Archive

Breaking down H1 earnings for Talabat, Valu, Jahez and Presight

valu and Presight lead on growth, Yalla delivers the strongest margins, Talabat shows the largest scale with healthy unit economics, Jahez stays profitable while navigating Q2 margin softness.

Jamie Lane

HUMAIN to launch Arabic-centric ALLaM 34B foundation model by end of August

A 40-strong PhD research team trained the new model on proprietary in-Kingdom datasets, according to sources.

Jamie Lane

Talabat H1 revenue up 35% to $982m as GMV climbs 32% to $2.4bn

Performance was driven by demand across both Food and Grocery & Retail, reflecting accelerated customer acquisition and higher order frequency.

Jamie Lane

Valu H1 revenue up 94% to EGP 2.6bn; net profit rises 64% to EGP 341m

The Egyptian fintech's Prepaid Card showed “more than 2x” growth in top-ups and spend, and a 3.3x jump in spending transactions versus Q2 2024, as the card evolves into an everyday payment tool.

Jamie Lane

Presight H1 revenue up 80% to AED 1.09bn as international mix rises; backlog reaches AED 3.7bn

Domestic momentum included new contracts with the UAE National Media Office and UAE Media Council, plus a cooperation agreement with Abu Dhabi Department of Energy to develop AD.WE, an AI-powered energy and water management platform.

Jamie Lane

Yalla Q2 revenue up 4.1% to $84.6M, adjusted net income hits $39.4M as MAUs climb 8.8%

On valuation, the stock is trading around 10x next-twelve-month earnings, up from roughly 9x last quarter.

Jamie Lane

Pakistan’s Abhi launches earned wage access in Saudi Arabia after $200m Alraedah partnership

Abhi’s app lets employees access already earned wages in about 30 seconds, removing the monthly salary cycle. Workers can withdraw portions of accrued pay any day of the month, with funds sent to bank accounts or digital wallets.

Jamie Lane

Coraly.ai raises $2M pre-seed to take AI real estate platform from GCC to Europe and North America

Founded by Fouad Bekkar, Coraly.ai is positioning itself as a unified AI growth layer for agents and brokerages across MENA, Europe, and North America.

Jamie Lane

VC React Podcast (Episode #47)

This week on VC React, we unpack Alaan’s $48 million Series A, ask if MENA’s expense-management race (Alaan, Qashio, Pluto, Pemo) ends in one winner or vertical fiefdoms, stress-test Salasa’s AI-powered fulfilment thesis, dissect Wuilt’s “free in Egypt” pivot, and dig into Afaq Capital’s landmark secondaries deal for Falak Investment Hub’s portfolio.

Jamie Lane

Impact46 invests $6.6M+ across five gaming studios from its $40M fund

The bets span mobile, PC, console, VR, and hybrid-casual development, with a focus on culturally localised content that can travel globally.

Jamie Lane

Jahez H1 profit up 38% to SAR 58.9M, Q2 earnings dip on softer margins

Revenue grew 7% to SAR 1.09 billion, driven by higher total orders, improved average order value, stronger take rates, and sharp growth in advertising and other revenue streams.

Jamie Lane

Abu Dhabi eyes $25B AI fund, Saudi hosts OpenAI models

Alaan raises $48M Series A to scale AI finance agents, Egypt-born founder's startup jumps to $3.1B valuation, Salasa closes $30M Series B, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.

Zoe O Dwyer, +1

Groq, HUMAIN bring OpenAI’s first open-weight models in five years to Saudi on Day Zero

The release gives developers in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East day-zero access to OpenAI’s first open-weight reasoning models since GPT-2 more than five years ago.

Jamie Lane

Abu Dhabi’s MGX ramps up global AI bets with eyes on $25B fund

The Abu Dhabi AI investment vehicle backed by Mubadala and G42 is also negotiating a $1 billion stake in French startup Mistral and looks set to join a planned $3–5 billion round for Anthropic at a $170 billion valuation.

Jamie Lane

Egypt-born founder's Clay jumps to $3.1B valuation with $100M from CapitalG

The company began with the broad goal of making programming accessible to more people but has since evolved into what Amin now describes as the integrated development environment, or IDE, for go-to-market (GTM) teams.

Jamie Lane

Anghami reverses stock as profit fails to lift Nasdaq share price

The first Arab tech startup to list on Nasdaq, will carry out a 1-for-10 reverse stock split this week to avoid delisting, after its shares slumped to $0.0117 despite delivering its first-ever half-year profit in late 2024.

Jamie Lane

EQIQ backs Iraq’s first AI‐powered logistics aggregator Boxy with $1.5M pre‐seed

Co‐founded in 2024 by Ahmed Baqer (ex‐Careem Iraq, Northladder) and Mehrshad Pezeshk (15+ years in tech‐driven logistics), Boxy aims to unify Iraq’s 1,500+ last‐mile couriers into a single intelligent shipping platform.

Jamie Lane

How AI is changing software testing

Two Tunisian founders behind one of Africa’s biggest startup exits are back, and targeting the slowest part of modern software delivery. Fresh off the back of a $9M Seed round, Karim Jouini shares how Thunder Code's AI‐driven “personas” test like domain experts, why early dilution can be a superpower, and the surprising policy shift that could reverse Tunisia’s brain drain.

Jamie Lane

BOUK raises $400K pre‐seed to expand Saudi coffee subscription platform

Zoe O Dwyer

Dubai-based Alaan raises $48M Series A to scale AI finance agents in MENA

The round was led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA) with participation from 885 Capital founders Sudeep Ramnani and Jai Mahtani, Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Pioneer Fund, and a roster of prominent regional founders and operators.

Jamie Lane

Mumtalakat takes stake in Abu Dhabi PE firm BlueFive Capital

BlueFive, founded in 2023 by former Investcorp executive Hazem Ben‐Gacem, manages more than $2.6B across offices in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, London, and Beijing.

Jamie Lane