Analysis

Fintech

+4

Palmer Luckey’s banking on Syria, and why noon is cashing out of payments

Oct 19, 2026

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8 min read

Palmer Luckey’s banking on Syria, and why noon is cashing out of payments

Why Syria’s banking system remains broken despite sanctions relief, whose interests Palmer Luckey’s Erebor’s arrival could serve, and what noon’s payments sale reveals about NEOPAY’s regional ambitions and noon’s priorities ahead of a potential IPO.

Pakistan

+4

After Careem’s exit, Pakistan’s ride-hailing market is confronting the price of trust

Oct 7, 2026

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16 min read

After Careem’s exit, Pakistan’s ride-hailing market is confronting the price of trust

Careem helped make private mobility viable for a generation of Pakistani women. When the company suspended its Pakistan ride-hailing service in July 2025, CEO Mudassir Sheikha said the economics had become increasingly difficult to justify, exposing a harder question over whether the market can reproduce the service women came to trust at a price most can afford.

Fintech

+4

Open finance, AI agents and the price of being chosen

Sep 30, 2026

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12 min read

Open finance, AI agents and the price of being chosen

The UAE’s open finance payment volumes have nearly quadrupled in three months, with Lean doing almost all the running. Now add AI agents to the mix, and there’s the small matter of who wins the customer, who moves the money, and who gets to take a cut.

Public Markets

+5

Inside Abhi’s IPO: the bank, the gold book and the logic behind its listing

Sep 9, 2026

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14 min read

Inside Abhi’s IPO: the bank, the gold book and the logic behind its listing

Abhi is preparing to list the Pakistani microfinance bank that now accounts for roughly four-fifths of its lending, with gold-backed loans at the heart of the business. We dug into the numbers and spoke with founder Omair Ansari about why it’s going public now and what investors are actually buying.

Public Markets

+4

Inside Talabat’s numbers: is it undervalued?

Aug 19, 2026

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14 min read

Inside Talabat’s numbers: is it undervalued?

Talabat underspent its defence budget against Keeta, raised its full-year guidance, and turned Egypt into a cash generator, proving its Q2 profit squeeze was more a calculated flex, than a stumble.

Analysis

+1

A terrible business, but an amazing Trojan horse

Aug 12, 2026

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20 min read

A terrible business, but an amazing Trojan horse

As SILQ closes $100 million for its embedded finance arm Fina, the survivors of the B2B marketplace crash are out to parlay their order data into fintech empires.

Analysis

+1

Digging into Travis Kalanick’s $2B Gulf food computer

Aug 5, 2026

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24 min read

Digging into Travis Kalanick’s $2B Gulf food computer

Inside the cloud-kitchen infrastructure bet once headed for Tadawul, which survived the bust, expanded across the Gulf and now sits beneath Kalanick’s $1.7B a16z-backed Atoms comeback.

Food Delivery

+3

SCOOP: Careem’s first public P&L reveals widening losses as growth slows sharply

Aug 3, 2026

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7 min read

SCOOP: Careem’s first public P&L reveals widening losses as growth slows sharply

e& disclosures show the Everything App lost $122M at the operating level in the first half of 2026, while revenue growth slowed sharply before the Abu Dhabi group agreed to relinquish control.

Analysis

+1

The rise and fall of the B2B e-commerce marketplace

Jul 29, 2026

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27 min read

The rise and fall of the B2B e-commerce marketplace

Across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, B2B marketplaces like Wasoko, Sary and MaxAB raised hundreds of millions to digitise informal retail, backed by aggressive growth capital from kingmakers like Tiger Global. But when subsidised expansion collided with razor-thin margins, the category unravelled. Inside the boom, the bust, and the quiet pivot of the survivors.

Analysis

+1

The year debt out-deployed equity in the Gulf

Jul 8, 2026

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13 min read

The year debt out-deployed equity in the Gulf

From Capifly to Stride Ventures to Jefferies, GCC startups climbed a three-tier debt ladder in 2025, as global desks including Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan moved in behind the region's own funds.

Analysis

+2

Tokenmaxxing and renting the frontier

Jul 1, 2026

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14 min read

Tokenmaxxing and renting the frontier

How are founders and operators building across MENA thinking about token-spending caps, frontier versus open source model usage, and export controls?

Food Delivery

+3

Why Deliveroo wants to bring Dubai diners inside the restaurant

Jun 17, 2026

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16 min read

Why Deliveroo wants to bring Dubai diners inside the restaurant

Delivery platforms increasingly want to own the dining relationship from the moment you start deciding where to eat, rather than only the bit where the food turns up at your door.

Analysis

+2

Does CargoX's $250M bet on drone delivery in the Gulf make sense?

Jun 10, 2026

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18 min read

Does CargoX's $250M bet on drone delivery in the Gulf make sense?

The man who rang the bell on Talabat's $10B IPO is back with a $250M warchest. We piece together what CargoX actually is, where in the delivery chain the economics genuinely work, and dig into the UAE's regulatory tailwinds.

Food Delivery

+4

To understand Saudi quick commerce, look to India

Jun 4, 2026

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21 min read

To understand Saudi quick commerce, look to India

The Kingdom's grocery-delivery shakeout is really a fight between Amazon and Noon, one in which q-commerce is almost incidental, and its early acts have already played out in India.

Food Delivery

+3

What Uber is actually buying inside Talabat and HungerStation

May 29, 2026

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6 min read

What Uber is actually buying inside Talabat and HungerStation

Two MENA assets, HungerStation in Saudi Arabia and Talabat, account for much of what makes Delivery Hero worth roughly €12 billion to Uber.

Analysis

+1

Why Uber probably wins Delivery Hero

May 27, 2026

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24 min read

Why Uber probably wins Delivery Hero

Analysing Uber and DoorDash's global expansion strategies, why Talabat and HungerStation might matter for reasons that have more to do with advertising and membership than restaurant commissions, and the small matter of a conflict of interest called Careem.

Saudi Arabia

+3

The machine behind Impact46's returns

May 20, 2026

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12 min read

The machine behind Impact46's returns

A fund-by-fund breakdown of the firm's carry mechanics, reverse-engineered DPI, how carry feeds into a bonus pool, a closer look at the nuances of the Jahez 22x exit, and what Saudi's public market exit whisperer is betting on next.

VC Playbook

+2

Founder relationships 101 for MENA VCs

May 13, 2026

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13 min read

Founder relationships 101 for MENA VCs

Eight of the region's top VCs on the actual work of being a useful investor, earning the right to invest, navigating the inevitable disagreements, and (if you've done your job properly) being outgrown.

Public Markets

+4

At Delivery Hero, MENA is doing most of the heavy lifting

Apr 30, 2026

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4 min read

At Delivery Hero, MENA is doing most of the heavy lifting

The Berlin-listed group's Gulf operations now generate roughly 60% of its EBITDA from 30% of its GMV. A regulator-mandated divestment of its largest shareholder will test what that engine is worth.

Results

+5

Inside Tamara's Books

Apr 29, 2026

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20 min read

Inside Tamara's Books

What 40 pages of audited financial statements reveal about how Saudi's first homegrown fintech unicorn rebuilt its revenue model, underwrites a lending book it didn't have twelve months ago, funds it all at rates its nearest competitor can't match, and prepares for what comes next.

Public Markets

+3

Rasan: A quiet toll bridge on Saudi's insurance float

Apr 15, 2026

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24 min read

Rasan: A quiet toll bridge on Saudi's insurance float

The Kingdom's first true fintech IPO is now a $2.8 billion company with 38% net margins, zero debt, and $198 million in cash. A forensic breakdown of Rasan's FY2025 audited accounts.

Fintech

+2

Inside Tabby's Books

Apr 8, 2026

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32 min read

Inside Tabby's Books

What 35 pages of audited financial statements reveal about how MENA's most valuable fintech actually makes money, funds its lending, manages its risk, and plans to outmanoeuvre the regulatory constraints boxing it in.

VC Playbook

+4

Due diligence 101 for MENA VCs

Apr 1, 2026

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28 min read

Due diligence 101 for MENA VCs

Eight of the region's top VCs on how they evaluate startups in a market with limited data, high founder variance, and the youngest venture ecosystem of its size.

Fintech

+3

How stablecoins are rebuilding MENA cross-border payments

Mar 25, 2026

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23 min read

How stablecoins are rebuilding MENA cross-border payments

How stablecoins actually work and why Tether owns emerging markets. The regulatory landscape across Saudi, Egypt, and the UAE. The founders building the pipes, the sovereignty question, and why the window is closing.

Analysis

+3

AI is eating legal work, so why aren't MENA startups queuing up?

Mar 18, 2026

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22 min read

AI is eating legal work, so why aren't MENA startups queuing up?

Harvey is worth $8 billion, and Anthropic just sent LexisNexis to its worst day since 1988. Legal AI is the hottest vertical in tech, and the GCC is almost entirely absent from it. We spoke to the founders of the region's only funded legal AI startup to understand the structural reasons why, what they're building in response, and whether there's a path through.