Learn How to Accelerate Through Due Diligence During an M&A or Private Placement

In 2020, 96 cross-border deals were announced between Latin American-based investors and USA-based companies for a total of $5.26 billion deployed. This report shows the volume, industry, and number of deals completed in this cross-border category.
Latin American investors deployed capital into USA companies operating in markets unique and not present in Latin American countries, such as aerospace, e-commerce, and technology industries, which saw large capital deployments.
Mindset is a venture capital fund headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Mindset was the most active cross-border investor in USA companies in the LATAM region. Mindset Ventures typically invest in early-stage companies and are industry agnostic. They usually participate in seed funding and Series A deals.
Mindset focuses on IT companies and B2B-based firms, and has an appetite for companies in financial services and healthcare. The firm participates in less than 12 deals per year. They deployed over $10 million for each deal in their 2020 financing activities.
Mojo Vision is an international company that develops augmented reality products and platforms for implementation in several industries, though most of their technology and services have been used for medical devices, which was their focus in 2020.
Mojo Lens is a smart contact lens with a built-in display that can output information without interrupting the focus, all while delivering real-time data analytics without the need for external devices.
The company raised $51 million of Series B1 venture funding in a deal led by New Enterprise Associates on April 29, 2020, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $450 million. Liberty Global Ventures, Intellectus Partners, Numbase Group, WndrCo, Gradient Ventures, Horizon 3 Venture Capital, and 13 other investors also participated in the round. The funds are being used to accelerate the development of the company’s smart contact lens, the Mojo Lens.
Jahani and Associates analyzed over 500 M&A transactions among technology giants. We determined that 100% of the marketing and advertising acquisitions were driven by customer data capabilities. Technology giants use customer data to improve media buying. The acquired customer data capabilities:
Companies seeking to maximize their value in the technology space must intimately understand their data and how it can be used to improve both collection and processing to generate insights. Jahani and Associates use our experience in tech M&A and investment banking to understand how our clients will increase their competitive advantage around customer data.
Part 1: Identifying Intangibles In Ad Tech M&A Value
https://www.newsweek.com/second-iran-deal-must-better-first-opinion-1582551
The chart below identifies the type of products associated with each import and export category based on World Bank nomenclature.
MENA’s trade position is unique when compared to China and the USA. MENA’s dominance is driven by the presence of oil, a natural resource. The USA and China’s imports and exports are not driven by a natural resource and are therefore more easy to replicate. If the MENA countries successfully diversify their economies, the region can become an increasingly powerful player by building on this natural resource foundation and then competing with other regions on services, technology, and other high-growth sectors. Due to current reforms in major MENA countries, the region is actively accomplishing this.
The MENA region is a gateway between the growing economies of Africa and Southeast Asia and more stabilized regions such as North America and Europe. This gives the region a strong value-added position when participating in trade between these other parts of the world.
The UAE and KSA are the most dominant players in the MENA economy. They account for the majority of imports and exports as well as most of the region’s economic activity. The UAE has been removing barriers to trade that are not tariff-related, such as allowing expedited customs and the use of technology to create more efficient government organizations. KSA has recently started opening trade policies that reflect UAE standards.
KSA’s Vision 2030 is a framework to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil and diversify its economy. This will be accomplished through investments in health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism. The Vision 2030’s goals include reinforcing economic and investment activities, increasing non-oil international trade, increasing government spending on the military, and promoting a more secular image of the kingdom.
As shown in the previous J&A series, tech investments are on the rise in the MENA region. The UAE has recently made 10 major food-tech investments as part of its continued commitment to food independence and leadership. These food-tech investments include smart farms, food delivery, curated menus, and more. The image above shows three examples of these investments from different categories.
In the final part of our series, we will investigate the Gulf Cooperation Council’s role in global trade for the MENA region as well as steps the council is taking to increase its cooperation and cumulative strength.
The following chart shows the trade openness of the GCC. This index is calculated by adding imports and exports in goods and services and dividing by the total GDP. The larger the ratio, the more the country is open to international trade.
The region represents approximately half the volume of imports and exports compared to the USA and China, but produces nearly 40% of the world’s fuel supply. The general volatility of fuel has pushed leaders to diversify the economy.
Sources: IAGS | The World Bank | IMF GCC Banking | IMF GCC Markets | IMF Trade and Foreign Investment | Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 | UAE Ministry of Finance
[vc_row dfd_row_config=”full_width_content”][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=”blog-glance”]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row dfd_row_config=”full_width_content” el_class=”blog-img-section”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”9178″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row dfd_row_config=”full_width_content”][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Gulf states and Israel provide an opportunity for the US to participate in a global economy that will be more centered on the Middle East than it was before the virus. This future must be a cornerstone of US policy, as well the legacy issues around security.
Covid has threatened the mature economies of the US and Europe, accelerated China’s inevitable rise, and given opportunity to the region’s often more agile and adaptable countries.
There are few countries in the world who have (almost) put the pandemic behind them and are on good terms with both the US and China. Those are the countries who are set to lead the world in the 21st century. They are almost exclusively in the Middle East.
The rise of the Middle East as a gateway between the US and China presents an opportunity for Biden to re-engage with Beijing through the neutral soil of Israel and the Gulf states. Biden should not be afraid of celebrating and building on the diplomatic progress achieved under the Trump administration through the end of the GCC rift and the Abraham accords.
Being the “new Europe” is something that Middle Eastern leaders are understandably motivated by, particularly in light of their relations with both DC and Beijing. Europe was the middle ground for the Soviet-US Cold War, and the Middle East is the same for the China-US relationship — geographically, politically and economically.
Rather than continue to fight yesterday’s conflicts and ignore today’s achievements (perhaps focused on distancing himself from Trump’s policies), Biden should craft policy based on the reality that the Middle East is transitioning from a 20th century defined by conflict and insecurity to a 21st century where the Silk Road is once again the social, economic, cultural, and political center of the world.
This is a future into which the Middle East is rapidly progressing. Three of the top five countries with the most Covid vaccinations (excluding the Seychelles and Maldives) are in the Middle East — namely the UAE, Israel, and Bahrain. In addition to a successful vaccination campaign, total death rates in these countries and others in the region have remained low. All this while key industries, including tourism, have often remained open.
Saudi Arabia has been working to almost triple its non-oil revenues, and is investing billions into futuristic cities like NEOM and “The Line.” The UAE successfully completed a mission to Mars during the pandemic and recently announced plans to double Dubai’s population, all while commentators in London and New York discuss the “death of cities.”
Gulf economies also benefit from a low debt to GDP ratio, which will allow them to maintain growth while more developed and leveraged economies struggle in the wake of the pandemic. The US currently has a debt to GDP ratio of over 100 percent; in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the debt to GDP ratio is only 20 percent, meaning those governments will have spending power well into the future for public and private projects.
China is busy building deeper links in the region, where doing business is more important than talking politics. It is important to Biden’s legacy that US policymakers and investors do the same, and foster both cultural and economic connections to the new Middle East rather than allowing themselves to be crowded out.
To this day, too many American political and business leaders are driven by the impulses that impacted actions between them and the Middle East at the start of the millennium. Twenty years on, the White House should look to the future. It must adapt to the rise of China by utilizing the Middle East’s neutral ground to increase cooperation with Beijing.
It’s high time an American president looked to the Middle East for its entrepreneurship, adaptability and its e-governance, rather than simply for its oil.
Joshua Jahani is a Cornell alum, public speaker and investment banker with a focus on the Middle East and Africa
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/biden-china-meeting-middle-east-b1819729.html[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_class=”more-from-report”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35221569[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/29/us-biden-iran-nuclear-deal-478354[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-usa/bidens-iran-approach-praised-as-deft-despite-lack-of-progress-idUSKCN2AW2SB[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42008809[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/19/biden-iran-deal-stalemate/[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/biden-administration-says-it-s-ready-nuclear-talks-iran-n1258299 [/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_class=”more-from-report” disable_element=”yes”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
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