Greenberg Traurig has advised US-based Seesaw on its acquisition of Little Thinking Minds, an edtech startup based in Jordan, with offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
Seesaw will integrate its interactive learning technology with Little Thinking Minds’ Arabic literacy curriculum and assessment tools to enhance education for students, educators, and families regionally and internationally.
It is Seesaw’s first deal in the region and positions the company to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with culturally relevant educational content and literacy tools in both Arabic and English. Seesaw plans to launch its Arabic language platform in late 2025.
Seesaw and Little Thinking Minds currently serve over 800,000 users at over 3,000 schools and related institutions in the MENA region and will now look to rapidly expand their global reach as part of their combined offering.
The cross-border Greenberg Traurig corporate team was led by Dubai partner Chadi Salloum, with support from New York partner Serena Y. Shi.
Salloum also recently led a team representing Bangladesh’s ShopUp on its merger with Saudi Arabia’s Sary to form SILQ.
Subject to closing formalities, the merger backed by a $110 million funding led by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, is expected to create the largest B2B commerce platform bringing together the Gulf and emerging Asia to serve the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market both in the region and internationally.
To date, the combined network of ShopUp and Sary has served over 600,000 retailers, hotels, restaurants, and wholesalers; facilitated a total of 100 million shipments; and has made over $5 billion in transactions on their subsequent platforms, exceeding $750 million in embedded financing disbursements.
Post-merger, both ShopUp and Sary will continue to operate in their respective geographies under their respective brand names, while leveraging SILQ’s infrastructure and combined capabilities.
The group will establish a financing infrastructure arm—SILQ Financial, with equity investment and financing facilities from the Sanabil Investment and Valar Ventures funding round.
Greenberg Traurig’s team was further supported by Riyadh partners Shibeer Ahmed and Marwa Al-Siyabi.
Greenberg Traurig launched in the Middle East in 2023 with offices in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Since then, the firm has been growing steadily in the region, planting roots in the key industries and business sectors most active in the Middle East.
