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Fintech

Fintech

+4

OCTA raises $3.5M seed led by MEVP as it expands into AI agents for accounting firms

Sep 17, 2026

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2 min read

OCTA raises $3.5M seed led by MEVP as it expands into AI agents for accounting firms

The round brings OCTA’s total funding to $5.6M, as the startup expands from receivables and payables into AI agents that handle bookkeeping, reconciliations and month-end close.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+5

Tabby raises $233M Series F at $6.5B valuation as it pushes beyond BNPL

Sep 14, 2026

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2 min read

Tabby raises $233M Series F at $6.5B valuation as it pushes beyond BNPL

The round comes as new Saudi lending licences and a UAE wallet licence expand it into longer-term credit, SME finance and everyday money management.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+4

Tarabut secures $50M from Saudi banks and business groups as it deepens Kingdom focus

Sep 14, 2026

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2 min read

Tarabut secures $50M from Saudi banks and business groups as it deepens Kingdom focus

Riyad Bank, SAB Invest’s X-Tech Fund and GIB Saudi Arabia are among the backers, three years after Tarabut’s $32 million Series A was itself raised to expand in Saudi.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+5

Sav raises $3.5M pre-Series A led by Phoenix Venture Partners for Saudi expansion

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+3

PayTabs agrees $100M-plus deal for Amazon Payment Services’ MENA operations

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+3

Alaan gets in-principle UAE approval for SVF and payments licences as it pushes into business banking

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+3

FlyAkeed raises $25.2M across Sanabil-led equity round and Artal sukuk

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+3

Saudi SME lending startup Abwab.ai raises $4M led by Speedinvest and MEVP

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Foodtech

+6

COFE closes $43M pre-IPO round at $178M valuation, targets Saudi listing by 2029

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+6

Dubai-based Fasset raises $68M Series C at $1B valuation, only 3 months after previous round

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+2

Tamara’s Saudi Q2 revenue more than doubles as new lending book closes in on BNPL

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+2

Tabby's Saudi unit Q2 profit falls 54% as revenue grows 21% year on year

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+2

UAE credit reports to include Tabby and Tamara accounts from July

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Public Markets

+4

Abhi Microfinance Bank plans $11M Karachi listing, offering 14% in new shares

Jul 31, 2026

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2 min read

Abhi Microfinance Bank plans $11M Karachi listing, offering 14% in new shares

The lender, formerly FINCA Microfinance Bank, was acquired by Pakistani fintech group Abhi 18 months ago and swung from a Rs1.75 billion ($6.3 million) annual loss to its most profitable year on record.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+4

Revolut wins in-principle approval from Dubai's VARA to offer crypto services in the UAE

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+2

Tabby launches Tabby Cash, its first product on the UAE wallet licence, as it pushes beyond BNPL

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+1

Building the AWS for Middle East Fintech

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+3

Beehive completes majority acquisition of Saudi debt crowdfunding platform Themar

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+3

Tabby secures consumer and SME finance licences from SAMA, opening up larger purchases and working capital

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Public Markets

+3

MNT-Halan weighs Cairo IPO of its Egyptian business at up to $1bn, working with Citi and EFG Hermes

Jun 26, 2026

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2 min read

MNT-Halan weighs Cairo IPO of its Egyptian business at up to $1bn, working with Citi and EFG Hermes

The listing, which could come as soon as this year, would cover only MNT-Halan's Egypt operations and value them at $900 million to $1 billion.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+2

Morocco's central bank puts Revolut entry on ice, says fintech's services already covered by local banks

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+2

PayPal Ventures winds down, leaving its $100M Middle East and Africa pledge in limbo

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+2

Lean and Ziina launch one-tap Pay by Bank top-ups, the UAE's first recurring Open Finance payment experience

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Fintech

+3

Lean Technologies launches Pay by Bank suite on UAE Open Finance rails

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.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane
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