Prominent Middle East and North Africa-focused Spotify rival Anghami has been approved to list on the NASDAQ in New York.
Elie Habib, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer and Eddy Maroun, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the company rang the NASDAQ’s opening bell on Thursday (February 3) to celebrate the news.
Anghami is set to to list via a merger with Vistas Media Acquisition Company, a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The music streaming company entered into a definitive merger agreement with VMAC in March 2021, which values Anghami at $220 million.
It was approved by a majority of VMAC stockholders at a special meeting held on January 19, 2022.
Anghami says that it will become the first Arab Technology company to be listed on NASDAQ and the first Arab company to list on this market in over 25 years
According to a media statement, following the closing of the merger, the common stock of the surviving company will start trading on the NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker “ANGH” and the surviving company’s warrants will begin trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker “ANGHW,” today (February 4, 2022) at 9:30 AM ET.
Vistas Media Acquisition Company is led by CEO F. Jacob Cherian and co-founders Saurabh Gupta and Abhayanand Singh.
Anghami, which reports to have more than 75 million registered users with around 1 billion streams per month, has a catalog of more than 75 million songs.
The firm is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and is currently backed by MENA venture capital firms and strategic shareholders, including media groups and telco companies that collectively own approximately 68% of Anghami, with the balance owned by the founders.
Anghami also has offices in Beirut (where it was previously headquartered), Dubai, Cairo and Riyadh.
Founded in 2012, Anghami claims to be the first music-streaming platform in the MENA region
“We would like to congratulate the Anghami team on this incredible achievement, and are excited to see its next chapter as a public company.”
F. Jacob Cherian, VMAC
F. Jacob Cherian, Chief Executive Officer of VMAC, said: “We are delighted to announce the completion of our business combination with Anghami, bringing the first Arab technology company to the United States NASDAQ exchange.
“We would like to congratulate the Anghami team on this incredible achievement, and are excited to see its next chapter as a public company.”
“As a public company, we will further develop our ecosystem of creators, expand our content and add millions of users in MENA and globally.”
Eddy Maroun, Anghami
Eddy Maroun, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Anghami, added: “Today is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our company, employees and partners at Vistas Media Acquisition Company.
“As a public company, we will further develop our ecosystem of creators, expand our content and add millions of users in MENA and globally.”
“The business combination is the culmination of a long journey and we are pleased to be joining NASDAQ.”
Elie Habib, Anghami
Elie Habib, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, said: “The business combination is the culmination of a long journey and we are pleased to be joining NASDAQ, which will provide the foundation for us to hire the best engineers, further innovate and offer our users the best experience and new products.”Music Business Worldwide
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