Merak Capital says imaginative and prescient plus execution set Exel’s first cohort aside from 300+ candidates.
The agency appears at group energy, market potential and scalability when investing in startups.
Exel’s $300k investments are ‘catalytic’ funds designed to unlock progress and entice additional capital.
Exel is open to African sport studios, seeing sturdy potential in cross-regional collaboration.
Relocating to Saudi Arabia offers startups direct entry to mentors, traders, and a fast-growing gaming
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Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan returns on November eighth and ninth, 2025, providing an opportunity to achieve insights into the world’s fastest-growing video games market, MENA.
As a part of our MENA protection and run-up to the occasion, we caught up with Merak Capital VP of innovation platform and head of Exel by Merak Faisal Sedrani, who mentioned the accelerator’s first cohort, frequent founder errors and the influence of $300,000 catalytic funding.
PocketGamer.biz: Out of over 300 candidates, you chose 17 startups within the first cohort. What stood out about these groups?
Faisal Sedrani: What impressed us most was the mix of imaginative and prescient and execution. Most of the chosen groups introduced not solely creativity of their sport ideas but in addition a transparent understanding of the best way to construct sustainable companies.
In the course of the bootcamp, they demonstrated each their enterprise capabilities and their dedication to this system, displaying us they may steadiness daring concepts with traction, market consciousness, and flexibility.
Can you’re taking us by the choice course of? What does Merak search for when investing in a startup? And what’s a standard mistake you see gaming founders make when pitching to traders?
Our course of blends each qualitative and quantitative measures. We assess group energy, market potential, scalability, and technical execution. We additionally take into account how founders strategy monetisation and long-term sustainability, not simply the product itself.
“Creativity issues, however with no clear go-to-market and monetisation plan, it’s difficult to persuade traders.”Faisal Sedrani
A typical mistake we see is founders focusing fully on the sport’s artistic imaginative and prescient with out tying it to the business aspect. Traders wish to understand how the sport aligns with market demand, the way it will entice and retain customers, and the way the enterprise will generate income. Creativity issues, however with no clear go-to-market and monetisation plan, it’s difficult to persuade traders.
Now that the primary cohort has graduated, what classes did Merak take away that can form the second and third cohorts? And what do you would like extra traders understood about backing gaming ventures within the Center East?
One key lesson was the influence of tailor-made mentorship. Startups superior quicker when steerage matched their stage and style, so in upcoming cohorts we’re constructing much more structured and specialised assist. We additionally noticed that world distribution stays a significant hurdle for regional groups, which is why we’re strengthening worldwide partnerships to assist founders scale past native markets.
For traders, the takeaway is evident: gaming within the Center East shouldn’t be a distinct segment; it is among the fastest-growing leisure markets worldwide. Supporting ventures right here means tapping right into a younger, digital-native inhabitants with world ambitions, and the chance is much bigger than most realise.
What’s distinctive in regards to the startups you’re seeing from the Center East in comparison with these from different areas? Is it larger use of AI, a concentrate on sure genres, or one thing else fully?
What makes Center Japanese startups distinctive is their potential to mix world requirements with native storytelling. Many studios are weaving regional tradition and narratives into their video games, creating content material that feels each genuine and globally interesting.
We additionally see a powerful concentrate on mobile-first experiences, reflecting the area’s demographics, and rising adoption of AI instruments that pace up manufacturing and personalise gameplay. The result’s a wave of innovation that feels distinct from different markets.
$300,000 is a significant sum, however in sport improvement phrases it may well vanish rapidly. How did you land on that determine, and the way is Exel making certain startups don’t stall out after the preliminary accelerator funding?
The $300,000 funding is supposed to be catalytic, not symbolic. It offers founders the runway to construct a powerful prototype or hit key milestones that place them for follow-on funding.
“The purpose is that by the point founders graduate, they’re not solely funded but in addition prepared for the following stage of progress.”Faisal Sedrani
However capital by itself isn’t sufficient, so Exel additionally offers structured mentorship, market steerage, and entry to investor networks. The purpose is that by the point founders graduate, they’re not solely funded but in addition prepared for the following stage of progress.
Past simply video games, you’ve backed different platforms and instruments. In your view, what sort of innovation do you assume MENA is greatest positioned to steer globally?
MENA is greatest positioned to steer globally in areas the place its strengths align with pressing world wants, significantly AI-driven improvement platforms, scalable cloud companies, and digital community-building applied sciences.
The area’s mobile-first economic system, mixed with substantial authorities funding in digital transformation, creates fertile floor for breakthroughs that stretch far past gaming. These improvements have the potential to form not simply leisure, but in addition training, fintech, and enterprise on a worldwide scale.
Are there extra partnerships within the pipeline to assist sport startups scale internationally? If that’s the case, which of them?
Partnerships are on the core of our technique. With companions like Savvy, Huawei, the Saudi Esports Federation, and Microsoft, we’ve already constructed a powerful basis.
Wanting forward, we’re in lively discussions with world publishers, cloud suppliers, and enterprise networks to create seamless pathways for our startups to scale internationally. The precedence is to make it possible for world attain and scalability are constructed into the DNA of each startup we assist.
Do you foresee increasing Exel to welcome studios from Africa into the accelerator? And can these studios have to relocate to the Center East?
The Exel Gaming Accelerator is open to expertise from world wide, and we’ve already welcomed startups from Egypt alongside Saudi and regional groups. We’re particularly excited in regards to the creativity rising from Africa and see sturdy potential for cross-regional collaboration.
As a part of this system, startups are requested to relocate to Saudi Arabia, embedding themselves in one of many fastest-growing gaming markets globally.
This relocation isn’t nearly geography; it offers founders direct entry to mentors, traders, and companions whereas positioning them on the coronary heart of a quickly increasing ecosystem. For a lot of, this has been a turning level in unlocking doorways and alternatives that merely didn’t exist elsewhere.
Regardless of its progress, some view the area as one of the vital advanced markets. What do you assume wants to vary for MENA to grow to be a real powerhouse in gaming, on par with areas like China or the US?
The area’s subsequent leap will come from two shifts: stronger infrastructure and a extra forward-looking funding mindset. We want continued funding in distribution, publishing, and cost programs tailor-made to MENA’s realities.
On the similar time, traders should start to deal with gaming as a critical, scalable business that sits on the intersection of tradition, know-how, and mental property. With these components in place, MENA has all of the substances to face alongside the US and China as a worldwide gaming powerhouse.
Study extra in regards to the MENA video games market at Pocket Gamer Connects Aqaba on November eighth to ninth, 2025.
