Fintech
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.
Fintech
+2
Jun 17, 2026
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2 min read
UAE's Alaan launches AI-native business bank account in partnership with Islamic bank ruya
The account folds corporate cards, domestic and cross-border supplier payments, invoice automation and accounting into a single platform.
Fintech
+1
Jun 15, 2026
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4 min read
How Comfi raised $65M to build B2B BNPL for MENA's SMEs
The inside scoop on raising a $65 million pre-Series A from Iliad Partners, Yango, and Shorooq, and how Comfi underwrites a business in hours rather than weeks.
Fintech
+4
Jun 12, 2026
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2 min read
Egypt's Thndr receives initial approval for Saudi brokerage licence, targets Q1 2027 launch
The Saudi push comes as the EGX ranked Thndr the largest of its 120 brokerages by value traded in the first four months of 2026, with a 12.9% market share and $1 billion in assets under custody across its products.
Fintech
+3
Jun 11, 2026
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1 min read
Egypt's Blnk raises $37.1M in equity and debt to expand point-of-sale consumer financing
The package comprises a $12.5 million Series A led by Algebra Ventures and $24.6 million in local debt facilities, and follows the company reaching profitability in 2025 on the back of a 173% year-on-year revenue increase.
Fintech
+3
Jun 11, 2026
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1 min read
Egypt's MNT-Halan hits $1.4B valuation as Al Ahly Capital leads new round, putting the National Bank of Egypt on the cap table
Founded in 2018 by Mounir Nakhla and Ahmed Mohsen, MNT-Halan offers consumer and business lending, payments, e-wallets, savings, investments and e-commerce services, all running on Neuron, its proprietary core banking software.
Fintech
+3
May 18, 2026
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2 min read
Abu-Sheikh's Mal lands in-principle CBUAE banking approval months after record $230M Seed
The Abu Dhabi-based fintech, founded by former Astra Tech CEO Abdallah Abu-Sheikh, has cleared the first regulatory step required to launch a Sharia-compliant digital bank in the UAE.
Fintech
+3
May 15, 2026
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2 min read
Tamara Q1 2026 revenue triples as Islamic financing line scales to 27% of revenue
The Riyadh-headquartered BNPL lender's loan book grew 33%, its Goldman/Citi/Apollo funding facility was upsized to SAR 5.8 billion, and accumulated losses flipped into positive retained earnings for the first time.
Fintech
+3
May 15, 2026
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3 min read
Tabby's Saudi unit Q1 profit growth lags 34% revenue rise as in-house build-out bites
The Riyadh-headquartered BNPL lender's loan book crossed $1 billion for the first time, but operating expenses jumped 73% and net debt remains above the SAMA-prescribed ceiling.
Fintech
+4
May 15, 2026
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1 min read
Stream raises $5.2M seed extension led by BECO Capital, bringing total seed funding to $9.2M in under six months
The fintech company builds billing and payments infrastructure that consolidates invoicing, recurring payments, reconciliation and cash flow tracking into a single platform.
Fintech
+4
May 14, 2026
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1 min read
Saudi fintech Stitch raises $25M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in the firm's first GCC investment
The round brings Stitch's total funding to $35 million as the Riyadh-based financial infrastructure platform reports $5 billion transacted in the past six months.
Fintech
+3
May 6, 2026
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2 min read
Mubadala leads $15m Series A for UAE embedded finance lender CredibleX
Founded in 2023 by Anand Nagaraj, Ahmad Malik and Hassan Reda, CredibleX is an ADGM-regulated lender that provides SMEs with working capital through revenue-based financing, receivables financing and payable financing via an embedded, API-enabled platform.
