told us.

"I expect more investment in certain markets in the MENA region, especially in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, as well as the stabilization of consumer tech funding and an increase in funding in fintech and healthtech. I see these as the two biggest trends, both globally and in the region. In addition, I expect to see the beginning of the MENA region's investment into enterprise software (B2B) companies, following the trend we have seen in the US, Europe, and other emerging/growth markets. The VC investments in the region are likely to start flowing more into enterprise software models which always tend to be the second "wave" of scale-ups that get built after the consumer plays. Lastly, some consolidation/ exits in the consumer space, namely bigger players buying smaller ones and/or companies merging/partnering- I do expect more of this in 2018."