Happy Friday friends 👋

Quick commerce is hard. Despite Nana's formidable war chest (over $200 million raised from Kingdom Holding, STV, and others), the Saudi grocery delivery platform has found itself unable to buck the global trend, the Icarus-like arc that’s swallowed the likes of Gorillas and Getir, and is now playing out in the Kingdom too. Sami Alhelwah’s company has entered financial reorganisation, with the Commercial Court in Riyadh opening proceedings and creditors given 90 days to submit claims.

The writing has been on the wall for a number of months, with what FWDstart understands were considerable layoffs earlier this year, and Nana isn't the first casualty either, with food delivery app Shgardi buckling in late 2025. Quick commerce, like food delivery before it, has become something of a blood sport, with Keeta's arrival in Saudi heralding intense competition for market share that not everyone was going to survive. We've been working on a piece on Saudi quick commerce for a while now, so keep your eyes peeled for that in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere, Speedinvest has launched its first dedicated Middle East and Africa fund backed by Mubadala, QIA, and EIB Global, and we've got a great podcast episode with lead partners Deepali Nangia and Rana Abdel Latif to unpack it all in detail.

We've also got Jordan's Tamatem acquiring Istanbul's Playable Factory alongside a $10M round, and Signit raising a $15M Series A for AI-powered contract management in Saudi.

This and much more below 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

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Signit (🇸🇦 KSA), an AI-powered contract lifecycle management and digital signature platform serving 700+ government and enterprise customers, has raised $15M in a Series A round, led by RAED Ventures, with participation from STV, SEEDRA Ventures, Takamol Ventures, and Suhail Ventures.

Tamatem (🇯🇴 Jordan), an Arabic mobile games publisher that localises titles for MENA audiences, has raised $10M alongside its acquisition of Istanbul-based playable ad platform Playable Factory, led by Next Ventures, with Square Enix and Krafton also participating.

FASCANO (🇴🇲 Oman), an operations and technology platform for the F&B and hospitality sector, has raised $10M in its third round, backed by Cyfr Capital and Future Fund Oman under the Oman Investment Authority.

Sinai.ai (🇪🇬 Egypt), an AI-native reading platform that transforms licensed books into interactive, conversational experiences, has raised $1.45M in a pre-Seed round, led by KAUST Innovation Ventures and DisrupTech Ventures, with participation from Maza Ventures and YOUXEL Ventures.

Ray (🇦🇪 UAE), a powerbank-sharing service operating across Dubai and Abu Dhabi with stations in restaurants, malls, and transport hubs, has raised $1.2M in a Seed round from angel investors.

🌍 Speedinvest has launched its first dedicated Middle East and Africa fund, backed by Mubadala, QIA, and EIB Global. The fund is led by partners Deepali Nangia and Rana Abdel Latif and will invest across fintech, health, climate, AI, and digital infrastructure in MENAPT and Sub-Saharan Africa. EIB Global anchored the Africa vehicle with €40M in March (max fund size €200M under EIB terms), with at least 30% going to women-focused investments. QIA's involvement followed its Fund of Funds expansion to $3B at Web Summit Qatar. The regional portfolio includes Moove (Lagos-founded, $460M+ raised, Waymo partnership), FairMoney, Khazna, MoPhones, Pemo, and Flow48. Speedinvest manages over €1.2B and is opening offices in the UAE, Africa, and Qatar.

💰 SVC has invested in the Growth Catalyst Fund, a new vehicle targeting $150-200M to back growth-stage companies across Saudi and the GCC. The fund is managed by Turki Al-Dayel, who chaired SVC's own Investment Committee from 2023 to 2025 before stepping down to launch the vehicle. Al-Dayel also chairs Tamara's audit committee and previously ran Ninety-One (formerly Investec Asset Management) in the Kingdom. The fund targets companies that have proven their models and need capital to scale, focusing on healthcare, education, consumer, defence, and renewables.

🛒 Saudi grocery delivery platform Nana has entered financial reorganisation after raising approximately $208M from Kingdom Holding, STV, MEVP, Impact46, and others. The Commercial Court in Riyadh has opened proceedings, with creditors given 90 days to submit claims. Co-founded in 2016 by Sami Alhelwah and Abdulmajeed Alsukhan (who left to co-found Tamara in 2020), Nana operated dark stores promising 15-minute delivery. The filing comes as Saudi's q-commerce market has intensified: Meituan's Keeta entered in September 2024 with a planned SAR 1B investment, Jahez partnered with noon, and Egypt's Rabbit established a Riyadh HQ. Financial reorganisation under Saudi law is distinct from liquidation and allows companies to restructure while continuing operations.

🛵 Uber has raised its stake in Delivery Hero to 7% after purchasing an additional 4.5% from Prosus for €270M ($318M), deepening its financial relationship with the parent of Talabat and HungerStation. Prosus must reach single digits by August 2026 under EU conditions from its Just Eat Takeaway acquisition, meaning more stock will need buyers soon. Activist investor Aspex (9% holder) has separately been pushing for asset sales. FWDstart reported in March, that Delivery Hero's Foodpanda Taiwan sale to Grab was described as a "first step" in a JPMorgan-backed strategic review. CEO Östberg called Uber's investment a "meaningful endorsement." Uber described it as "opportunistic."

🧠 Cerebras has refiled for a Nasdaq IPO at approximately $23B, targeting a mid-May listing after CFIUS granted clearance in March 2025. The AI chipmaker's first attempt stalled in late 2024 amid a national security review of its G42 relationship. Revenue hit $510M in 2025 (up 76% YoY), but the customer concentration problem persists: G42's share dropped from 87% to 24%, only for MBZUAI to account for 62%, meaning two Abu Dhabi entities still represent 86% of total revenue. The S-1 lays out a path to diversification through a $20B+ OpenAI inference compute deal signed in December 2025 and a binding term sheet with AWS. G42 no longer appears on Cerebras's investor list after its stake was restructured to non-voting shares.

🎮 Jordan-based Tamatem has acquired Istanbul's Playable Factory and disclosed a $10M round led by Next Ventures, with Square Enix and Krafton joining as strategic investors. Total funding now exceeds $25M. Playable Factory makes interactive ads that let users trial games before downloading. The acquisition adds user acquisition tech to what was previously a localisation, distribution, and payments business. Founded in 2013 by Hussam Hammo, Tamatem publishes 70+ Arabic-localised mobile titles with roughly 70% of its user base in Saudi Arabia.

🎓 Egypt-based edtech iSchool has acquired software engineering firm Rubikal, bringing 21 engineers in-house after three years of collaboration. Founded in 2018, iSchool offers live gamified coding classes for kids and now operates across 20+ countries. Rubikal, founded in Egypt in 2016, had been building iSchool's platform for years before the acqui-hire formalised the relationship.

🎵 A15 has marked its ninth exit with PopArabia's acquisition of Viral Wave, the digital music distribution platform spun out of A15's venture-building arm ARPUPlus in 2023. Viral Wave manages distribution and YouTube monetisation for regional artists including Ramy Sabry, Ahmed Saad, and Tamer Ashour. PopArabia is partnered with Nasdaq-listed Reservoir.

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