Happy Friday friends 👋

Q3 results are in for Saudi’s buy now, pay later (and later) pair, and after a Q2 blip, both have bounced back.

Tabby’s Saudi profit rebounded to $14.3 million from $3.1 million in Q2, and SAMA has also signed off on roughly $300 million in fresh foreign financing. Meanwhile, Tamara’s Saudi profit more than doubled to $54.3 million, as its longer-term lending book quietly overtook its BNPL product for the first time.

Over in the UAE, Tabby Cash has passed 1 million accounts two months after opening to all residents, with our column this week digging into why Tabby wants more of your money, alongside Saudi’s IPO reset and whether Aramco can bring HUMAIN down to earth.

Speaking of which, HUMAIN has hired former 500 Global MENA managing partner Amal Dokhan to lead its new domestic AI startup programme, Limitless. And MNT-Halan’s Egyptian arm has more than doubled net income quarter on quarter in its first results since listing, though most of the jump came from selling loans on, with the year on year picture actually weaker.

And on the podcast this week, HealthStay’s Seán Conaty and Ruairí Tubrid talk fixing the business of healthcare, and what happened when their UAE revenue stopped overnight.

As always, if you’re enjoying our coverage, please support our ability to grow by becoming a premium subscriber for only $9.99 a month. Or if you’d prefer to bring the whole team along, check out our new group plans here.

This and much (much) more below 👇

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Ejari (🇸🇦 KSA), which pays landlords upfront and collects monthly instalments from tenants, has expanded its Sharia-compliant credit facility with Partners for Growth to $50M ahead of a move into commercial leasing.

Lambda Studios (🇸🇦 KSA), a game developer founded by Sari and Firas AlSaedi, has raised $1.3M in a round led by Merak Capital to move beyond Roblox onto platforms including Steam and build its own intellectual property.

Wafr (🇦🇪 UAE), which digitises sukuk issuance, distribution, settlement and profit payments on a permissioned blockchain, has raised an undisclosed pre-seed from angels including Tyme Group co-founder Coen Jonker and former DBS chief innovation officer Neal Cross.

COGNNA (🇸🇦 KSA), a cybersecurity company whose Nexus platform pairs AI threat detection with analyst-led response, has received an undisclosed investment from Wa'ed Ventures. Neither the amount nor the stage was disclosed.

Mawsool (🇸🇦 KSA), which helps sales teams identify prospects and verify business contacts, has raised an undisclosed pre-seed from backers including Parachute16, THANAWI, Advanced Elements, Ghassan Halawa and Abdullah Al-Dosari.

Independent reporting, deep dives and analysis on the companies, investors and markets shaping tech across MENA.

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🤖 HUMAIN has hired Amal Dokhan, formerly 500 Global’s managing partner for MENA, to lead Limitless, its domestic initiative connecting Saudi AI startups with computing infrastructure, capital and customers. Dokhan joined full time in October and remains a part-time partner at 500 Global, where she ran early-stage investments and the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator Fund. Aramco’s third-quarter statements disclosed that Limitless is a fund in its own right, with the oil producer taking 49% of HUMAIN Limitless Fund LP alongside 49% of the operating company. HUMAIN has been recruiting for the operation since at least July, with roles spanning venture building, enterprise pilots and procurement access.

🏗️ Dubai Future District Fund has backed Zacua Ventures’ $135M second fund, more than twice the size of its $56M debut, targeting early-stage construction and industrial technology. Volvo Group Venture Capital, Holcim, Hilti and Trimble are among the strategic investors in the fund, giving portfolio companies routes into an industry that’s historically has been slow to digitise. The commitment follows DFDF investments in MetaProp, Isometric, Nordstar and BY Venture Partners this year.

💰 SVC has committed to Jadwa Investment’s flagship private credit fund, which provides Sharia-compliant financing largely to Saudi businesses. Jadwa says the fund has deployed more than SAR 400M across five investments. SVC’s cheque size hasn’t been disclosed. The commitment extends the state-backed fund of funds beyond equity into credit.

💳 Tabby Cash has passed 1 million UAE accounts, two months after opening to all eligible residents, and has added fee-free transfers to more than 50 countries alongside wallets including GCash, JazzCash and Vodafone Cash. Customers can also pay utility and telecom bills, spreading them over up to 12 months, and receive retailer refunds straight into the account. CEO Hosam Arab called it the fastest growing product the company has launched. Tabby hasn’t disclosed how many accounts are active, what balances they hold, or how many holders are new to the company. The account runs on the central bank wallet licence Tabby secured in April, and follows its $233M Series F at a $6.5B valuation in September.

🇰🇼 Kuwait’s central bank has issued its final open-banking framework, setting the rules for licensed providers to access customer account data and initiate payments. Kuwait becomes the fourth Gulf market with a live regime, after Bahrain made open banking mandatory in 2020, Saudi Arabia followed in 2022 and the UAE’s Open Finance framework went operational this year, between them producing licensed players including Tarabut, Lean Technologies and Spare.

📈 Tabby’s Saudi profit rebounded to $14.3M in Q3, up from $3.1M in the second quarter though still 9% below a year earlier, with revenue rising 9% to $113.6M. Its new longer-term consumer financing product contributed 14% of revenue in its first full quarter. SAMA issued a no-objection on 27 October for roughly $300M in additional foreign financing from an unnamed global institution, valid to the end of 2029, after successive filings in which auditors flagged borrowing above the regulator’s ceiling. EY’s latest review no longer carries that emphasis of matter. Tabby also drew $80M from Saudi National Bank through two commodity Murabaha transactions, as it broadens aits funding base.

📊 Tamara’s Saudi profit more than doubled to $54.3M in Q3, up 142% on the quarter and more than sevenfold year on year, with revenue rising 165% to $235.4M. Longer-term consumer financing receivables reached SAR 4.37bn, narrowly overtaking the SAR 4.31bn in pay-in-instalments and completing the shift away from the product the company was built on, as the gross loan book grew 34% in the quarter to $2.32bn. Islamic financing income was around a third of revenue, up from 27% in Q1. A roughly $200M debt tranche helped fund the expansion, with revenue growth comfortably outpacing rising credit losses after the squeeze that cut profit 32% in Q2.

🇪🇬 MNT-Halan’s Egyptian arm more than doubled net income quarter on quarter to $17.4M in Q3, in its first results since listing on the EGX on 20 October. Revenue rose 15% to $113M. Most of the jump came from selling loans on, with offloading income up 17% to $48M at a 34.3% margin, alongside cheaper funding and a one-off $5.8M gain from waiving an intercompany loan. Year on year the picture is weaker, with net income down 31% against an unusually strong Q3 2025 and interest income falling 40% as the company now sells the shorter-term portion of each loan to the debt market. The gross loan book grew 14% to $1B, with consumer finance rising to 29% of the book as SME lending slipped.

🧬 CE-Ventures has joined Oyster Therapeutics’ $60M financing, backing the UK biotech alongside lead investor 4BIO Capital and Eli Lilly. Oyster, previously Kesmalea Therapeutics, develops targeted protein-degradation treatments, starting with tau-related diseases including Alzheimer’s. Crescent Enterprises’ venture arm did not disclose the size of its cheque.

💼 Prosperity7 Ventures has joined Rox’s $100M Series B at a $1.3B valuation, co-led by General Catalyst and March Capital with Sequoia and Databricks Ventures also in. The SF-based company builds AI sales agents for large enterprises, handling pipeline generation, lead qualification and deal execution inside a customer’s existing systems, and says annual recurring revenue grew more than tenfold in its first year in market. Founded, Rox has concentrated on non-tech industries including energy, industrial manufacturing and medical technology, with Puma Energy and GitLab among named customers.

HealthStay’s founders explain why the patient journey is broken, how they’re fixing it and what happened when their UAE revenue stopped overnight.