Middle East Venture Partners invests in travel startup Wego

Wego, the travel startup with dual headquarters in Singapore & Dubai, that had reportedly received a $12 million investment from MBC Group earlier this year has now raised an undisclosed amount of money from Middle East Venture Partners. The investment is part of the same equity round from earlier this year.

“With Wego’s rapid MENA expansion we decided to seek out smart investors from the region who have deep experience and connections and in MEVP we’ve definitely found that and more,” said Ross Veitch, Co-Founder & CEO, Wego.

“I welcome the MEVP investment and I look forward to working with the team at MEVP as we develop Wego’s business across the MENA region,” he added.

The startup aims to use this investment to expand its regional footprint. Co-founded by Craig Hewett & Ross Veitch in 2005, Wego had started in Singapore and opened its first and only MENA office in Dubai in 2013. According to the publicly available data, it has raised $57.5 million in disclosed funding until now from investors like Tiger Global Management, Crescent Group & News Corp.

“Online travel in MENA is a large vertical and continues to grow rapidly aided by a shift in consumer behavior from offline to online. Wego is capitalizing on such favorable market dynamics and is already a leading travel brand that is highly recognized by travelers in the region, especially Saudi Arabia,” said Walid Hanna, Founder & CEO, MEVP.

“Wego has an exciting growth plan and with the support of MBC and MEVP, we believe it is well positioned to dominate the travel metasearch play in MENA,” he added.

This is MEVP’s second investment after Mohamed Alabbar, the Emirati real-estate tycoon and founder of Noon bought a large stake in it in May, earlier this year. They had earlier invested in Turkish fashion retailer Modacruz in June.