ⓘ Featured image: Anghami co-founders; Elie Habib (L) and Eddy Maroun (R)
Lebanon-based leading music streaming platform Anghami, on Tuesday, announced that the startup has raised fresh funds from SHUAA Capital, Dubai-based asset management and investment banking firm. The financials of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2012 by Eddy Maroun (CEO) and Elie Habib (CTO), Anghami is the first and now the leading music streaming platform in the Middle East and North Africa region. The company claims that at present it has the largest catalogue of over 50 million songs – serving over 70 million users. Starting from Beirut, the company now has established offices across Dubai, Cairo, and Riyadh as well.
Speaking of the development for Anghami, Jassim Alseddiqi, CEO of SHUAA Capital, in a statement said,
“We are delighted to have led the funding of Anghami. As a team, we have been working closely with Anghami, bringing our expertise in originating and structuring deals to bear in order to successfully complete this investment round. Anghami is ideally aligned with our investment criteria, having been the first music streaming platform here in the region in 2012 and delivering exponential growth since then. At SHUAA Capital, we continue to seek out investments with the potential to create significant value for our investors and for our investee companies such as Anghami. This is a continuation of our investment journey into the technology space and we are keen to invest in technology solutions and services.”
Elie Habib, Co-founder of Anghami, stated,
“As Anghami continues to target rapid growth and penetration, combined with our dedicated focus on profitability, we are delighted to have secured the support of SHUAA Capital and its co-investors in this latest round. Having last raised funds in 2016, it was important for us to partner with the right investors, who understand our region and our growth model, and that is what SHUAA Capital and its co-investors represent for us.”
According to the statement published on SHUAA Capital’s blog, in 2019, Anghami saw the platform deliver 10 billion music streams and according to recent research by Grand View, the global music streaming market is expected to deliver continued growth, with the Middle East and Africa expected to achieve a CAGR of over 21.0% from 2020 to 2027 (compared with 17.8% for the overall global CAGR).
As listed on Crunchbase, Anghami last raised a total of $14.3 million disclosed funds across various rounds until now. The company last year pledged $3 million to support SMEs during COVID-19 crisis.
Back in October 2020, SHUAA Capital launched three Sharia-compliant funds as Shuaa High Yield Sukuk Fund, Nujoom Aggressive Fund, and Nujoom Balanced Fund.
