Happy Friday, friends 👋

If you missed our very good friends at Maqsam’s virtual event, The Future of Smart Services, where they unveiled the first truly native-Arabic AI agent (no translations, no awkward phrasing), you can watch the full announcement video here. It’s well worth your time.

In all honesty, it’s a struggle to know where to begin this week. Calo’s $39 million Series B extension, which blew its touted $25 million target right out of the water, is probably as good a place as any. AI-powered personalisation tools (hello, Calo Black), experimenting with physical retail, and circling a 2027 IPO – at this rate the Tadawul bell might be sporting a dent by year-end 2027.

Elsewhere, Egypt’s quick-commerce flag-bearer Breadfast has just banked a $10 million EBRD cheque in a still-quiet Novastar-led Series B2 round. Sweden-listed backer VNV Global’s H1 2025 report shows its stake in Breadfast jumping 31% in fair value in only six months, from $23.1 million to $30.2 million, implying a post-money valuation of roughly $382 million.

Revolut’s MENA flirtation rolls on: the UAE launch is almost here, and now the UK-born fintech powerhouse has fixed on Morocco as its North-African beachhead. Former Uber exec Amine Berrada is building a Casablanca team ahead of a licence application, setting Revolut on a collision course with heavyweight incumbent Cash Plus.

And staying with fintech, Saudi digital-payments up-and-comer Barq just marked its first birthday with some headline figures: 7 million customers, 6.5 million cards issued and $19.5 billion moved across 500M transactions. Light work.

P.S. This edition is jam-packed so to avoid getting cut-off we recommend reading online!

Now, let’s get into this week’s edition 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

Maqsam has unveiled the first truly native Arabic AI Agent!

Purpose-built for the Arab world, this breakthrough AI Agent understands and speaks Arabic natively, no translations, no awkward phrasing. It operates 24/7, handling high call volumes while freeing up human agents for more complex tasks.

Alongside this innovation, Maqsam introduced powerful smart features like semantic search, suggested replies, an IVR builder, and advanced number management.

🎥 Watch the full virtual event to see how Maqsam is redefining the future of Arabic customer service.

كشفت مقسم عن أول وكيل ذكي عربي!

مصمَّم خصيصًا للعالم العربي، يقدّم الوكيل الذكي الثوري تجربة غير مسبوقة، حيث يفهم ويتحدث العربية بطلاقة، دون ترجمة أو تعابير مصطنعة.
العميل الذكي يعمل على مدار الساعة، ويتعامل بكفاءة مع عدد كبير من المكالمات، ما يتيح لممثلي الخدمة التركيز على القضايا الأكثر تعقيدًا.

وبجانب هذا الإنجاز، أطلقت مقسم مجموعة من الميزات الذكية المتقدمة، تشمل: البحث الدلالي، الردود المقترحة، مُنشئ الرد التفاعلي الآلي (IVR)، وإدارة متقدمة للأرقام.

🎥 شاهد الحدث الافتراضي بالكامل لتكتشف كيف تغيّر مقسم شكل مستقبل خدمة العملاء بالعربية

Calo (🇸🇦 KSA / 🇧🇭 Bahrain), the Riyadh‑based meal‑subscription startup, has raised $39M in a Series B extension led by AlJazira Capital, bringing the round to $64M. The funding will accelerate European expansion following its UK acquisitions, roll out AI‑powered personalisation tools including “Calo Black”, and grow its physical retail network ahead of a planned 2027 IPO.

Sawt (🇸🇦 KSA), an AI-powered Arabic voice platform enabling businesses to handle bookings, sales, and support through natural-sounding, always-on AI agents, has raised $1 million in pre-Seed funding led by T2 and STV’s newly launched AI Fund, to scale technical infrastructure, expand its team, and enhance proprietary Arabic-native voice AI models.

Flex League (🇸🇦 KSA), a tennis and padel tournament management platform offering SaaS tools for stadium facilities, ranking systems, and flexible match scheduling, has raised a six‑figure Seed round from PAD‑L Group and the Tennis and Professional Sports Academy.

Olivery (🇵🇸 Palestine / 🇯🇴 Jordan), a B2B logistics software startup offering a low‑code/no‑code delivery management platform for couriers, e‑commerce brands, and retailers, has raised a Seed round from Ibtikar Fund and the Flat6Labs Mashreq Seed Fund, to roll out AI‑powered predictive routing and expand regionally across MENA.

Mataa (🇱🇾 Libya), an e‑commerce platform offering express delivery and a marketplace for local merchants, has raised a Seed round from a group of Libyan business angels, to enhance first‑ and last‑mile logistics, expand warehouse capacity, and onboard more suppliers and product categories.

Feature

In the Gulf, “debt” carries more baggage than in the West. It’s not just a financial term, it’s cultural, even religious. For founders, that can make the idea of borrowing to grow a lot more complicated than raising equity.

That’s why venture debt here isn’t a carbon‑copy of the Silicon Valley model.

It’s being rebuilt to fit the region: Murabaha mark‑ups instead of interest, revenue‑share buybacks instead of rigid instalments, and new structures like NICE and WAQFA that keep funding both founder‑friendly and Shariah‑compliant.

🌍 Revolut has appointed former Uber exec Amine Berrada to lead its planned entry into Morocco, targeting the country’s large remittance corridor and growing digital payments market. The $45B‑valued fintech is building a Casablanca‑based team ahead of applying for a local license, but will face a heavily regulated market dominated by Cash Plus, which processed over $10B in 2024 and is itself undergoing a major digital push.

🔓 Lean Technologies has secured In‑Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the UAE under the country’s new Open Finance Framework, becoming one of the first fintechs to operate under the regime. The infrastructure provider, whose clients include Tabby, Talabat, and Careem, has processed $2B+ in transaction volume and raised $100M+ to date. The approval marks a key step toward full licensing, enabling Lean to scale compliant payments and data‑sharing infrastructure.

💳 Barq, the Saudi digital payments platform, has marked its first anniversary with 7M customers, 6.5M+ cards issued, and SAR 73B+ ($19.5B) moved across 500M+ transactions. Serving users from 150+ nationalities, Barq says it’s now one of the fastest‑growing fintechs in the Kingdom, built on a low‑cost, high‑velocity payments model.

🛒 Sweden‑listed VNV Global has increased the fair value of its 7.9% stake in Egypt’s quick‑commerce player Breadfast to $30.2M as of 30 June 2025, up from $23.1M six months earlier – a 31% uplift that implies a post‑money valuation of about $382M, per it’s latest financial report for H1 2025. The re‑rating bucks a wider downtrend in VNV’s African holdings and is supported by strong operating data: Breadfast’s 39 fulfilment centres now handle close to 1M orders a month from 300K+ active users across four Egyptian cities. In a further vote of confidence, the EBRD this week disclosed a $10M investment into Breadfast (part of a Novastar‑led Series B2 extension) to fund new hubs, expand own‑brand lines, and scale its fintech arm Breadfast Pay.

🇪🇬 Elmenus, the Cairo‑based food delivery platform that has raised $30M to date, has appointed former Otlob CEO Walid El‑Saadany as chief executive, succeeding founder Amir Allam after 14 years. The leadership change comes as Elmenus (Egypt’s only notable local competitor to Talabat) looks to expand beyond Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria, aiming to onboard 4,000+ restaurants in underserved cities (up from 1,000 today).

🇸🇦 Meituan’s Keeta has announced an expansion to 20 Saudi cities, adding 11 new locations, and onboarding 7,500 mostly Saudi‑born merchants alongside 18,000+ new riders. The rollout includes tailored partnerships, offers, and community initiatives, with GM Ashley Wang highlighting its “people‑first” focus on empowering local restaurants and enhancing choice for consumers.

📊 Riyadh‑based restaurant management and fintech platform Foodics has posted double‑digit H1 2025 growth and brought Kuwait’s Kamco Invest on board as a strategic investor. The company now serves 33,500+ active branches (+23% YoY), processed $6B GMV (+27%), and saw payment volume climb 38%. ARR rose 29%, with international revenue up 56% on rising adoption of its embedded financial services. Kamco’s private equity arm acquired an undisclosed stake, part of its push into high‑growth Gulf tech with IPO potential. The deal follows Foodics’ $170M Series C in 2022 led by Prosus and Sanabil, and positions the company for a potential Tadawul listing within 2–3 years.

💵 Partners for Growth (PFG) has marked five years in the GCC, deploying $300M+ in growth debt to tech‑led businesses including Tabby, TruKKer, Bayzat, Syarah, Huspy, and Silkhaus. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2004, the firm has introduced Sharia‑compliant facilities with backing from SVC and PIF‑backed Jada, helping make venture/growth debt a mainstream alternative to equity as founders seek runway extension and non‑dilutive expansion capital.

🌐 Syria Angels Network has launched with backing from the Ministry of Communications and IT to connect early‑stage Syrian startups with local and diaspora investors. Over 30 investors have pledged nearly $10M in initial commitments, with the network set to host regular pitch meetings, facilitate co‑investment syndicates, and train new angels, creating a much‑needed pathway for founders navigating one of the region’s toughest fundraising environments.

🧬 Qatar Investment Authority has joined a $132 million Series B for US cancer therapy developer Artbio, marking its first investment in the company. The round, led by Sofinnova Investments and B Capital, will advance Artbio’s clinical-stage targeted alpha radiotherapies. QIA, with over $524 billion in AUM, has been ramping up biotech exposure, recently investing $250M in healthcare firm Karidum.

💳 CE-Ventures, the VC arm of Crescent Enterprises, has invested in fintech infrastructure leaders Plaid and Mesh. Plaid, which streamlines bank connectivity for services like lending and payments, raised $575 million led by Franklin Templeton. Mesh, building blockchain-based asset transfer infrastructure, secured $82 million led by Paradigm. Both investments align with CE-Ventures’ vision for open, programmable financial systems.

🤝 G42 is close to sealing a deal with Northern Data AG, Europe’s largest cloud provider, to access 11,500 NVIDIA GPUs via Taiga Cloud, according to Bloomberg. The move would give Core42 – G42’s sovereign cloud arm – immediate AI compute in Europe as it builds out new data centres in France and Italy, following June’s launch of G42 Europe & UK. The deal could fast‑track G42’s capacity plans while complementing recent European partnerships, including a €1B iGenius tie‑up for the NVIDIA Blackwell‑powered Colosseum supercomputer in Italy and an AMD‑powered AI facility in France.

📺 Netflix and MBC Group’s Shahid have launched the Middle East’s first joint streaming subscription, aiming to tap into each other’s audiences and boost market share. The bundle is priced about 20% lower than subscribing to both services separately.

Shahid dominates the region’s $1 billion streaming market with a 22% share, driven by Arabic dramas and MBC classics popular with older viewers. Netflix ranks third at 17%, well ahead of Amazon Prime and Disney+ at around 5% each.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which acquired a 54% stake in MBC last year for roughly $2 billion, is backing the initiative as part of its push to grow the Kingdom’s digital media sector.

🛰️ Abu Dhabi-based Madari Space plans to launch its first low Earth orbit data centers in Q3 2026, CEO Shareef Al Romaithi told Bloomberg. The facilities will process AI models using space-generated data and offer secure, extra-territorial data storage for governments and enterprises. Falling satellite launch costs have made the concept both feasible and strategically valuable for deeper space exploration.

🗺️ Abu Dhabi’s Space42, Microsoft, and US mapping firm Esri are teaming up on a five-year initiative to create a digital map of Africa, covering 54 countries. The project aims to close critical data gaps that hinder infrastructure development, investment, and planning. Space42 will provide satellite data and digital twin models, Microsoft will supply cloud and AI tools, and Esri will oversee production. The UAE, Africa’s largest foreign investor in 2024 with $44 billion committed, sees the project as a boost for logistics, renewable energy, urban planning, and emergency response.

With thanks to our sponsors:

This week on VC React, we dig into Anthropic’s Dario Amodei’s Gulf money u-turn, size up Elon’s Saudi megacluster ambitions, ask whether QR‑pay darling Qlub can outrun copycats, and we weigh up 500 Global’s new Abu-Dhabi-based $300 million “Sustainable Growth Fund”.