How to Evaluate Success Startups: Case of FinTech and Cybersecurity in the GCC Venture Capital Market

FinTech investment will reach hundreds of billion dollars by 2022. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) venture capital (VC) firms also invest in FinTech. Bahrain, as a government initiative, established Bahrain FinTech Bay to attract FinTech startups from all over the world. VC investments in FinTech and Cybersecurity startups accounted for more than half of the total in 2018. The area of cybersecurity and financial payments is one of the most significant aspects of FinTech. We seek to answer the following question: What are the key success factors for startups? In this paper, a literature review is conducted in order to identify the main success factors. Research models have been proposed for future research.