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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Afaq Capital acquires full VC portfolio in region’s first secondary entry‐exit deal

The portfolio was originally assembled by Hassan Ikram during his time as co‐founder and CIO at Falak Investment Hub, investing across multiple sectors and backing startups through their growth stages

RIFD secures Antler investment to build Saudi’s first Shariah‐compliant SME receivables securitisation platform

Founded in 2024 by Abdulrahman AlDakheel, RIFD facilitates institutional financing for SME suppliers by securitising receivables from large, creditworthy corporations, unlocking supply chain liquidity while maintaining a fully compliant structure.

Suplyd raises $2M pre‐Series A to expand Egypt’s restaurant supply chain platform

Founded in 2022 by Gohar Said, Karim Selima, and Ahmed ElMahdy, Suplyd digitises procurement for Egypt’s HORECA sector, enabling restaurants to order directly from suppliers through a single platform.

Salasa closes $30M Series B to embed AI across e‐commerce fulfilment

Founded in 2017 by Abdulmajeed Alyemni and Hasan Alhazmi, Salasa provides end‐to‐end logistics services for online retailers, including warehousing, inventory management, last‐mile delivery, bonded zones, and cross‐border shipping.

Mubadala backs US AI firm Anaconda in $150M round

Anaconda provides enterprises with a secure, enterprise‐grade distribution of Python bundled with pre‐installed packages and tools tailored for data science, machine learning, and AI development.

DEEP.SA raises $1.2M pre‐seed to build Saudi‐born AI engines and agents

Founded by Dr. Mazen A. Melibari, Mohammed Daggas, Mazen Alotaibi, Ahmed Al‐Suhaim, Fatima Al‐Saeed, and Ahmed Al‐Rashidi, DEEP.SA develops AI engines and specialised AI agents for consumer and government markets.

Wuilt raises $2M after pivot to free ecommerce platform in Egypt

Founded in 2019 by Ahmed Rostom, Mahmoud Metwaly, and Mohamed Hegazy, Wuilt began as an Arabic‐language website builder for users with little technical know‐how, promising sites built “in five minutes.”

VC React Podcast (Episode #46)

This week on VC React, we break down Meta’s eye-watering billion-dollar overtures to Mira Murati’s newborn Thinking Machines Lab, taste-test Calo’s $64 million war-chest for its AI “private-chef” push, tune in to Sawt’s Arabic voice-bot gambit, and decode the UAE’s brand-new open-finance rails.