Eksab, a daily fantasy football platform headquartered in Cairo, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by 4DX Ventures, with participation from Darwazah Capital, Golden Palm Investments, P1 Ventures, and a number of strategic angel investors from the local and global sports and entertainment ecosystems. This round brings the company’s total investment to $3.7 million to date. Eksab intends to use the funds to expand its user base across the Mena region and Africa, invest in product development, engineering and product talent acquisition, and execute partnerships with a number of leading global football clubs.
“This is a phenomenally high growth period in our business as we look to take our platform to new audiences. We are also really excited to have some leading global investors and partners join this round. The fact that our previous investors are all doubling down on Eksab highlights the great effort the team has put in over the last 12 months and the massive opportunity in the sector. With the growth of Web3 and play-to-earn gaming, we see Eksab as being at the forefront of the digital transformation of football, content, community and gaming across Africa and the Middle East,” Aly Mahmoud, Eksab Founder and CEO said.
With the latest financing round and the 2022 FIFA World Cup being held in the Middle East for the first time ever in November 2022, the tailwinds for Eksab are strong. Eksab, as the region’s leading daily fantasy sports platform, is uniquely positioned to dominate the region’s growing football gaming market by leveraging technology to connect football fans and build gaming communities, particularly as it seeks exclusive partnerships with leading clubs in the Middle East and Africa.
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Why The Investors Invested
The startup has acquired considerable traction since it was founded. Eksab presently has over 700,000 registered users in Egypt who participate in daily, weekly, and monthly fantasy and prediction contests, with over a million ‘picks’ made each month. Eksab’s paying user base has grown by an average of 60% month over month since the start of its premium competitions in 2021. Additionally, Eksab has worked with over ten of Egypt’s top-tier football players and content creators and is rapidly growing in popularity among football fans. Eksab is actively developing capabilities to link with top blockchain-based platforms, enabling football fans to take advantage of Web 3.0’s increased speed and transparency.
“We have been consistently impressed by the growth Eksab has demonstrated over the past 12 months, powered by technology-backed innovation and unrivalled market knowledge, by Aly and his team. The football gaming market is enormous globally, but especially in Mena. Eksab has built a product and a community that has been rapidly growing in the MENA region but can easily scale across the continent — which fits 4DX’s investment ethos perfectly,” Dan Marlo, Managing Partner at 4DX said.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Eksab was founded in Egypt in 2018 by Aly Mahmoud with the objective of increasing the excitement and interactivity of football for all fans in the Middle East and Africa through gaming and online community building. Players can participate in free or paid events, make predictions, and select starting lineups, with winners ascending the leaderboard and winning cash and prizes. Eksab is currently Egypt’s first and only licensed fantasy football platform, with plans to expand into three additional countries by mid-2022, in order to capture the lion’s share of the region’s multibillion-dollar football ecosystem, which serves over 500 million football fans in the Middle East and Africa.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer