Jamie Lane

Jamie Lane is the co-founder of FWDstart, a Gulf/MENA-focused tech and venture publication aiming to be the region’s referential source for rigorous analysis and original reporting. Based in Abu Dhabi, Jamie’s coverage spans AI, fintech, and the evolving capital stack in MENA. He also hosts the VC React podcast. Before FWDstart, he led digital strategy at a pan-European B2B publishing house, overseeing editorial, subscriptions, and commercial operations.

Where are the calls for a MENA Inc?

Last week at Davos, Europe unified its corporate structure for startups. Could MENA do the same?

Jan 28, 2026

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15 min read

Yakeey raises $15M in Morocco’s largest proptech Series A to date

The round was backed by Enza Capital, alongside the International Finance Corporation, Egypt’s Beltone Venture Capital, and Morocco’s state-backed CDG Invest.

Jan 28, 2026

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3 min read

Property Finder secures $170M in new funding led by Mubadala and BECO Capital

The round follows $525 million invested in 2025 by funds advised by Permira, with significant participation from Blackstone Growth.

Jan 27, 2026

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4 min read

Dubai-based Mantas raises $1.77M Seed to tackle cloud downtime risk with parametric insurance

The round includes participation from Nuwa Capital, Suhail Ventures, Plus VC, OQAL Angel Syndicate, and a group of angel investors.

Jan 27, 2026

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2 min read

Vennre raises $9.6M pre-Series A to expand private market access in Saudi Arabia

Backed by Vision Ventures and anb seed Fund, the wealth creation platform targets the region’s HENRY segment with curated private equity, real estate, and Sharia-compliant investment access.

Jan 26, 2026

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2 min read

Jordanian edtech Abwaab acquires Apex to scale elite college admissions across the Middle East

The deal adds Oxford, Ivy League, and top US admissions expertise to Abwaab’s growing education ecosystem.

Jan 26, 2026

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2 min read

Altman meets Abu Dhabi funds ahead of $50B raise, Mubadala backs Applied AI

Open raises $7M co-led by YC, G42 pitches foreign governments on digital embassies, QIA pumping the brakes on AI hype, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.

Jan 23, 2026

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14 min read

OpenAI courts Middle East investors for potential $50B mega-round as Sam Altman meets Abu Dhabi-backed funds

The talks are preliminary, but OpenAI is said to be exploring a raise of $50 billion or more at a valuation in the range of $750 billion to $830 billion.

Jan 23, 2026

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3 min read

Applied AI raises pre-Series B from Mubadala and Arbor Ventures to scale enterprise workflow platform

The investment comes just months after Applied AI raised a $55 million Series A at a reported $300 million pre-money valuation in February 2025.

Jan 22, 2026

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3 min read

Breez AI raises $1.3M pre-seed to build enterprise grade voice AI infrastructure

The round was led by Wamda Capital and anchored by early supporter FENA Holdings alongside DASH Ventures, with participation from a group of strategic angel investors.

Jan 22, 2026

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4 min read

The Trillion-Dollar Shift From Sick Care to Prevention

Flipping the insurance model in MENA from sick care to prevention, why the industry's biggest players are finally paying attention, and how far away are we from insurance being priced on biological age rather than chronological age?

Jan 21, 2026

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23 min read

Jordanian founder Mo Gharbat’s Open raises $7M co-led by Y Combinator to scale AI-native enterprise support across the GCC

The round was led by Y Combinator and X by Unifonic, with participation from Shorooq and Sadu Capital. Open is part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch and is incorporated in Delaware.

Jan 21, 2026

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3 min read

Grove raises $5M seed to build vertically integrated fresh-produce supply chain in Saudi Arabia

Founded in 2024 by Mohammed bin Ghanam and Ayman AlFifi, Grove operates as a consumer-facing fresh-produce brand built on a vertically coordinated, technology-enabled supply chain

Jan 21, 2026

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4 min read

MENA's biggest ever Seed round, Replit teams up with Arabic.AI

Saudi's PIF considering a wave of share sales and IPOs, Lean and Ziina complete the UAE’s first live Open Finance payment, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.

Jan 16, 2026

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14 min read

Flooss secures $22M Shorooq-backed credit facility in Bahrain’s first private asset-backed fintech financing

The credit facility builds on Flooss’s earlier equity funding. In its 2025 end-of-year letter, MEVP revealed it participated in a $2 million seed round for Flooss during the year.

Jan 16, 2026

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2 min read

Arabic.AI partners with Amjad Masad’s Replit to launch free, fully localised Arabic coding courses across MENA

The initiative marks the first full localisation of Replit’s educational content into Arabic, giving students, engineers, and aspiring developers access to hands-on, production-ready software development courses without language barriers.

Jan 15, 2026

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3 min read

MENA tech predictions for 2026

Why the IPO dam is finally about to break, the rise of "agentic" AI in the boring back-office, and why the Gulf’s next sovereign race could be all about longevity.

Jan 14, 2026

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19 min read

Governata raises $4M seed to build Saudi Arabia’s first Arabic-first, AI-ready data governance platform

The round was led by Vision Ventures, with participation from Mashhoor Aldubayan, Mazen Aldarrab, and Abdulla Nadeem Elyas.

Jan 14, 2026

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2 min read

Saudi-based Madeed raises $400K as Eight Sleep exit founder Adam Bataineh launches preventative health and longevity platform

The round was led by Vision Ventures, with participation from Mashhoor Aldubayan, Mazen Aldarrab, and Abdulla Nadeem Elyas.

Jan 13, 2026

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2 min read

Abdallah Abu-Sheikh’s Mal, raises $230M in largest Seed round in MENA for AI-powered Islamic finance platform

The round was led by BlueFive Capital, which manages more than $4 billion in assets, with participation from strategic investors and family offices.

Jan 13, 2026

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3 min read

Revolut's hiring spree, Saudi opens its stock market

MEVP’s annual letter discloses unannounced funding rounds, Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based MGX anchor Musk's xAI $20B Series E, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.

Jan 9, 2026

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14 min read

MEVP’s annual letter discloses a number of unannounced funding rounds, including for Stake, Ziina, and MealPlanet

In 2025, MEVP deployed $18.1 million across eight new investments and two follow-on rounds.

Jan 9, 2026

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2 min read

eMushrif raises $7.5M to scale school transport platform across the Gulf

Led by Jasoor Ventures, the round backs eMushrif’s expansion into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, building on its traction across Oman and Kuwait where the platform now supports school transportation for more than 120k students in public and private schools.

Jan 9, 2026

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2 min read

Revolut continues UAE hiring spree, as it eyes acquisition of neobank FUPS in Turkey

The London-headquartered fintech is advertising new roles across compliance, risk, and senior commercial leadership, including a Head of Marketing and Growth.

Jan 9, 2026

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3 min read

Musk's xAI raises $20B Series E as Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based MGX anchor mega-round

The upsized $20 billion round highlights a deepening Gulf split in frontier AI, as sovereign funds increasingly pick sides across OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musk’s compute-first platform.

Jan 7, 2026

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4 min read