News

Egypt’s Tech Startup OneOrder Raises $3M In Funding

Investors have now injected a total of $10.5 million into the Egypt-based catering logistics firm.

Published

4 years ago

December 6, 2022

Nour Nasir

OneOrder

OneOrder, the Egyptian catering logistics and technology startup, has just raised another $3 million after a recent round of funding, with a view to boosting the firm’s core technology offering and upgrading in-house operations.

The latest funding round was led by Nclude, an investment platform that describes itself as an “Innovation Engine powered by tech startups”, as well as venture capital firm A15, and delivery giant Delivery Hero.

The fresh capital injection will help boost OneOrder’s in-house operations, improve sales and market share, and allow the firm to recruit top talent and improve its proprietary technology. In addition, OneOrder will now be able to scale its offline operations, expanding its network of warehouses further across Egypt and the MENA region.

“Aside from improving efficiency, we are reducing costs and impacting restaurants’ bottom lines. Joined by prominent global investors with deep knowledge and extensive expertise in our sector, we look forward to our next phase of rapid growth,” says Tamer Amer, co-founder and chief executive of OneOrder.

Also Read: Hub71’s Startup Ecosystem Now Boasts Over 200 Members

OneOrder has only been in existence since October 2021 and has already made a name for itself by using technology to address the inefficiencies faced by restaurants when sourcing supplies. The company’s platform allows restaurants to interact with a fragmented supplier base to efficiently source their supplies, such as meat, vegetables and catering equipment.

In Egypt, OneOrder has a potential market of 400,000 restaurants with an aggregate annual spend of $40 billion. Due to non-integrated supply chains, these businesses spend between 6-7% of their revenue to ensure logistical stability, so the future certainly looks interesting for this prominent startup.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.