Happy Friday friends 👋

It’s earnings season, and as per usual, our quarterly check-up on Saudi’s BNPL duopoly has raised more than a few eyebrows.

On a like-for-like basis, Tamara grew Saudi Q2 revenue 152% YoY to $188 million, while net profit of $22 million fell 32% from Q1 as credit and funding costs climbed. Tabby, on the other hand, grew revenue 21% to $104 million, while profit fell 54% to $3.1 million. We’ve unpacked both in greater detail here, lest this intro become as long as your arm.

It’s a packed earnings week beyond the BNPL pair too, with MENA’s public-market tech outfits reporting. Talabat raised full-year guidance across every metric even as Q2 profit dipped under its investment programme, Saudi insurtech Rasan more than doubled revenue, and Jahez swung to a loss as its Saudi business spends heavily to claw back market share ceded to Keeta.

Also very much worth your attention, Semafor’s Matthew Martin has an exclusive on Saudi Arabia’s CMA investigating the poor performance of recent IPOs and questioning the advice banks gave companies on pricing. Ten of the 13 companies that listed in 2025 were trading below their IPO price by January, while close to 100 companies are waiting in the queue and no significant listing has closed so far this year.

And on the podcast this week, we sit down for arguably our favourite episode to date with the legend that is Bayt’s Rabea Ataya. We talk capital, ownership, staying hungry, building for decades, and why the playbook that once made him successful would probably fail today.

As always, if you're enjoying the newsletter, please consider supporting our ability to grow by becoming a premium subscriber. And if you're interested in multi-seat access, just give us a shout.

This and much more below 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

Independent reporting, deep dives and analysis on the companies, investors and markets shaping technology across the Middle East and North Africa.

Naran (🇦🇪 UAE), a mobility financing platform offering rent-to-own vehicle contracts to ride-hailing and delivery drivers who lack access to bank credit, operating in Côte d'Ivoire, Colombia, Senegal, and Peru, has raised $10M in equity and debt financing from Landel.

Arab Therapy (🇯🇴 Jordan), an Arabic-language mental health platform offering online therapy with licensed specialists alongside AI tools and content, serving both consumers and enterprises, has raised $2M in a pre-Series A round, led by Manara Ventures, with participation from Anara Impact Fund and Value Makers Studio.

Majestic Mind Games (🇸🇦 KSA), a Jeddah game studio developing original PC titles with selected releases on console and mobile, has raised $1.45M, co-led by Merak Capital and Impact46.

Fitting (🇸🇦 KSA), a construction technology platform digitising procurement between suppliers, contractors, and real estate developers, has raised $1.1M in a second Seed round from an undisclosed strategic investor in the contracting and real estate development sector.

Cobi (🇦🇪 UAE), an AI customer intelligence platform that reads behavioural, transactional, and engagement data in real time and recommends next actions through a company's existing systems, has raised $1M in a pre-Seed round, led by Lunara Partners, with participation from Plug and Play, Annex Investments, and Spring.

Soor (🇧🇭 Bahrain), a CBB-licensed insurtech letting users compare and buy policies from multiple insurers through one app, has raised an undisclosed pre-Seed round from Spring, the venture studio backed by Salica and Al Waha Fund of Funds.

🛵 Talabat raised full-year guidance across every metric after H1 GMV grew 15% to $5.6B, even as Q2 profit fell 18% to $100M under its $120M investment programme, with non-GCC markets in Egypt, Jordan and Iraq growing GMV 41% against 5% in the Gulf. Read more

🛡️ Rasan more than doubled Q2 revenue to $68M and grew net profit 115% to $23M, with the Saudi insurtech's H1 adjusted profit up 158% on the launch of new products and improved operating efficiency. Read more

🍔 Jahez swung to a $4.6M net loss in Q2 despite revenue climbing 34.5% to $203M, with the newly consolidated Snoonu lifting international revenue fivefold while the Saudi business absorbed heavy spending on customer acquisition to claw back market share. Read more

💄 Nice One posted a $5.3M net loss in Q2 on sales of $50M, down from a $344k loss a year earlier, as the Saudi beauty e-commerce platform swung to a first-half loss with revenue falling. Read more

📊 Valu grew net income 43% year on year to around $10M in H1 2026 on 29% revenue growth, though quarterly momentum cooled sharply with Q2 profit up around 23% against Q1's 78%, as auto-financing product Shift nearly doubled and prepaid card spending jumped 64%. Read more

💸 Tamara's Saudi Q2 revenue more than doubled to $188M, up 152% YoY, though net profit of $22M fell 32% from Q1 as credit and funding costs climbed. The company's newer Sharia-compliant lending product now accounts for $837M in receivables, nearly matching the $896M in the pay-in-four product Tamara was built on. Credit charges absorbed 27% of quarterly revenue and the Goldman, Citi and Apollo facility is now fully drawn at $1.54B. The gap with Tabby widened sharply, with Tamara generating 82% more revenue and more than seven times the profit.

💰 Tabby's Saudi profit fell 54% in Q2, with the unit earning $3.1M on revenue of $104M, up 21% YoY but down on Q1. One of the standout takeaways is the BNPL unicorn’s shrinking loan book, down 11% since March, with customers repaying $97.5M more than Tabby lent out between April and June. Loans more than 90 days overdue climbed to 9.5% from 7.7%. Fees charged directly to shoppers, led by its instalment "snooze" feature, tripled and now make up 17.5% of revenue.

🍽️ qlub, the Dubai-based startup that lets diners scan a QR code to view, split and pay restaurant bills, has received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for a Retail Payment Services licence, a step toward processing payments directly rather than through partners. The company most recently a $30M round last year co-led by Shorooq and Cherry Ventures with Mubadala and e& participating. qlub’s founders, Eyad Alkassar and Mahmoud Fouz, also recently launched Syria-based super app Labby raising $10 million from a group of UAE and Saudi investors .

📊 Saudi Arabia's CMA is investigating the poor performance of recent IPOs, Semafor's Matthew Martin reported, questioning the advice investment banks gave companies on pricing. The probe covers listings back to at least early 2025 and has seen the regulator request records of pricing decisions, allocations and subsequent trades. Ten of the 13 companies that listed in 2025 were trading below their IPO price by January, with flynas and Specialized Medical Company both well underwater before the war destroyed demand. Close to 100 companies are waiting to list but no significant IPO has closed this year. The CMA is expected to report to the government with proposals to revive activity, though it is not expected to recommend action against banks.

🇶🇦 Qatar's Rasmal Ventures has invested in Yuno's $45M Series B, as the Colombian payments infrastructure company establishes Qatar as its GCC regional hub. Yuno, founded in 2022 by Rappi co-founder Juan Pablo Ortega and Julián Núñez, connects businesses to more than 1,000 payment methods across 190 countries through a single API, with clients including McDonald's, inDrive and Rappi. The round was led by Global PayTech Ventures with a16z, Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi's Further Ventures participating. Yuno received SAMA certification in April and has partnerships with Tap Payments and Tabby, connecting it to more than 25 million Gulf shoppers.

🏦 Stride Ventures has rebranded as Stride Asset Management, moving the venture debt firm into multi-strategy private markets across venture debt, growth credit, special situations and co-investments, operating in India, the GCC, UK and Europe, and Southeast Asia. Founded in 2019 by Ishpreet Singh Gandhi, the firm has enabled more than $1.6B in credit across a 210-company portfolio and is targeting $500M+ in GCC AUM by 2028. Its Gulf build-out includes an ADGM fund backed by PIF's Jada, the fund of funds' first commitment to an India-based manager, and a partnership with SAB Invest.

🎵 Anghami co-founder Eddy Maroun has launched IPNation, a UAE-HQ’d investment platform for Arabic music catalogs and entertainment IP, targeting $100M with an initial commitment from Influence Media Partners, the BlackRock-backed rights company behind catalogs from DJ Khaled and Future. The firm plans to acquire music masters, publishing rights and artist brands from the Arab world and develop them into franchises spanning live shows, gaming and film. MENA recorded music revenues grew 15.2% in 2025, joint second-fastest globally. The launch comes as OSN moves to take Anghami private at $3.39 per share.

🎓 Wadi Jeddah, King Abdulaziz University's investment arm, is preparing a $10M venture capital fund for an early 2027 launch, targeting Saudi startups nationwide as well as international companies entering the Kingdom. The fund is designed to bridge the "valley of death" between product development and commercial viability, with a focus on research-driven sectors including AI, biotech, pharma and smart cities. Wadi Jeddah will contribute part of the capital while raising the rest from private investors, and plans to potentially double the fund's size over the next decade. Alongside the fund, its incubator has selected 10 startups for SAR 100,000 investments each.

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