Happy Friday friends 👋

Quel surprise, Uber’s recent shopping spree continues to have regional ripple effects. German corporate filings reviewed by FWDstart show four Saudi and Emirati shareholders, TASARU Mobility Investments, ALFAHIM, Gargash Enterprises and Daman Investments, holding a combined 22.6% of Blacklane, meaning Uber’s $554 million cash acquisition could translate into roughly $125 million for its Gulf backers. We piece together ownership percentages and potential returns here.

Fresh from its Q3 filings, Uber has also singled out Middle East dark stores in its Delivery Hero takeover, unsurprising given the region generated 59% of Delivery Hero’s first-half adjusted EBITDA.

In Saudi, Aramco has acquired 49% of HUMAIN in a deal including a $2.6 billion cash injection, and the CMA has followed its fund disclosure proposals with tighter IPO rules on forecasts, investor bids and underwriting, after ten of the 13 companies that listed last year fell below their IPO price in jig time. That said, the response among those we’ve spoken to has been decidedly mixed.

Elsewhere, Journify has raised a $12 million Series A to take its advertising data platform into the US and Europe, Egypt’s Enza has added a $6 million seed extension to expand across Africa, and on the podcast, Stride’s Fariha Ansari Javed on how to raise a fund in the Gulf.

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This and much (much) more below 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

Journify (🇦🇪 UAE), which connects companies' online and offline customer data to advertising platforms, has raised $12M in a Series A led by Al Mada Ventures and co-led by Silicon Badia, with Shorooq and Bunat Ventures returning.

Enza (🇪🇬 Egypt), which supplies banks and fintechs with infrastructure for accepting and processing payments across Africa, has raised a $6M seed extension led by 4DX Ventures, bringing in British International Investment alongside existing backers Quona Capital and Algebra Ventures.

mamun (🇴🇲 Oman), a Sharia-compliant trade finance platform that underwrites working capital against contracts, buyer data and shipping records, has raised $3M in a seed led by Phaze Oman Fund, with Jasoor participating, to expand financing between the Gulf and Asia.

44.01 (🇴🇲 Oman), which mineralises carbon dioxide into rock for permanent storage, has received an undisclosed strategic investment from Holcim and JERA, with follow-on backing from ALIAD and Climate Investment.

Tanami (🇧🇭 Bahrain), a digital private-markets platform also present in Saudi under a CMA licence, has received an undisclosed strategic investment from Mumtalakat, its second raise in two months after September's round for Qatar expansion.

Soter Insure (🇦🇪 UAE), an insurer for institutional digital-asset holdings, has added SC Ventures and SBI to its Series B in a second close, with Token Bay Capital following on. Galaxy led the initial close in July and the incremental amount wasn’t disclosed.

Percent Labs (🇸🇾 Syria), a cloud-kitchen operator running several delivery food brands from shared infrastructure, has raised an undisclosed seed from Syrian diaspora angels.

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

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We break down what Uber’s acquisition could mean for the Saudi sovereign investor and Emirati family businesses that backed Blacklane, from potential payouts to estimated returns.

🛢️ Aramco has acquired 49% of HUMAIN in a deal involving $2.6B in cash and the transfer of AI and computing assets, with PIF retaining 51% of the company it launched in May 2025. Neither side disclosed a valuation, the assets being transferred, or any purchasing commitments, though Aramco said it expects to use HUMAIN’s infrastructure across its own operations. HUMAIN has separately absorbed CNTXT, the Saudi enterprise cloud and AI services business, taking on its staff, proprietary products and customer base, a second piece of consolidation after SCAI was folded in earlier. The company is targeting three gigawatts of data-centre capacity by 2030, with CEO Tareq Amin having floated a Tadawul and Nasdaq listing around 2029.

🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi signed four agreements with OpenAI during Sam Altman’s visit on 2 November, spanning government, energy, investment and education. ADNOC becomes the first energy company to deploy OpenAI Frontier, running on G42’s UAE infrastructure, while the government launched an initiative converting policies into machine-readable formats, already piloting on food imports. Mubadala will apply AI to investment analysis, and Inception42, a party to three of the four deals, signed a five-year adoption agreement. Separately, OpenAI is reported to be raising around $30B at a $1.4T valuation, with MGX among the UAE funds in talks to contribute as much as $10B.

📋 Saudi has tightened its IPO rules, with the CMA approving changes on 2 November that require companies to publish financial forecasts in their prospectuses covering the rest of the current year and at least the one after, along with the methodology, assumptions and risks behind them. Underwriters must now sign binding agreements before book-building begins and remain obliged to buy the shares even if the listing can’t proceed. Investors’ orders must be checked against available cash and become binding for payment, aimed at stopping inflated order books from propping up the offer price. The reforms follow Semafor’s report in August that the regulator was examining recent listings and the pricing advice banks gave issuers, after ten of the 13 companies that listed in 2025 fell below their IPO price.

The agreed acquisition would give Uber control of Talabat and HungerStation and their grocery fulfilment networks in a region that generated 59% of Delivery Hero’s first-half adjusted EBITDA.

🤖 Prosperity7 Ventures has joined the initial close of Cohere’s Series E, a round targeting up to $5B at a $25.5B valuation. The Canadian company builds enterprise AI, including its North agentic platform, and reports 165% annual recurring revenue growth. Aramco’s venture arm has been steadily building AI exposure, having backed NeuBird, Gimlet Labs and Together AI this year. Founded in 2019, Cohere has positioned itself around enterprise and sovereign deployments rather than consumer products.

🔐 22/x has made a strategic equity investment in Context Labs, with the US company setting up its regional headquarters in the UAE as part of the deal. Context Labs, founded in 2013, verifies data cryptographically at the point it is created, with applications across energy, utilities and critical infrastructure. The investment amount was not disclosed.

$50M fundraising asks, founders’ credit scores and what surprised Stride’s Fariha Ansari Javed about Saudi capital.