4 Top Funded Startups in Bahrain

Many countries in the region are vying to become the next startup hub – entrepreneurship and innovation have become a hot topic and have taken a forefront when it comes to the government agenda. One of the countries that has launched multiple initiatives to foster local entrepreneurship and attract foreign talent and startups, is Bahrain.

One of the flagship Bahraini initiatives is the $100 million Al Waha Fund of Funds, which has already deployed 50% of its capital in local venture capital firms such as 500 Startups, BECO Capital and Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), since its launch in 2018.

Moreover, there are many other local initiatives by the island country, including the Bahrain FinTech Bay, the local FinTech sandbox, and the SeedFuel accelerator launched by the Bahrain Development Bank (BDB), among others.

Not only that, international accelerator programmes, such as Egyptian Flat6Labs and Hong Kong-based Brinc, have also set up in Bahrain to accelerate startups locally. With all these efforts locally and internationally, startups in Bahrain have received ample support to grow and scale into other markets.

We looked at the top 4 funded startups in Bahrain, that look to do exactly that—expand and grow into full-blown scalable ventures.

The top-funded Bahraini startup is Eat, which is active in one of the favourite industries in the region: food and beverage. Eat is one of the Middle East's fastest-growing real-time reservation platforms for restaurants, and has seated more than 3.5 million diners across 1,200 restaurants internationally.

Since being founded in 2015 by David Feuillard and Nezar Kadhem, the startup has raised $4.2 million in venture capital funding, including investment from well-renowned venture capital investors, 500 Startups and Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP).

One of the largest challenges in the region is employment. On one side, there is a lack of talent that wants to join startups, and on the other hand, hungry candidates that cannot find the job that they are looking for.

Bahrain-based OneGCC is an employment platform that focuses on solving that exact problem by matching job seekers with job opportunities. However, the platform gives it an interesting spin, as it does so based on not only the person’s skills, but also their personalities.

Since its inception in 2016 by Alharith Alatawi, the company has raised $2.5 million in funding from London-based investor C5 Accelerate.

Another Bahraini startup that uses cutting-edge technology is WNNA, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide users with an intuitive personal recommendation engine.

The applications of the WNNA app are very diverse, as it recommends activities one could do based on the decisions they would usually make. For example, it could provide recommendations regarding listening to music, watching movies, eating, and much more.

With its app, WNNA has been able to secure $235K in total funding by a variety of investors, including local accelerator program Flat6Labs Bahrain and SeedFuel-Rowad.

Last, but not least, on the list is another Flat6Labs cohort graduate: Inagrab. The Bahraini startup offers a platform that helps retail enterprises scale their business with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics.

In an ever-increasing data-based world, it becomes increasingly difficult to come to insights for your business, as the amount of information available keeps increasing. With its product, Inagrab aids retail businesses gain insights into these vast amounts of data, which helps them grow and scale.