Dubai: The name behind stepfeed.com and yallafeed.com, Step Group has closed a Series A funding round of $2 million from regional investors including Wamda Capital, Equitrust and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, as well as an overseas venture capital firm North Base Media.
In the 18 months since the portals went live, they have gained more than 3 million unique monthly users and 6 million monthly views. Recently, the group acquired the video content platform Arab Vines. “We identified a growing gap between Arab millennials and the mainstream media, and saw the need to bridge this with a dynamic new media platform,” said Ray Dargham, Step Group Co-founder and CEO.
“The growth strategy is ambitious and this investment will help us. We aim to more than quadruple the user base across our platforms within the next 12 months to reach more than 10 million users and 30 plus million monthly views, and further develop our recently launched Step Video capability.”
The group also owns Steep Conference, the technology and start-up conference in the region.
“Young Arabs are hungry for content that relates to them,” said Dargham. “They are in real need of a voice that represents them, and our platforms speak to the needs, aspirations and dreams of the region’s most active generation.”
