Minly, a platform empowering stars to create authentic, personalised connections with their fans across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, has closed an oversubscribed $3.6m seed round. The round was co-led by 4DX Ventures, B&Y Venture Partners, and Global Ventures. It also included participation from other leading regional funds, and a cast of highly strategic angel investors. These included: Scooter Braun, founder of SB Projects; WndrCo; Jason Finger, founder of Seamless / Grubhub; Arieh Mimran, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of to.org and CIO of Groupe Mimran; and Tamim Jabr, Executive Director for International Investments at Kingdom Holding Co. "Minly is fundamentally changing the relationship between celebrities and fans in the MENA region, and has an enormous opportunity for growth," said Peter Orth, Co-Founder & General Partner at 4DX Ventures, who will be joining the board. "The team has both the ambition and the expertise to build a full-stack digital interaction platform that could change the way digital content is created and consumed in the region," he added, "We're thrilled to partner with Minly, and to help them reach their full potential." The company has experienced rapid organic growth since launching in late 2020, and already has more than 50,000 registered users on the platform, along with an impressive list of tier A regional celebrities. Through Minly, users can buy personalised video messages and shout-outs from their favourite celebrities, getting unprecedented access to the talent they admire most. In turn, celebrities get to connect with their fans on a deeper level. The platform has assembled a diverse roster of hundreds of talented celebrities that not only includes traditional cinema and television stars, but also athletes, musicians, and internet influencers. Minly has been able to attract some of the top talent in the region to the platform, including Tamer Hosny, Fifi Abdou, Assala Nasri, Dorra Zarrouk, Hazem Imam, and Mahmoud Trezeguet. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has helped boost interest in the platform, particularly as in person events have all but disappeared. Minly is offering celebrities an authentic and personal way to continue to interact with their top fans. One such top star on the platform is acclaimed singer, actor, and director Tamer Hosny, with more than 50 million followers across social media. "I'm very excited to be on Minly, connecting with my fans around the world," he said, "I'm also super happy with the social impact that we're making on Minly, as a portion of the proceeds goes to charities to help the less fortunate." Minly has broader ambitions to extend their products and services to become a full-stack passion economy platform that empowers content creators to deliver meaningful experiences across multiple mediums to their fans. "With this new funding and the incredible group of partners that joined us, we are ready to scale across the region and introduce an exciting suite of new products," said Mohamed El-Shinnawy, co-founder at Minly, "The creator economy is in its infancy and growing at lightning speed. We have the opportunity to build this category's first unicorn in MENA." Minly allows users to browse public shout-outs on the platform, and gives them a chance to record their reactions creating unique and authentic moments. An example of the heartfelt Minly Moments created on the platform was when Tamer Hosny popped up unexpectedly in Haidy and Abanoub's engagement party surprising everyone and creating an unforgettable moment for the happy couple. Another Minly Moment that was captured on the platform was for Assala's biggest fans, the Al-Ghazzawi family. Mohamad was caught off guard when his wife Insaf gifted him a personalised video from Assala on Father's Day celebrating their precious daughter Sham. "As a mission-driven team, it's all about spreading this positivity, and empowering stars and content creators to engage with communities from all walks of life," El-Shinnawy said, "We're also very proud of our collaboration with NGOs that create real on-the-ground social impact, such as the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation." Co-founded and led by Mohamed El-Shinnawy, Tarek Hosny, and Bassel El-Toukhy, with industry partners such as Tarek ElGanainy and Ahmed Abbas, Minly's team brings together decades of experience from top firms in technology and entertainment.
