UAE e-scooter start-up backed by Israeli venture capitalist - The National
A new UAE-based micro-mobility business has landed $3.8 million in seed funding from an Israeli venture capitalist.
Fenix, founded by former directors of e-scooter firm Circ Jaideep Dhanoa and IQ Sayed, will soon begin operations in Abu Dhabi. It is being backed by Maniv Mobility in what is the first venture investment into a UAE company by an Israel-based VC.
“As a result of the new friendship that has emerged since normalisation between the UAE and Israel, we were grateful to meet the team at Maniv Mobility and now benefit from working with some of the most talented and experienced global investors and tech entrepreneurs in the mobility space," Mr Dhanoa said. "We hope this investment is just the start of a cross-pollination of talent, capital and innovation between the nations that can only be an accelerant in the development of a true Middle Eastern tech ecosystem.”
Mr Dhanoa and Mr Sayed first met while working at Dubai-based Careem, where Mr Sayed worked in engineering and Mr Dhanoa was part of its strategy team. Mr Dhanoa subsequently worked at Singapore-based mobility firm Grab and Mr Sayed at Lyft's Autonomous Driving team in Munich, but the pair reunited as co-founders at Circ – a Berlin-based e-scooter hire firm that also operated in the UAE. Circ was acquired by US-based competitor Bird in January.
The shared micro-mobility market – offering e-scooters and electric bikes for hire – is growing rapidly and is expected to be worth between $300 billion and $500bn across the US, Europe and China by 2030, according to CBInsights. Start-ups in the sector have attracted about $5.3bn in funding since 2015, the US-based research firm said in a recent report.
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