The Venture Codex

Participated · Series B · Oct 2022

VUZ builds and distributes immersive, 360-degree video experiences for live events and creator content, viewable on mobile apps, the web, VR headsets like Apple Vision Pro and Oculus, and smart TVs. The company has signed exclusive immersive streaming deals with La Liga and the Professional Fighters League and works with over 100 content creators whose combined audience reach tops 100 million. VUZ has crossed 15 million users globally (up from 10 million in 2022) and now logs nearly 3 billion screen views (up from 1 billion); it says it doubled revenue over the past two years and posted an 80% increase in gross profit last year. The startup reached profitability in 2023 and shifted its content mix from roughly 70% free to about 60% free and 40% premium, monetized via annual subscriptions and telecom bundles. Its creator-focused operating model trains and equips freelance reporters and creators with proprietary cameras and supports them via an internal VUZ Studio to reduce production costs and speed editing. VUZ plans to double down in Saudi Arabia and the UAE while accelerating expansion into Africa, Asia, and the U.S.; it has over 40 telecom partnerships, offices in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and the U.S., is building teams in India and Indonesia, and is live in Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria with a South Africa launch planned later this year. VUZ is a platform that offers premium immersive content—more than 20,000 hours—covering entertainment, creators, sports and XR/VR/AR experiences accessible via iOS, Android, headsets and web. The app provides 360-degree live streams including live events, concerts, celebrity interviews and masterclasses; about 70% of content is free (monetized with ads) while exclusive content is sold for $4–$8. Founder and CEO Khaled Zaatarah says VUZ has reached over 10 million users and more than 1 billion screen views since launch, with 44% of views from the Middle East, 32% from the U.S. and 24% from Egypt. The company reports roughly 10% month-on-month recurring revenue growth and top creators have generated over 100 million views globally. VUZ plans to expand internationally (including scaling its Los Angeles office), invest in content and senior hires, add new social features, launch web3 products and NFT projects, and scale into eight new markets using asset-light operations. Partnerships and integration with 45 telecom operators are cited as a backbone for its global expansion. 360VUZ operates a live-stream 360° VR video app that connects users across more than 15 countries. Led by founder and CEO Khaled Zaatarah, the company offers immersive video experiences and holds a U.S. patent related to augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual control and new advertising solutions. The company plans to use new funds to further develop its immersive video app technology, scale the business, expand its global reach, and deliver more personalized experiences along with additional proprietary technologies. 360VUZ has offices in Dubai, Los Angeles and Riyadh and employs a team of more than 30 people. Financially, the Series A increases the company’s total amount raised to $7M to date.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2022

Jar operates a mobile savings app that lets users save small amounts and invest primarily in digital gold. The app offers features like roundups, recurring savings and one-time executions to make saving easy and habitual. Since launching a year ago Jar has amassed over 9 million registered users, clocks over 220,000 transactions daily, and is growing about 20% month over month while spending less than $1.5 to acquire each user. The startup employs about 90 people and is hiring roughly 50 more as it prepares to expand its product suite. Jar plans to roll out insurance, mutual funds, secured and unsecured lending, fixed deposits, peer-to-peer loans and other offerings in the coming quarters. Financially the company recently closed a $22.6 million Series B, is valued at over $300 million and says the new funding extends its runway by three years; it has raised more than $58 million to date. Jar is a seven-month-old Bengaluru-based fintech startup that operates an app which rounds up users' daily spend and invests the spare change into digital gold backed by equivalent physical gold. Users can withdraw the equivalent physical gold or liquidate their investments at any time. The app has amassed over 4 million users, 99% of whom are investing for the first time. Jar raised $4.5 million in seed funding last year and has now completed a $32 million Series A. The new funding values the company at over $200 million, according to sources. The founders say they are expanding beyond digital gold to offer more financial instruments, and plan to introduce lending and insurance to users in the coming months. Jar is an Indian mobile app that helps users begin a savings and investing habit with amounts as small as 1 Indian rupee. The three-month-old Android app enables recurring micro-investments via Paytm using UPI 2.0 and is working on PhonePe support. Jar rounds up users' transactions by gleaning text messages to save spare change, offers manual top-ups, and currently routes saved money into digital gold. The founders chose gold because of the broad trust the asset class enjoys across India, and they plan to offer additional investment instruments over time. The app has amassed about half a million downloads and reports transactions and assets under management growing roughly 350% month-over-month. Jar was founded earlier this year by Nishchay AG and Misbah Ashraf and plans to broaden its product offerings in the near term.

Led · Series B · May 2022

Joi Gifts operates an online gifts marketplace serving the MENAT region. The platform has added features such as the ability to send NFTs purchasable by credit card and an Express Gift Delivery service that delivers in under 90 minutes in Riyadh, Dubai and Amman. Management says merchants in the region are seeking online sales channels and that customer demand for online gifting is accelerating. Financially, Joi Gifts reports revenue has doubled since 2021 and that it continues to see double-digit month-on-month growth. The company has expanded product and fulfillment capabilities to support faster delivery and digital gifting options. Joi Gifts has attracted regional investors and angel backers as it scales across the region.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2020

Securrency is a developer of institutional-grade blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology that centers on automated compliance for the issuance, exchange, administration, and servicing of digital assets. Its core platform is designed to provide rails for secure, real-time settlement and to bridge legacy financial systems and blockchain infrastructure. The company says it operates from multiple international hubs with a world-class development and commercial team and plans to expand its roster in 2021. Securrency intends to establish regulated financial services businesses in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in partnership with Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners and has applied for relevant licenses. Through Securrency Labs it plans to develop DeFi products and a community-driven, low-code/no-code platform for creating blockchain-based financial instruments, and it also plans retail-focused products. The company recently completed a $30M Series B and previously raised $17.65M in a Series A in early 2020, which it says will fund expansion into new products and markets worldwide. Securrency develops institutional-grade blockchain-based market infrastructure centered on a patent-pending distributed identity and Compliance Aware Token framework that enforces multi-jurisdictional regulatory policy. Its technology is blockchain-agnostic and designed to enable ledger-to-ledger transactions and interoperability to facilitate global liquidity. The company offers its technology via SaaS and PaaS delivery models and positions itself as a bridge between legacy financial platforms and blockchain networks. Securrency’s compliance and policy-enforcement tools automate multi-jurisdictional rules to provide transparency and oversight for market participants and regulators. As part of its go-to-market approach, the company is collaborating with an ETF sponsor to demonstrate applications of its technology within the ETF ecosystem. Securrency’s recent Series A financing provides capital to advance its product and commercial efforts.