#Saudi #startups - Saudi Arabia issued licences to six start-up entities that have collectively pledged to invest up to $608.25 million and create 2,400 jobs, The companies include imVentures, a Riyadh-based venture capital fund, and Silicon Valley-based early stage accelerator Plug and Play. (The National)

#Saudi #funding - Digital health platform Altibbi has announced raising $44 million in series B fund, led by Foundation Holdings, Hikma Ventures and DASH Ventures, to drive its growth in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. (Arab News)

#Israel #UAE #funding - Israeli startup Beewise, a developer of robotic beehives, pulled in an $80 million investment for its automated solution aimed at saving global bee populations. New York-based Insight Partners led the Series C round, which also included Sanad Abu Dhabi. (Times of Israel)

#Egypt #funding - FlapKap, an Egypt-based startup that provides AI-powered analytics for e-commerce, has raised $1.2 million in a funding round led by Egyptian venture capital firm A15. (Further Africa)

#Egypt funding - Egypt-based robo-advisory startup Xpovi, has launched after raising a $300,000 pre-Seed round led by a group of angel investors led by StrategicAngel Investors. (Wamda)

#Israel #UAE #funding - A new venture capital fund with a target of $100 million was launched last week by Synaptech Capital. Pitched as the first Emirati-Israeli venture capital fund, it plans to invest in Israeli and Emirati start-ups developing cybersecurity, smart city, insure-tech, fintech and public safety technologies. (Jerusalem Post)

#UAE #funding - Dubai accounts for 57 percent of scaleup funding in the Middle East and North Africa, and it is home to 39 percent of the region’s scaleups, according to a new report from Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy. (Emirates News Agency)

#Saudi #startups - Six new business licences and two MoUs were announced by Ministry of Investment in Saudi Arabia (MISA) at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), including an agreement with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) to support startups. (Saudi Gazette)

#Jordan #startups - Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global) in cooperation with Stallion AI Group launched the ‘Artificial Intelligence Entrepreneur Championship’ in Jordan. The programme is certified by the US-based Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the AIQOM Platform. (Zawya)

#Saudi #startups - Saudi-based AI-powered fashion marketplace startup Taffi Inc. is planning to launch its new platform, following a recent seed funding round. The marketplace allows stylists to manage their clients online and acquire new ones. (Arab News)

#Saudi #AVs - Navya Group, the French autonomous mobility systems startup, has signed a distribution agreement for its driverless shuttles with Electromin, a Saudi emobility turn-key solutions company wholly owned by Petromin Corporation, Saudi’s leading lubricants company. (BusinessWire)

#UAE #robotaxis - Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority and Cruise yesterday unveiled the Cruise Origin for the first time in the Middle East, on the first day of the World Government Summit at Expo 2020 Dubai. (Linkedin)

#Saudi #Arabic - The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) has published an Arabic / English language glossary of artificial intelligence and data terms. Download glossary here. (Linkedin)

#UAE #digitaleducation - Khalifa University will launch six specialisations on Coursera in the second half of 2022, including machine learning and deep learning methods: from data to decisions; and AI for executives. (Gulf Business)

#UAE #skills - Synaptech Capital is in the process of setting up with Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) a coding, hacking, cyber, AI and distributed ledger technology education academy. (ITP)

#UAE #GCC #AIpolicy - UNESCO‘s Regional Center for Educational Planning and UNESCO Headquarters are launching an Arabic language version of tjhe guidance for policy-makers in AI and education today at 12PM GST. (UNESCO)

#Morocco #ethics - Morocco has implemented the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommendations on the ethics of AI. (Morocco World News)

#Saudi #smartcities - A new white paper on Urban Tech, commissioned by Mastercard in partnership with Arabnet, is shining a spotlight on how Saudi Arabia’s e-government, tourism, healthcare, and transit sectors stand to benefit from smart city use cases in the Kingdom. Download the report here. (Zawya)

#UAE #WGS2022 - Chairman and CEO of IBM Arvind Krishna, told Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Teleworking Applications that greater adoption of AI in the UAE could bring up to $200 billion in productivity gains by 2030. (Zawya)

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