Rawa.tv, a Twitch-esque video game streaming platform based in the UAE, has been acquired by Dutch video clipping company Medal.tv, according to a report by Tech Crunch.
Prior to the seven-figure all-cash deal, which sees Rawa.tv's two founders Raya Dadah and Phil Jammal joining Medal, the UAE firm had raised $835K in funding to date. It was founded in 2019.
“Most companies that target [the MENA] market don’t really understand the nuances and try to replicate existing Western or Far-Eastern models that are doomed to fail,” Medal.tv CEO Pim de Witte said. “Absorbing a local team will increase Medal’s chances of success here. Overall, we believe that MENA is an underserved market without a clear leader in the live streaming space, and Rawa brings to Medal the local market expertise that we need to capitalize on this opportunity."
According to de Witt, Medal's user base had been requesting a live streaming feature for some time, and so, instead of building the technology using off-the-shelf services, which would have been too expensive for the startup to build at its scale, it has instead acquired Rawa, which has proven the success of its technology in the Middle East. Medal.tv's most recent funding round was announced back in 2019, a Series A $9 million, and so from an economic perspective, the Rawa acquisition makes sense.
de Witt clarified that, unlike their competitors, Medal has no plans to deviate from its gaming focus and thus will reserve its platform for gaming content, and only that.
You can read a blog post by de Witt announcing the acquisition here.
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