Fintech
Fintech
+5
Sep 7, 2026
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2 min read
Sav raises $3.5M pre-Series A led by Phoenix Venture Partners for Saudi expansion
The UAE consumer fintech has broadened from a savings app into a regulated personal-finance platform spanning cards, investments and account aggregation, taking total funding to about $6 million.
Fintech
+3
Sep 7, 2026
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2 min read
PayTabs agrees $100M-plus deal for Amazon Payment Services’ MENA operations
The Saudi payments company will take over a business that began as PayFort before joining Amazon through its 2017 acquisition of Souq, creating a combined platform expected to process more than SAR 150 billion annually.
Fintech
+3
Sep 4, 2026
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1 min read
Alaan gets in-principle UAE approval for SVF and payments licences as it pushes into business banking
Final approval would allow the fintech to hold customer funds, issue corporate cards and run cross-border payments under its own CBUAE licences as it expands beyond spend management into business banking.
Fintech
+3
Sep 3, 2026
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1 min read
FlyAkeed raises $25.2M across Sanabil-led equity round and Artal sukuk
The Saudi corporate travel platform is adding a deferred-payment layer to its software, with the new financing split between equity and Shariah-compliant debt.
Fintech
+3
Sep 3, 2026
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2 min read
Saudi SME lending startup Abwab.ai raises $4M led by Speedinvest and MEVP
The startup says its technology is used by more than 13 financial institutions and has processed over SAR 1 billion in SME loans.
Foodtech
+6
Sep 2, 2026
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2 min read
COFE closes $43M pre-IPO round at $178M valuation, targets Saudi listing by 2029
Wa’ed Ventures returns three years after leading its $15m Series B, as the Kuwait-born coffee-ordering app remakes itself into enterprise procurement and commerce software.
Fintech
+6
Aug 24, 2026
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1 min read
Dubai-based Fasset raises $68M Series C at $1B valuation, only 3 months after previous round
Annualised transaction volume has passed $40 billion across 125 countries, according to Fasset, up from $32 billion when it announced its Series B in May.
Fintech
+2
Aug 11, 2026
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3 min read
Tamara’s Saudi Q2 revenue more than doubles as new lending book closes in on BNPL
Q2 revenue more than doubled to SAR 707 million as consumer-financing receivables reached SAR 3.14 billion, just behind the SAR 3.36 billion held in pay-in-instalments.
Fintech
+2
Aug 10, 2026
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3 min read
Tabby's Saudi unit Q2 profit falls 54% as revenue grows 21% year on year
The Riyadh-headquartered BNPL lender's repayments outpaced new lending by roughly SAR 360 million between April and June, as its new SAMA licence opens a push into longer-term consumer and SME lending.
Fintech
+2
Jul 31, 2026
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2 min read
UAE credit reports to include Tabby and Tamara accounts from July
Al Etihad Credit Bureau will add BNPL data from both providers, covering existing and new customers and historical transactions.
Fintech
+4
Jul 17, 2026
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1 min read
Revolut wins in-principle approval from Dubai's VARA to offer crypto services in the UAE
The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority approval covers broker-dealer, exchange, and management and investment services, and lands a month after Revolut completed its Central Bank licensing for payments, stacking a second regulatory pillar under a UAE launch that has yet to be given a date.
Fintech
+2
Jul 13, 2026
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2 min read
Tabby launches Tabby Cash, its first product on the UAE wallet licence, as it pushes beyond BNPL
The fee-free spending account, offering up to 3% cashback and free local transfers, and arrives alongside a rebrand positioning the $4.5 billion company as an everyday money management platform rather than a BNPL provider.
Fintech
+1
Jul 5, 2026
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4 min read
Building the AWS for Middle East Fintech
Lean has raised more than $100M to build the region’s fintech infrastructure layer. We sat down with CPO Tewfik Cassis on the eve of the company’s biggest product launch to date, to talk Pay by Bank, open finance, stablecoins, agentic commerce and why Lean’s ambitions now stretch far beyond open banking.
Fintech
+3
Jul 3, 2026
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1 min read
Beehive completes majority acquisition of Saudi debt crowdfunding platform Themar
The deal makes the Dubai-born SME lender the first digital SME financing platform regulated across the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia, converting a Saudi presence run through banking partnerships since 2020 into a fully regulated operation. Terms were not disclosed.
Fintech
+3
Jun 30, 2026
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2 min read
Tabby secures consumer and SME finance licences from SAMA, opening up larger purchases and working capital
The two SAMA licences let Tabby offer Saudi customers longer instalment plans of up to SAR 50,000 on bigger-ticket purchases alongside its existing four-payment product, and extend working capital to the retailers on its platform.
Fintech
+2
Jun 26, 2026
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2 min read
Morocco's central bank puts Revolut entry on ice, says fintech's services already covered by local banks
Governor Abdellatif Jouahri said Bank Al-Maghrib is tied up with more urgent regulatory work and sees no pressing need for a new foreign player.
Fintech
+2
Jun 26, 2026
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2 min read
PayPal Ventures winds down, leaving its $100M Middle East and Africa pledge in limbo
Nine months after PayPal committed $100 million to startups across the Middle East and Africa, the corporate venture arm meant to deploy much of it has paused new investments.
Fintech
+2
Jun 25, 2026
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2 min read
Lean and Ziina launch one-tap Pay by Bank top-ups, the UAE's first recurring Open Finance payment experience
Built on Lean's Deposits product, the feature lets Ziina users link a bank account once and top up their wallet with a single tap, moving Pay by Bank in the UAE past one-off transactions and into the repeat, low-friction flows that drive daily use.
Fintech
+3
Jun 19, 2026
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2 min read
Lean Technologies launches Pay by Bank suite on UAE Open Finance rails
Unveiled at the company's first hosted event in Dubai on 18 June, the suite groups account-to-account payments into deposits, collections, checkouts and a low-code payment links product, and arrives with Lean reporting more than 20 billion dirhams in payments processed to date.
Fintech
+4
Jun 18, 2026
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1 min read
Sovra raises $2M+ pre-seed led by Pharsalus Capital to build a self-custodial dollar account for MENA
The round drew angel cheques from the likes of Ramp founder Karim Atiyeh and Lean Technologies founder Hisham Al-Falih, backing a platform that holds user balances in USDC outside the conventional banking system.
Fintech
+2
Jun 18, 2026
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1 min read
Revolut secures full UAE central bank licences, completing its regulatory path to launch
The Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services (Category II) licences from the Central Bank of the UAE complete a process that began with in-principle approval in September 2025, and clear the London-based fintech to build out its local product ahead of going live.
