ArabiaWeather closes a round of $5M

CEO Mohammad Al-Shaker during one of the weather forecasts.
(Image via ArabiaWeather)

ArabiaWeather
announced yesterday a $5 million funding round.
 

It is among the largest venture capital deals in
the region this year, and follows the $2.1
million it raised towards the end of 2014.
This latest round is led by Badia Impact Fund and Wamda Capital,
and includes DASH Ventures and Dubai-based Jabbar Internet
Group.

“The size of the two rounds are very promising
for ArabiaWeather. It shows a lot of interest and belief in the
vision and the team to execute on their plans,” said Walid Faza,
Partner and Investment Principal at Wamda Capital. “This investment
is indicative of the change that we are witnessing in the region
when it comes to Venture Capital funding.”

With more than 35 million consumers in the
region, ArabiaWeather will primarily use the cash to increase its
weather data offerings for businesses and consumers.

The aviation sector is particularly important to
ArabiaWeather, whose clients include regional airports and several
Emirati, Saudi and Jordanian airlines.

ArabiaWeather is developing integrated
industry-specific solutions for the aviation sector. Its offerings
can help businesses that are affected by weather conditions – like
airports and airlines – to reduce costs, enhance safety and boost
efficiencies.

The company is also expanding its network of
automated weather stations across the region, which form the
backbone of its products and services, namely hyper-local weather
information.

“The funding is fully dedicated to further
growing the company, which has established an exceptional track
record as a premier provider of highly useful weather information
in the region,” said Khaled Talhouni, partner at Wamda
Capital.

ArabiaWeather is true success story for the MENA
region. The Jordanian startup’s proprietary algorithms and
numerical models allow it produce customized weather information
that is more accurate for the MENA region than
that of giants like Yahoo.

“We were thrilled with ArabiaWeather’s
development since our initial investment in 2014, so we decided to
lead the company’s Series A round alongside Wamda Capital, Jabbar
Internet Group and DASH Ventures,” said Namek Zu’bi, Badia Impact
Fund managing partner, in a statement.

This news comes midway through Dubai Air Show
2015 where several of ArabiaWeather’s airline customers also made
announcements with their partners at GE. These include Emirates
signing a $16B GE9X engine services contract, the celebration of
one million cycles (one cycle consists of one take-off and one
landing) with the GE90 engine on Emirates, the signing of
agreements for 777 freighters, and the opening of the GE Middle
East Aviation Technology Center, which will act as a software
co-creation hub for all the airlines in the region.