Happy Friday friends 👋

We were awoken from our post-Eid stupor with a bang on Monday morning, with the surprising news that Uber is taking back a controlling stake in Careem, acquiring 12.5% from e& for $100 million in a move that effectively reverses the 2023 deal. It comes amid a tumultuous few weeks for the ecosystem's darling that has included mass layoffs across multiple markets, the closure of its Berlin office, and a wind-down of Saudi consumer services.

The food delivery drama doesn't stop there either, with Prosus fighting back against Uber's pursuit of Delivery Hero after receiving an EU waiver to extend its deadline to offload its stake, potentially introducing a third outcome for Talabat and HungerStation alongside an Uber takeover or a DoorDash carve-out.

On the VC side, we've got not one but two new funds launching this week. Anara Impact Capital has achieved a first close at $48 million, just shy of its $50 million target, to back seed and Series A startups across learning, wellbeing, and climate, while Dubai telecom operator du is entering the CVC game with a $50 million fund managed by Shorooq. There are also changes at the very top of SVC, with Nora Alsarhan succeeding founding chief Dr Nabeel Koshak as CEO effective 1 July, after six years at the helm.

And there's plenty more: Anthropic has confidentially filed to go public days after closing a $65 billion Series H, HUMAIN is getting into the robotaxi game with Nvidia (because why not we suppose), and ex-Talabat CEO Tomaso Rodriguez is leading a $250 million autonomous delivery venture called CargoX.

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This and much more below 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

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CargoX (🇦🇪 UAE), an autonomous last-mile, middle-mile, and long-haul delivery platform piloting driverless vehicles on public roads across Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has raised $250M, led by BlueFive Capital, with former talabat CEO Tomaso Rodriguez appointed as chief executive.

Efham.ai (🇪🇬 Egypt), an Arabic-language AI education platform built by venture studio NixAI, delivering practical AI training in Egyptian colloquial Arabic, has raised an undisclosed amount, backed by Foras.AI.

RSA XB (🇦🇪 UAE), a cross-border logistics platform for SMEs spun out of freight group RSA Global, has raised $1.5M in a Seed round, led by 21 Ventures.

🌱 Anara Impact Capital has achieved a first close of its debut fund at $48M, just shy of its $50M target. The MENA-focused impact fund, spun out of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy, will back seed and Series A startups across learning, wellbeing and climate. Anchors include KfW Development Bank (on behalf of the German government and European Commission), Jordan's ISSF and Dara Holdings. Managing Partner Nafez Dakkak previously founded Arabic education platform Edraak; the IC is chaired by Aramex founder Fadi Ghandour.

📱 Dubai telecom operator du has launched du Ventures, a $50M corporate venture fund managed by Shorooq. The fund will target startups aligned with du's telecom and digital services business; the company's only prior disclosed startup investment was in Anghami, which listed on Nasdaq in 2022. The mandate adds another vehicle to Shorooq's expansion past $1B in AUM, following its $100M Presight AI fund and $200M QIA-backed growth fund announced earlier this year at Web Summit in Doha.

🇸🇦 SVC has appointed Nora Alsarhan as CEO effective 1 July, succeeding founding chief Dr Nabeel Koshak after six years. Koshak will remain on the board. Alsarhan joined SVC in 2019 as investment director and rose through CIO and deputy CEO roles; she previously spent time at Monsha'at and EY and is a Kauffman Fellow. Under Koshak, SVC invested in more than 65 funds backing over 1,000 startups, with Saudi VC deployment growing roughly 26x between 2018 and 2025.

🚗 Uber is taking back a controlling stake in Careem, acquiring 12.5% from e& for $100M and reversing the 2023 deal in which the UAE telecoms group paid $400M for majority control of the super app. e&'s stake drops from 50.03% to 37.53%, with put and call options exercisable in late 2031. The move comes amid a significant Careem restructuring that saw layoffs across multiple markets, the closure of its Berlin office and a wind-down of Saudi consumer services.

🇪🇺 Prosus is exploring ways to block Uber's pursuit of Delivery Hero after the European Commission granted the Dutch investment group a waiver extending its deadline to sell down its stake, the FT reported. Prosus, which was required to reduce its holding to single digits by August as a condition of its €4.1B Just Eat acquisition, is now considering using the waiver to temporarily increase its shareholding. The move introduces a new obstacle for Uber, which has built a 37% economic stake at a €12B valuation and had its €33-per-share bid rebuffed last month. For Talabat and HungerStation, a Prosus intervention adds a third potential outcome alongside an Uber takeover or a DoorDash carve-out.

🗣️ Abu Dhabi-based CNTXT AI has acquired Actualize, a startup building Arabic voice agents trained on Gulf dialects that can execute tasks like bookings and transactions. Actualize was founded in 2023 by Muhammed Shabreen and Khalid Ghiboub, who join as CTO and VP of AI Models respectively, with a research team drawn from Google, Nokia and Siemens. CNTXT AI CEO Mohammad Abu Sheikh's Smpl Holdings, a $10M AI fund launched in 2024, was an early backer. Terms were not disclosed.

🤖 Anthropic has confidentially filed for an IPO days after closing a $65B Series H at a $965B valuation. The round was co-led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia, with both QIA and MGX confirming participation, marking the third consecutive Anthropic round for Qatar's sovereign fund. ARR has reached $47B, up from $9B at year-end. The filing makes Anthropic the third major AI company moving toward a 2026 listing after Cerebras and ahead of OpenAI, with xAI set to go public later this month as part of SpaceX.

⚡ ADIA-backed Innio jumped on its Nasdaq debut, closing above $33 for a $25B valuation after pricing at $27. The Munich-based maker of gas power systems for data centres is co-owned by Advent International and ADIA through a Luxembourg holding company, having spun off from GE in 2018. Innio took more than $1.6B in equipment orders in Q1 2026, up nearly 150% year-on-year, with over $1B coming from data centres as AI demand strains grid capacity.

🚕 HUMAIN is partnering with Nvidia to launch robotaxis in the Middle East. The PIF-owned AI company said the collaboration will enable the infrastructure and operational scale required for autonomous transportation across Saudi. Nvidia recently expanded its Drive Hyperion robotaxi platform for level-four autonomous fleets (no human driver within geofenced areas). Humain received a shipment of Nvidia's latest AI chips in December and signed a financing agreement of up to $1.2B with the National Infrastructure Fund in January.

⚖️ Byju's founder Byju Raveendran is appealing a Singapore High Court ruling sentencing him to six months in prison for contempt in a dispute with QIA over a $150M loan. A QIA spokesperson told AGBI that "no settlement appears achievable," contradicting Raveendran's claim that lenders had agreed terms in principle. The court found Raveendran had disobeyed multiple orders including allegedly transferring assets while under a global freezing order. Byju's raised over $6B at a peak $22B valuation before collapsing amid allegations that $533M was diverted to a hedge fund registered at a Miami pancake restaurant.

🛡️ Silicon Badia has participated in ZeroDrift's oversubscribed $10M seed round, backing the AI compliance startup three months after it launched out of stealth. ZeroDrift, founded by Kumesh Aroomoogan sits between enterprise AI systems and the outside world to enforce regulations on AI-generated messages before they're sent. The round was led by a16z Speedrun and closed in three weeks at 3x oversubscription. Silicon Badia, founded in 2012 by Fawaz Zu'bi, Namek Zu'bi and Emile Cubeisy with offices in Amman and New York, was the first Arab VC fund to establish a full-time US presence.

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