UAE’s Materials Processing & Resource Recovery Startup Mawaad Raises USD 6.5mn in Series A Funding

About the deal and Investors: One of the most renowned Dubai-based materials processing and resource recovery startup, Mawaad Environmental Services (Mawaad), recently announced about the procurement of funds worth USD 6.5mn in its Series A funding round. The same effort is effectively and efficiently been led by Ahmed Sadek El Sewedy, the CEO of Cairo, Egypt-based Elsewedy Electric. The funding round included other key participants like Muhammed Yesilhark and Youcef Oudjidane, along with several renowned athletes in the U.K. including Kieran Gibbs, Henri Lansbury, Ross Barkley, and Jack Wilshere. The funding process was followed by a 10-year operating agreement signing with Emirates Steel in Abu Dhabi and EZZ Steel in Cairo, Egypt. It must be noted that Mawaad’s project with Emirates Steel started its operations within the first quarter of 2020, while the EZZ Steel project all geared to start its operations by the end of 2020. Mawaad aspires to be the leader in the circular economy and resource recovery industry in MENA and Turkey region. Furthermore, he has put his focus on innovative technologies that utilize full economic and environmental value from all kind of industrial byproducts, wastes, and materials. The Company: Mawaad comes as one of the most elite materials processing and resource recovery companies around that was established in 2018 by Ismail Fahmi. The firm is highly focused on extracting values out of a variety of by-products, wastes, and industrial services that are profitable, economical and environment friendly at the same time. It must be mentioned that Mawaad brings a “cradle to cradle” business model in usage, which further guarantees the re-utilisation of all kind of industrial by-products, wastes, and materials. They further focus on reducing the unwanted wastage of materials while also contributing to a better ecosystem. Mawaad holds a strong presence in the UAE and Egypt and puts their focus towards heavy industries due to the presence of excess byproducts and waste streams in the adjoining heavy industries. Hence, they can look forward towards providing better alternatives of the same by-products while doing their bit in empowering the eco-system. Market Overview: If we go by a report issued at the World Government Summit by Strategy&, part of PwC, it talks about a circular economy model, that comprises of three principles: boosting the utilisation of non-renewable resources, increased product utilization, and procuring by-products and waste. As per en estimate, GCC can save around USD 138bn with this and can further reduce the carbon emissions by 150mn tons by 2030 while following this three-dimensional model. A report was released by AnalyzeMarkets in the same regards recently in April, that said - UAE’s Agritech Pure Harvest has raised USD 21mn in Series A while securing an additional USD 100mn from Wafra.