Weekly round-up
Dec 19, 2025
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14 min read
The Gulf's Hollywood gambit unravels, Egypt’s Nawah Scientific raises $23M Series A, Algerian traveltech VOLZ raises $5m Series A, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Dec 12, 2025
15 min read
Qatar sets up Qai as state backed AI firm, CoinMENA acquired by Paribu in up to $240M deal, QIA brings another VC to Doha via $1B fund-of-funds, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Dec 5, 2025
13 min read
Saudi cybersecurity startup raises $9.2M Series A, Plus VC to fund 30+ startups and double deployment to $10M in 2026, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Nov 28, 2025
16 min read
erad secures $125M facility to scale SME finance across the GCC, Propeller launches $50M Fund III, Egypt's chip startup Infinlink acquired by global giant, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Nov 21, 2025
12 min read
Musk announces 500MW xAI data centre in Saudi, Middle East Series A valuations outpace other EMs, HUMAIN leads Luma AI’s $900M Series C, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Nov 14, 2025
DataCamp acquires UAE’s Optima in a more than $15 million deal, Kamco Invest and TechInvest plan a $150 million JEDI Opportunity Fund, Lean eyes new bets ahead of a potential IPO, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Nov 7, 2025
17 min read
$4M Seed to automate recurring payments for MENA businesses, Dubai based VC closes 2nd fund, Zid makes acquisition to enter Egypt, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Oct 31, 2025
BRKZ secures $30M growth debt from Stride Ventures, new $250M Saudi biotech growth fund, first casualty in Saudi food-delivery price wars, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Oct 24, 2025
Property Finder secures $250M in debt financing; backs Stake, Cercli raises $12M Series A to build AI-native HR stack for MENA, 1001 AI raises $9M to build sovereign AI, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Oct 17, 2025
Chari raises Morocco's largest-ever Series A, Dubizzle kicks off $2B Dubai IPO process, Investcorp closes $750M Golden Horizon Fund, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Oct 10, 2025
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick granted Saudi citizenship, Cerebras withdraws IPO filing after $1B raise amid G42 scrutiny, Egypt-based agtech Tagaddod raises $26.3M Series A, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Oct 3, 2025
UAE’s MGX to take 15% stake in TikTok US under White House deal, Aydi raises $7.5M seed to launch AI agronomy assistant Orth, Careem takes minority stake in Swapp to expand car rental play in UAE, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Sep 26, 2025
Ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick lines up banks for Middle East IPO, Saudi stocks post biggest gain since 2020, erad secures $33M debt facility, PayPal to deploy $100M in MENA, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Sep 19, 2025
All things Money20/20, a staggering 23 funding announcements, HALA raises $157M Series B, inDrive launches in Riyadh, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up
Sep 12, 2025
Amir Farha on Property Finder and the last mile of venture investing, a new $200M growth-stage fund, Revolut gets UAE nod, Noon eyes $10BN dual Saudi-UAE listing, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Aug 29, 2025
Overseas clients drive 99% of HUMAIN AI infra demand, Impact46 invests $53M in Saudi gaming studio Kammelna, proptech Holo raises $22M Series A to fuel Saudi expansion, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Aug 22, 2025
The largest ever round for a female-led GCC startup, Dubai’s VARA fines Fuze over anti-money laundering failures, even more funding for Saudi gaming startups, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Aug 15, 2025
Breaking down H1 earnings for Talabat, Valu, Jahez and Presight, HUMAIN to launch Arabic-centric LLM by end of August, Impact46 invests $6.6M+ across five gaming studios, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Aug 8, 2025
Alaan raises $48M Series A to scale AI finance agents, Egypt-born founder's startup jumps to $3.1B valuation, Salasa closes $30M Series B, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Aug 1, 2025
Calo closes $39M Series B extension, MENA’s new playbook for non‐dilutive funding, Breadfast valuation jumps 31% to $382M in six months, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Jul 25, 2025
500 Global launches $300M Sustainable Growth initiative, Qlub raises $30M Series B, foreign startups flock to Saudi Arabia as VC funding hits $860M in H1, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Jul 18, 2025
Meta acquires US-based PlayAI, founded by Egyptian engineer Mahmoud Felfel, Elon Musk’s xAI targets Saudi Arabia for its next wave of data centre expansion, Lucidya lands a $30M Series B, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Jul 11, 2025
Jahez enters Qatar with $245M Snoonu deal, Egypt’s Valu secures go-ahead for Jordan entry, and Huspy lands $59 for Saudi expansion, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Jul 4, 2025
What led to Ninja's Ebrahim Al-Jassim’s exit from HungerStation, Dubai lures SpaceX challenger, Iraq’s next-gen digital bank emerges from stealth, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
Jun 27, 2025
Valu surges 852% on EGX debut as Amazon joins the cap table, AppliedAI closes oversubscribed $55M Series A, Impact46 backs Spekter Games from $40M gaming fund, plus this week’s MENA startup, VC, and tech news round-up.
