Prominent Middle Eastern Spotify rival Anghami has sold a stake to Dubai-based asset management and investment banking platform, Shuaa Capital.
Led by CEO Jassim Alseddiqi, Shuaa has $14 billion in assets under management. The firm is best known for its financial services, private equity and investments in real estate.
The size of its investment in Beirut-based Anghami was undisclosed.
That’s potentially not the end of this story, however: Shuaa boss Alseddiqi just revealed to Gulf News that “Anghami is [also] working on another transaction”.
Shuaa’s Alseddiqi said in a statement regarding the deal: “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.”
“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.”
Elie Habib, Anghami
Elie Habib, co-founder of Anghami, added: “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.”
Today’s news follows a Bloomberg report from January last year indicating that Anghami was mulling a potential sale or capital raise to fund future expansion.
The company’s co-founder and CTO Elie Habib (pictured) subsequently told CNN that the Anghami had been “approached by multiple parties” with acquisition and equity deal offers.
“We signed up JP Morgan to raise a round of funding,” added Habib. “Since doing that we’ve been approached by multiple parties to carve some equity [deal] or buy out the entire company”.
Bloomberg’s report last January suggested that one interested party at the time was Dubai-based pay TV network Orbit Showtime Network.
The report added that Anghami could be valued at as much as $400 million if a deal were to go ahead and if certain conditions were met.
In 2019, Anghami partnered with Orbit Showtime Network’s Wavo – in a deal that included streaming rights to the final series of HBO’s Game Of Thrones; the ‘Wavo Powered By Anghami’ service also launched for just $1.99 per month.
“We are delighted to have secured the support of SHUAA Capital and its co-investors in this latest round.”
Elie Habib, Anghami
Habib toldGulf News: “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.”Music Business Worldwide