Happy Friday, friends 👋

We find ourselves criss crossing time zones at the moment, so apologies if send times are somewhat erratic over the coming weeks.

In any case, there is plenty to sink our teeth into this week. We scarcely thought our film studies background would ever prove explicitly useful when covering the machinations of Gulf technology and sovereign ambition, but lo and behold, this week delivered something squarely at the intersection of Hollywood and Gulf capital power plays.

News broke that David Ellison’s Paramount hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros has the backing of Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, alongside not one, not two, but three Gulf heavyweights: Qatar Investment Authority, Saudi Arabia’s PIF, and the previously little known Abu Dhabi based L’imad Holdings. Needless to say, seeing three Gulf powerhouses unite behind a single deal is far from the norm. We dig into everything you need to know about the story and the Gulf players involved in this dedicated deep dive.

Elsewhere, in a story that speaks to the more familiar fragmented and siloed approach Gulf states tend to take, particularly when it comes to sovereign AI capabilities, Qatar this week announced the long rumoured launch of QAI. In a notable divergence from its neighbours, Qatar has confirmed it will not pursue the development of its own sovereign foundation models. Instead, QAI’s remit is explicitly focused on evaluating and commercialising existing foundational models, alongside building applied systems such as autonomous agents.

A moment as well for CoinMENA, which has been acquired by Turkish exchange Paribu in a deal that could be worth up to $240M. The acquisition grants Paribu coveted regulatory licences from both Dubai’s VARA and the Central Bank of Bahrain.

And last but not least, we want to once again draw your attention to two new projects we were extraordinarily excited and proud to launch this week.

The first episode of the FWDstart Podcast featuring Omnivore’s Mark Kahn is now live. Thank you to everyone who has shared feedback so far. We’re very excited to be back in your inbox again this Monday with another new episode.

Thank you as well for the overwhelmingly positive response to the first instalment of our investigation into Egypt’s semiconductor industry.

If you’d like to support the publication and help us continue pushing the boat out on original and deeply reported coverage of the MENA startup and venture ecosystem, you can grab yourself a premium subscription here. Every little really helps.

This and much more below 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

Byit Capital (🇦🇪 UAE), an agent-first proptech platform offering freelance brokers up to 90% of developers' commissions with access to verified inventory across 1,000+ mapped projects, has raised $1.1M from A15, Beltone Holding and angel investors, to strengthen UAE operations, fast-track entry into Saudi Arabia and expand its developer ecosystem across the GCC.

Hypemasters (🇦🇪 UAE), an international game studio building competitive mid-core strategy titles for mobile and PC with over 7 million players globally, has raised $1M led by Impact46 with participation from GEM Capital, to deepen regional presence, expand the team and advance development of its next-generation strategy games including a title currently in soft launch.

MASAHA (🇰🇼 Kuwait), an AI-powered platform digitising Gulf thobe tailoring through virtual fitting, automation and direct tailor connections, has closed its second Seed round at a $1.5M valuation from Fifty Studios Holding, Green Company and angel investors, to expand across GCC markets and roll out new AI-driven features for the tailoring ecosystem.

Qadi (🇦🇪 UAE), a sovereign regulatory compliance platform converting MENAT laws, regulations and internal policies into AI agents that automate compliance determinations, has emerged from stealth with pre-Seed funding led by Incubayt, to expand its AI and legal engineering teams and deploy to select law firms and financial institutions across the GCC.

Qwacks (🇸🇦 KSA), a gametech startup building unified infrastructure for game development and live operations through backend services, AI-powered playtesting and market intelligence tools, has raised

$480K pre-Seed from Merak Capital, to expand its technology stack, deepen product integrations and serve more studios across Saudi Arabia and the region.

🇶🇦 Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund QIA is adding Founders Circle Capital to its $1B Fund of Funds programme, backing the San Francisco–based growth investor as part of its push to deepen Qatar’s venture ecosystem with a focus on tech and healthcare. As part of the partnership, FCC will open its first international office in Doha, which will serve as its MENA headquarters and support high-growth startups globally across software, cloud, fintech, healthcare and consumer internet. Through the programme, Qatar has already drawn several global firms to establish a local presence, with Builders VC, Utopia Capital Management, B Capital, Deerfield and Human Capital all opening offices in Doha.

🧬 Abu Dhabi–based Hashgraph Ventures has completed the first close of its Web3 and AI early-stage fund. Regulated by ADGM’s FSRA, the firm launched its $100M Hashgraph Venture Fund I in 2024 and targets Seed through Series B investments across blockchain and deep tech. Its first disclosed deal includes participation in the seed round of Bloxtel, a telecom infrastructure startup leveraging tokenised eSIM technology and blockchain-enabled 5G access points.

🪙 Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has secured a Financial Services Permission from ADGM, allowing it to operate as a Money Services Provider in the UAE. Issued by ADGM’s FSRA following in-principle approval in April, the license enables Circle to support USDC-powered payments, settlements and financial use cases across the country, building on earlier recognition of USDC and EURC under Dubai’s regulatory regime. Alongside the approval, Circle appointed former Visa executive Dr. Saeeda Jaffar as Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa.

💳 Abu Dhabi–based private credit platform Zelo has secured a $715M capital allocation from IHC to scale its supply chain financing operations and expand SME liquidity across the Middle East, as it targets $1B in gross financing volume by 2026, a fivefold increase from current levels. Founded in 2020 and operating as an IHC subsidiary, Zelo provides invoice financing, bank guarantees and embedded finance to SMEs across sectors including construction, oil and gas, infrastructure, healthcare and FMCG, addressing a structural regional SME credit gap estimated at USD 250B.

🟡 Binance has secured full regulatory approval from ADGM’s FSRA for its global platform, Binance.com, marking the first time a major crypto exchange has brought its worldwide operations under a comprehensive, multi-entity regulatory framework. The authorisation covers three ADGM-based entities spanning exchange, clearing and custody, and broker-dealer activities, allowing Binance to operate spot and derivatives trading, custody, settlement, and OTC services under one of the world’s most stringent financial regimes.

💰 CoinMENA has been acquired by Türkiye’s largest digital asset platform Paribu in a deal valued at up to $240 million, marking Türkiye’s biggest fintech transaction to date and its first cross-border acquisition of a regulated crypto exchange, as Paribu expands beyond its home market into MENA at a time when licensing is a key competitive moat. CoinMENA operates under licenses from Dubai’s VARA and the Central Bank of Bahrain, giving Paribu immediate access to two active regulatory regimes and positioning it as one of the few multi-jurisdiction regulated crypto operators in the region. Founded in 2020 by Talal Tabbaa and Dina Sam’an, CoinMENA serves 1.5M+ users across 45 countries and has raised nearly $20M from investors including BECO Capital, Arab Bank Switzerland, Circle and Bunat Ventures.

🇶🇦 Qatar has launched a new national AI company, Qai, under the Qatar Investment Authority. Backed by the $524B sovereign fund, Qai will invest in AI infrastructure, provide high-performance computing and offer applied AI tools to organisations in Qatar, positioning the country alongside regional peers like Abu Dhabi’s G42 and Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN. Unlike model builders, Qai will focus on evaluating and commercialising existing foundation models and developing applied systems such as autonomous agents. Chaired by Abdulla Al-Misnad from the prime minister’s office, the move follows QIA’s recent backing of Anthropic and signals a more hands-on approach as Gulf states compete to attract compute, talent and sovereign-backed AI activity, even as Qatar will still need US approval to import advanced chips at scale.

🤖 Brookfield and Qai, have launched a $20B joint venture to build large-scale AI infrastructure in Qatar and select international markets. The partnership will develop fully integrated AI facilities, with capital and operating support from both parties and backing from the Qatari government to strengthen local skills, supply chains, and the wider digital ecosystem.

🛒 Nuwa Capital has led a new investment round in GoWit Technology, an AI-powered retail media platform helping retailers across MENA and EMEA monetise first-party data and in-store activity, with participation from Formus Capital, APY Ventures, and Diffusion Capital Partners. The funding will support regional expansion and further development of GoWit’s unified AI-driven retail media platform, already used by retailers including CarrefourSA, Union Coop, Mumzworld, Toters, and Raneen, as the MENA retail media market heads toward an estimated USD 6.35B by 2030.