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Funding

Fintech

+4

Paymob raises $35M pre-Series C co-led by Mubadala and EBRD as GCC nears half of revenue

Sep 21, 2026

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2 min read

Paymob raises $35M pre-Series C co-led by Mubadala and EBRD as GCC nears half of revenue

The Egyptian payments company has grown GCC revenue sevenfold in 18 months, with Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala joining its cap table as Paymob increasingly shifts its growth towards the Gulf.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

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

SaaS

+5

Keep Converting raises $2M pre-seed led by Nuwa Capital and COTU Ventures

Sep 10, 2026

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2 min read

Keep Converting raises $2M pre-seed led by Nuwa Capital and COTU Ventures

The UAE startup has emerged from stealth with an AI platform that generates and tests personalised product pages for individual ecommerce shoppers, claiming an average 64% conversion-rate lift across early deployments.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

SaaS

+4

Saudi used-car platform Carly takes Pinnacle investment in primary-secondary deal

Sep 10, 2026

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1 min read

Saudi used-car platform Carly takes Pinnacle investment in primary-secondary deal

The undisclosed transaction is the first investment from Pinnacle’s new growth and secondaries fund, launched last month to back later-stage Saudi tech companies while providing liquidity to existing shareholders.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

+3

Gaia raises $1.5M led by SEEDRA to build sovereign AI layer for Saudi enterprises

Sep 8, 2026

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1 min read

Gaia raises $1.5M led by SEEDRA to build sovereign AI layer for Saudi enterprises

The Riyadh startup is building a permission-aware search, assistant and AI agent layer across companies’ internal systems, with data kept inside Saudi or deployed on-premise.

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

Startups

+4

Sirdab raises $10M Series A from Elm and BECO to expand Saudi logistics platform across GCC

Sep 3, 2026

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1 min read

Sirdab raises $10M Series A from Elm and BECO to expand Saudi logistics platform across GCC

The profitable Saudi logistics startup has grown revenue 20x since Y Combinator and now connects more than 850 businesses to a network of 120+ warehouses and 60+ transport providers.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Startups

+4

ZenHR raises $6M bridge round led by Impact46 to expand AI products and EWA

Sep 3, 2026

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2 min read

ZenHR raises $6M bridge round led by Impact46 to expand AI products and EWA

The Saudi HR software company is expanding its AI products and earned wage access offering across 11 markets in MENA, four years after raising a $10 million growth round.

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

SaaS

+4

Usman Gul’s Metal raises $4.5M seed backed by a16z, YC and Phaze Ventures

Sep 2, 2026

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1 min read

Usman Gul’s Metal raises $4.5M seed backed by a16z, YC and Phaze Ventures

Round follows an earlier investment from Oman’s Phaze Ventures, with the fundraising software startup saying paying customers have raised more than $500M through its platform this year.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

SaaS

+4

Dubai's Enhance raises $18.2M from Global Ventures and Stride Ventures to expand personal training OS in the US

Sep 2, 2026

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2 min read

Dubai's Enhance raises $18.2M from Global Ventures and Stride Ventures to expand personal training OS in the US

Fitness software company, which bootstrapped before raising a $3m Series A in 2021, will use the equity and venture debt financing to expand across the world’s largest gym market.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

+4

HUMAIN invests in Arabic.AI and Tarjama to expand Saudi enterprise AI offering

Sep 1, 2026

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1 min read

HUMAIN invests in Arabic.AI and Tarjama to expand Saudi enterprise AI offering

Undisclosed investment brings Nour Al Hassan’s Arabic language technology business into the PIF-backed AI group’s growing application stack.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Public Markets

+4

Swvl secures $13M investment led by Sawiris-backed Coefficient as it targets US expansion

Aug 25, 2026

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2 min read

Swvl secures $13M investment led by Sawiris-backed Coefficient as it targets US expansion

The financing will support the company’s US expansion and comes four months after it resolved its latest Nasdaq listing deficiency.

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

Saudi Arabia

+3

Saudi edtech AILA raises $3M pre-Series A led by Rua Growth Fund

Aug 19, 2026

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1 min read

Saudi edtech AILA raises $3M pre-Series A led by Rua Growth Fund

Jordanian edtech Jo Academy also joins the cap table as a strategic investor alongside 500 Global, Bunat Ventures and Fikr Ventures, backing a platform whose AILA Tests product runs personalised exam preparation in Saudi schools.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Jordan

+3

HeyBreez raises $2.5M seed led by Lunara Partners as call volumes pass one million a month

Aug 19, 2026

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2 min read

HeyBreez raises $2.5M seed led by Lunara Partners as call volumes pass one million a month

The oversubscribed round brings in Jabbar Group alongside returning backer DASH Ventures, seven months after the company's $1.3 million pre-seed.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Funding

+3

UAE customer intelligence startup Cobi raises $1M pre-seed led by Lunara Partners

Aug 11, 2026

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1 min read

UAE customer intelligence startup Cobi raises $1M pre-seed led by Lunara Partners

The new capital will be used to expand enterprise deployments across the Middle East and internationally, and to further develop Cobi’s recommendation and decisioning capabilities.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

China

+4

Abu Dhabi's BlueFive co-leads $3B round for China's Kling AI, the largest raise ever for a video model company

Jul 10, 2026

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2 min read

Abu Dhabi's BlueFive co-leads $3B round for China's Kling AI, the largest raise ever for a video model company

The round values Kuaishou's spun-out video-generation unit at $18B ahead of a planned Hong Kong listing, and puts the Abu Dhabi asset manager alongside Tencent, CITIC Securities and CPE as the only Middle East-based name among the co-leads of a record Chinese AI financing.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Funding

+3

Azraq raises oversubscribed pre-seed to price the risk behind the Gulf's data centre boom

Jul 10, 2026

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2 min read

Azraq raises oversubscribed pre-seed to price the risk behind the Gulf's data centre boom

The Abu Dhabi-based platform replaces the static, up-to-$1-million consultant reports underwriting data centre finance with continuous, lender-grade risk intelligence, and marks the first publicised graduate of the Utopia platform's co-build studio model.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Agritech

+3

Maalexi raises $2.8M led by Saudi insurer Tawuniya as it builds a tokenised agricultural exchange

Jul 3, 2026

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1 min read

Maalexi raises $2.8M led by Saudi insurer Tawuniya as it builds a tokenised agricultural exchange

The oversubscribed round brings the Tadawul-listed insurer onto the cap table of the UAE agri-fintech alongside returning lead Global Ventures, as Maalexi positions for a Series A and layers a regulated real-world asset exchange on top of its trade-verification platform.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane

Startups

+3

1001 raises $30M Series A led by Lux Capital to build sovereign AI for Gulf critical infrastructure

Jun 30, 2026

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3 min read

1001 raises $30M Series A led by Lux Capital to build sovereign AI for Gulf critical infrastructure

Eight months after its $9 million seed, 1001 has more than tripled its raise, backing its pitch to build AI that helps operators run critical infrastructure like airports, ports and energy grids.

Jamie Lane
Jamie Lane
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