Press release:

Syrian healthtech startup Alo Hakeem has closed a $165,000 Pre-Seed funding round led by EBLA Ventures as it prepares to launch its mobile application and expand access to home healthcare services across Syria.

The company did not disclose the identities of other participating investors or its valuation.

Founded in 2025 by Abdullatif Al-Baroudi and Albaraa Abdulsalam, Alo Hakeem operates a digital platform connecting patients and families with licensed healthcare professionals who provide medical services at home.

The startup aims to address challenges facing patients seeking reliable home healthcare while providing healthcare professionals with a more structured system for delivering services.

Its offerings include home medical consultations, nursing, physiotherapy, elderly care, laboratory testing and diagnostic imaging. The platform coordinates appointments and connects patients with healthcare providers through its website and customer support operations.

Headquartered in Aleppo, Alo Hakeem currently serves patients in Aleppo, Damascus and Hama, with plans to enter four additional Syrian governorates by the end of 2027.

The company initially financed its operations independently, developing a minimum viable product and testing its service model through direct engagement with patients and medical professionals.

During its early development, Alo Hakeem participated in the ScaleUp 2025 programme and received mentorship through ChangeMakers, a programme run by Maynger Ventures, and Thimar, an initiative supporting Syrian startups in preparing for investment.

According to the company, the new funding will support its transition from the MVP stage to a fully developed digital platform, with the official Alo Hakeem mobile application scheduled to launch publicly in November 2026.

The investment will also be used to strengthen its technology infrastructure, expand its network of licensed healthcare providers and develop its team as it enters new markets within Syria.

EBLA Ventures, which invests in and supports Syrian entrepreneurs, has worked with the startup during its early development and investment preparation.

The funding comes as technology startups seek to address gaps in Syria's healthcare system, particularly access to services outside hospitals and traditional medical facilities.

For Alo Hakeem, the next stage will centre on moving beyond its initial service model and building a platform capable of coordinating home healthcare across a wider geographical area.

Startups across MENA raised $1.65 billion through 145 deals between July and September, up 108% from the previous quarter, while deal volume increased 39%. Despite the sharp quarterly rebound, funding remained approximately 63% below the $4.5 billion recorded during the same period last year.

The recovery gained momentum in September, when regional funding exceeded $1.1 billion, following a subdued July and an August rebound driven largely by two UAE-based companies. Saudi Arabia reclaimed the lead from the UAE, accounting for the majority of capital deployed during the quarter.

The composition of funding also showed a notable shift. Debt financing accounted for $441 million across 10 transactions, representing 26.8% of total investment, compared with almost 59% during 2025. Non-debt funding reached $1.21 billion, suggesting that the recovery was not solely dependent on credit-backed transactions.

The quarter unfolded against a challenging geopolitical backdrop, with regional military tensions, disruptions to maritime trade and volatile energy markets complicating the investment outlook. Nevertheless, several established startups managed to secure substantial financing, demonstrating continued investor appetite for businesses with the scale and growth potential to attract large commitments.

But the headline figures obscure a more uneven picture. Capital remained concentrated in fintech, Saudi Arabia and the UAE dominated the regional rankings, and male-led startups captured nearly all the funding deployed.

Fintech dominates as large funding rounds return

Fintech strengthened its position as the region's leading investment sector, attracting $1.03 billion across 35 transactions, equivalent to approximately 62% of total quarterly funding.

Mobility ranked second, raising $285 million through just two deals, followed by e-commerce, which secured $105.6 million across nine transactions.

The sector rankings highlighted the outsized influence of a handful of large funding rounds. Saudi fintech companies Barq, Tabby and Lendo alone attracted a combined $762.5 million, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the capital deployed in fintech during the quarter.

Funding by stage revealed a similarly concentrated landscape.

Early-stage startups accounted for the largest share of deal activity, with 94 companies raising $505.4 million. Later-stage startups secured $606 million across just seven transactions, reflecting renewed investor appetite for more mature businesses capable of attracting sizable funding commitments.

Another 34 startups did not disclose their funding stages, while 10 transactions were classified as debt financing.

The figures suggest that while early-stage investment remained active, a small number of established companies continued to attract a disproportionate share of available capital.

Business-to-business (B2B) startups maintained their lead, securing $876.2 million across 95 transactions. Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies followed with $506.7 million across 27 deals, while the remaining $264.1 million went to startups operating across both business models.

The gender funding gap, meanwhile, showed little sign of narrowing.

Male-led startups attracted $1.62 billion across 116 deals, representing 98.3% of all capital raised during the quarter. Startups founded by mixed-gender teams secured $15.9 million across 13 transactions, while female-led startups raised just $12.7 million through 16 deals, accounting for less than 1% of total investment.

The disparity was particularly striking given the overall recovery in funding. While capital returned to the ecosystem, the overwhelming majority flowed to male-led companies, reinforcing the persistent imbalance in access to venture capital.

Saudi Arabia reclaims the lead

Saudi Arabia emerged as MENA's largest startup funding market in the third quarter, attracting approximately $1 billion across 62 transactions and reclaiming the top position from the UAE.

The kingdom recorded a more than tenfold increase in funding from the $102 million raised in the previous quarter, largely driven by a series of large fintech transactions announced in September.

The resurgence coincided with LEAP 2026, held in Riyadh from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, which brought together technology companies, investors and startups. However, the quarter's performance was shaped primarily by a handful of large transactions rather than an evenly distributed recovery in investment activity.

Fintech was the clear driver of Saudi Arabia's funding growth, attracting $815.8 million across 16 transactions. E-commerce ranked second with $98 million raised through five deals, followed by proptech, which secured $50.3 million across four transactions.

Three fintech transactions stood out.

Barq closed a $329.5 million Series A round at a valuation of $1.85 billion, while Tabby raised $233 million in Series F funding, valuing the buy now, pay later company at $6.5 billion. Lendo secured another $200 million through debt financing.

Together, the three transactions accounted for $762.5 million, equivalent to approximately three-quarters of the kingdom's quarterly funding and more than 90% of its fintech investment.

The concentration illustrates the growing influence of Saudi fintech companies on regional funding performance, particularly as larger businesses continue to attract capital amid a challenging investment environment.

Debt remained an important component of Saudi Arabia's funding landscape, accounting for $372 million across six transactions.

Early-stage startups nevertheless maintained a strong presence, with 34 companies raising a combined $392.7 million. Another 19 startups did not disclose their funding stages.

Saudi Arabia's performance highlighted its ability to attract sizable investment commitments despite regional uncertainty. However, the significant concentration of funding in a few fintech companies suggests that the quarter's rebound was driven more by the scale of individual transactions than a broad-based increase in investment across the ecosystem.

UAE slips to second despite strong late-stage activity

The UAE retreated to second place in the regional rankings after leading MENA startup funding during the previous quarter.

UAE-based startups raised $507 million across 41 transactions, down 14% from the $591.3 million recorded in Q2.

Despite the decline, the country continued to attract substantial later-stage investment, reinforcing its position as one of the region's most established startup funding markets.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, where fintech dominated investment, mobility emerged as the UAE's largest sector, attracting $250 million through a single transaction. Fintech ranked second with $164.3 million across 15 deals, followed by healthtech, which secured $25.2 million through three transactions.

Two later-stage funding rounds accounted for nearly 63% of the country's quarterly investment.

Mobility company Moove raised $250 million in a Series C round, while fintech Fasset secured $68 million in its own Series C financing. Together, the transactions brought in $318 million, highlighting the continued availability of large funding commitments for more mature businesses.

Early-stage investment remained comparatively active, with 29 startups securing $86.5 million. Debt financing accounted for $68 million across three transactions, while another seven startups did not disclose their funding stages.

The UAE's performance reflected continued investor appetite for established businesses, even as overall funding declined from the previous quarter.

Yet the reliance on a limited number of large transactions also exposed the uneven nature of the recovery. Excluding Moove and Fasset, UAE startups attracted just $189 million during the quarter, illustrating the extent to which individual deals shaped the country's funding performance.

Egypt struggles to regain momentum

Egypt remained the region's third-largest startup funding market, but investment activity continued to weaken as startups grappled with constrained access to capital and a shortage of sizable financing rounds.

Egyptian startups raised $56.4 million across 15 transactions during the third quarter, down 22% from the $72.6 million recorded in Q2.

The country's quarterly performance was heavily dependent on a single transaction.

Payments infrastructure provider Paymob secured $35 million in a pre-Series C round, accounting for approximately 62% of all capital raised by Egyptian startups during the period.

Without Paymob's financing, Egypt's quarterly total would have fallen to just $21.4 million, underscoring the limited availability of substantial funding for other companies.

Fintech remained the country's leading investment sector, attracting $45 million across two transactions. Edtech ranked second with $3 million raised through one deal, followed by e-commerce infrastructure, which secured $2.8 million in a single transaction.

Early-stage startups accounted for the majority of deal activity, with 10 companies raising a combined $19.3 million.

Paymob's transaction was the country's only later-stage financing round, while debt funding accounted for $1 million across one deal. Another three startups did not disclose their funding stages.

Egypt's continued slowdown reflected a more challenging investment environment, with limited capital availability and fewer large transactions weighing on the country's quarterly performance.

A strong rebound, but not yet a broad recovery

The third-quarter rebound pushed MENA startup funding to approximately $3.4 billion in the first nine months of 2026, providing renewed momentum after a difficult first half marked by geopolitical instability and increasingly selective investment activity.

The improvement was significant. Funding more than doubled from the previous quarter, deal activity recovered, and non-debt financing accounted for more than 73% of the capital deployed.

The return of sizable equity rounds also demonstrated that investors remained willing to back regional companies capable of delivering scale, even as uncertainty continued to cloud the broader economic outlook.

Yet the recovery was far from evenly distributed.

Saudi Arabia attracted the majority of investment, fintech absorbed more than 60% of total funding, and a handful of large transactions accounted for a substantial share of the quarter's capital. Meanwhile, Egypt continued to struggle to regain momentum, and female-led startups remained severely underfunded.

The geopolitical outlook adds another layer of uncertainty. Continued military tensions, disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and potential volatility in energy markets could weigh on investor confidence and complicate funding decisions in the months ahead.

With the fourth quarter underway, the sustainability of the rebound remains uncertain.

The latest figures demonstrate that capital is still accessible for MENA startups, particularly those operating in established sectors and major Gulf markets. What remains less clear is whether that investment appetite can extend beyond a narrow group of companies and translate into wider access to funding.

For a region that has repeatedly navigated periods of economic and geopolitical instability, the third quarter offered evidence of resilience, but not yet of a comprehensive recovery.

The third quarter proved that MENA startups can still attract large funding commitments. The fourth will test whether that capital can reach a broader range of companies, sectors and markets.

This quarterly investment report is a collaboration between Wamda and Digital Digest.

Press release:

Autobia, a Saudi B2B technology company building the future of the auto parts market, today announced that it has raised US$12.0 million in a Series A funding round led by Artal Capital, with participation from Aljazira Capital and Wa’ed Ventures.

Autobia operates at the intersection of an auto-parts-managed marketplace and B2B embedded financial solutions. Its platform enables auto parts retailers and wholesalers to source products from verified suppliers, access integrated fulfilment services, purchase inventory on flexible payment terms, and manage their end-consumers' payments through licensed payment and BNPL providers through a single technology-driven ecosystem.

“Our ambition goes beyond digitising auto parts procurement. We are building a technology platform infrastructure that gives traditional auto parts businesses the intelligence, efficiency, and tools they need to compete and grow,” said Emad Daghreri, Co-Founder and CEO of Autobia. Ahmed Alawfi, Co-Founder and COO, added: “A key part of that vision is expanding access to embedded financial services so our customers can manage working-capital constraints and grow with greater flexibility. We are proud to partner with investors who share our long-term ambition for the sector.”

The new funding will support Autobia’s next phase of growth, including expanding its presence across Saudi Arabia, strengthening its fulfilment and logistics infrastructure, advancing its proprietary dynamic pricing and technology, and scaling its inventory on terms solutions.

“Autobia is addressing a large and underserved market through a differentiated model that combines technology, operational execution, and embedded financial services,” said Wassim Moukahhal, Head of Alternative Investments at Artal Capital. “We aim to support the founders’ vision and fulfil the platform’s potential to become a critical part of the automotive after-sales infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the wider region. We look forward to supporting Autobia through its next phase of growth.”

The investment aligns with the continued development of Saudi Arabia’s technology, logistics, automotive, and financial-services sectors under Vision 2030. By digitising procurement and transactions, improving supply chain efficiency, and expanding access to working capital, Autobia aims to build the infrastructure behind every spare part sold and every vehicle serviced across the region.

Press release:

Endeavor Catalyst, the venture capital arm of the global entrepreneurship network Endeavor, has closed its fifth fund at $320 million as it seeks to expand investments in technology startups outside traditional venture capital hubs.

The oversubscribed fund is Endeavor Catalyst's largest to date, bringing its total assets under management to more than $850 million.

The fund attracted approximately 400 limited partners, including technology founders and institutional investors. Its backers include Reid Hoffman, Bill Ackman and Prosus, alongside founders of companies such as Nubank, Revolut, Checkout.com, Snowflake and Careem.

Around 30% of the fund's investors are entrepreneurs from Endeavor's own network, reflecting a model in which successful founders reinvest in the next generation of companies.

Investing beyond traditional technology hubs

Endeavor Catalyst plans to invest in up to 150 companies through Fund V, with individual investments typically ranging from $1 million to $3 million.

Unlike venture capital firms that lead funding rounds, Endeavor Catalyst operates as a co-investor. Companies must first be selected into Endeavor's global entrepreneurship network and secure an institutional-led funding round of at least $5 million to qualify for investment.

The fund invests on the same terms as the lead investor, with its participation generally limited to 10% of an individual funding round.

Its strategy focuses on companies founded or led by entrepreneurs operating outside established technology hubs, including markets across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Around 90% of Endeavor Catalyst's investments are outside the United States. Latin America remains its largest investment region, while Europe has seen increasing activity, with 12 new investments in the first half of 2026, compared with 14 throughout 2025.

Portfolio and new investments

Fund V has already started deploying capital into companies including Replit, Moove, Preply, Cashea, Respond.io, EnduroSat, HappyRobot and Lunar Outpost.

The portfolio reflects the fund's exposure to sectors including artificial intelligence, enterprise technology, financial services and mobility, with investments in companies operating across emerging and established markets.

Endeavor Catalyst is also increasing its focus on deep technology, foundational AI, cloud infrastructure and repeat founders developing AI applications.

Since its establishment in 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has invested more than $500 million across its portfolio.

As of September 22, 2026, the firm had backed 437 companies across 44 markets, including 83 companies valued at $1 billion or more. Its portfolio has recorded 39 exits and 11 IPOs, with investments including ElevenLabs, Bending Spoons, Reflection AI, Checkout.com and Flutterwave.

Endeavor Catalyst expects to deploy an additional $25 million to $30 million during the remainder of 2026.

The new fund is managed by Allen Taylor, managing partner, and Jackie Carmel, managing director, alongside the firm's wider investment team.

The fundraising comes as global venture capital investment becomes increasingly concentrated in large AI companies and established technology centres. Endeavor Catalyst is pursuing a different strategy, using Endeavor's network of more than 3,100 entrepreneurs across over 50 countries to identify high-growth companies in markets that have traditionally attracted less international venture capital.

Press release:

Phoenix Venture Partners Limited (“PVP”), an ADGM-based venture capital fund manager, today announced its investment in COFE District LLC (“COFE Tech”), a leading provider of intelligent procurement and commerce infrastructure serving more than 1,000 businesses across the Gulf. Often dubbed the “Salesforce of MENA,” COFE Tech has evolved into one of the region’s leading operators of agentic AI-powered enterprise platforms.

The investment, completed earlier this year, comes as COFE Tech enters its next phase of growth, a milestone that marks the beginning of a strategic partnership aimed at supporting the company throughout its growth journey and eventual IPO readiness. As part of this partnership, Steve Khayat, Founder & CEO of Phoenix Venture Partners, joins the Board of Directors of COFE Tech as PVP’s representative, further reinforcing the firm’s commitment to supporting the company’s long-term growth, governance, and institutional development. Earlier this month, the company closed a pre-IPO funding round at a valuation of US$178 million, putting COFE Tech on course for a targeted listing by 2029.

This investment reflects PVP’s continued conviction in COFE Tech’s vision to redefine procurement, commerce, and enterprise enablement through technology, while reinforcing a long-standing relationship between the two organizations.

Founded in 2018, COFE Tech (formerly COFE App) is an agentic enterprise provider building intelligent procurement and commerce infrastructure for businesses across the Gulf. The company operates across two core business lines, Agentic Procurement, a unified enterprise procurement engine, and Agentic Commerce, a unified enterprise technology infrastructure solution, alongside a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business. COFE Tech serves clients across the aviation, hospitality, retail, food & beverage, and corporate sectors. In the UAE, its customers include Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways, and Al-Futtaim Group. Across the Gulf, the company serves more than 1,000 clients and 3,000 outlets.

Mr. Khayat commented: “I’ve had the privilege of backing COFE Tech from its earliest days, notably at the pre-Series A stage in 2018, and it’s incredibly rewarding to continue the journey alongside Ali and the team. COFE represents exactly the kind of platform we believe in at PVP, one that starts by solving a simple, high-frequency consumer need and evolves into a deeply integrated ecosystem. Seeing the company grow from its early beginnings into a category-defining player has been remarkable, and we are excited to support its next chapter as it scales toward market leadership, institutional maturity, and ultimately a successful public market outcome. I am also pleased to deepen our engagement through my role on the Board and look forward to working closely with Ali and the team as they execute on this exciting next phase of the company’s journey.”

Mr. Ali Al-Ebrahim, Founder & CEO of Cofe Tech added: “Steve has been part of our journey since the early days, and his continued support reflects the strength of our vision and execution. As we enter this next phase, we look forward to leveraging PVP’s expertise in scaling the business and navigating pre-IPO readiness as we continue building COFE Tech into a global technology platform. We are also delighted to welcome Steve to the Board of Directors and look forward to benefiting from his experience and strategic guidance as we pursue our next stage of growth.”

PVP’s investment included participation from several co-investors drawn from the investor base of Phoenix Venture Partners Innovation Fund CEIC Limited (PVPIF), including KSH Investments LLC, the international investment platform of the Private Department of H.E. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Khalid Al Nahyan and one of PVPIF’s notable investors.

Dr. Ahmed Mansour, CEO of KSH Investments LLC, said: “We are delighted to back COFE Tech alongside Phoenix Venture Partners. COFE is building transformative technology for commerce and procurement, and we are confident in its growth trajectory as it contributes to strengthening the UAE’s position as a global hub for innovation and the new economy.”

Press release:

Saudi AI startup Echelon has raised an undisclosed investment round from East40, RAED Ventures and Avra, alongside Ben Horowitz and other investors, as it looks to expand the deployment of artificial intelligence technologies across enterprises and government entities in Saudi Arabia.

Founded in Riyadh by Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, Echelon has spent around 10 months developing a model aimed at bridging the gap between AI technology providers and organisations seeking to deploy their technologies in day-to-day operations.

Rather than developing a single AI product, Echelon works with technology providers across the AI stack and helps enterprises and government entities select, localise and deploy their technologies.

The company is targeting eight sectors, including energy, industrials, government, telecommunications, defence, aviation, financial services and insurance, and healthcare.

Its current technology partnerships include Applied Intuition, IFS and Rubrik. In September, Echelon partnered with IFS to deploy and localise its industrial AI platform, IFS.ai, for Saudi enterprises, particularly across asset-intensive industries.

It has also partnered with US-based Applied Intuition to bring its physical AI platform to Saudi Arabia, targeting industries including logistics, mining and mobility.

Echelon is building its operations around several business units. Its Technologies division, led by former Microsoft executive Omar Saleh, focuses on commercial partnerships and enterprise deployments.

The company plans to launch Frontier in the fourth quarter of 2026, embedding engineers within customer organisations to deploy AI technologies and develop applications and intellectual property locally.

During the same quarter, Echelon plans to launch an Institute to train Saudi engineers in applied AI, beginning with a programme focused on physical AI. A separate Echelon Defense Industries division is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2027.

The company plans to work through commercial partnerships, joint ventures and purpose-built businesses, while committing capital, personnel and operational resources to selected projects.

Echelon is initially focusing on the Saudi market, with plans to expand its model across the wider region.

Press release:

Beltone Asset Management, a subsidiary of Beltone Holding, and Amtaar Capital have announced their partnership on a multi-issuance real estate investment fund, which is currently under establishment, with total targeted issuances of EGP 2 billion. The fund’s first issuance is expected to range between EGP 500 million and EGP 700 million. Under the structure, Beltone Asset Management will establish and manage the fund and oversee asset selection in line with its investment strategy, while Amtaar Capital will provide the digital platform through which investors can access the investment opportunity for the fund’s first issuance.

The fund will enable investors to invest in real estate fund units through Amtaar Capital’s digital platform, providing an opportunity to invest in income-generating properties without the need to purchase or directly own an entire property. Investors will be able to participate in the fund starting from EGP 1,000. Investors may benefit from rental income generated by the underlying real estate assets, alongside potential capital appreciation, subject to the fund’s investment strategy, performance, and applicable terms and conditions.

Khaled Darwish, CEO of Beltone Asset Management, said: “Real estate investment is an important component of many investors’ portfolios, but direct ownership typically requires significant capital and can lead to concentration in a single asset. Our partnership with Amtaar provides a different route to professionally managed real estate investment, combining Beltone Asset Management’s investment management expertise with Amtaar’s digital access.”

Amr Afifi, Co-Founder and CEO of Amtaar Capital, added: “Our partnership with Beltone Asset Management brings together Amtaar’s digital real estate ecosystem and Beltone Asset Management’s investment management expertise to make real estate investment more accessible to a broader range of investors, while offering a simpler digital experience.”

The partnership reflects the increasing role of digital platforms in broadening access to alternative investment opportunities, bringing together investment management expertise and a digital real estate ecosystem to provide a more accessible route to real estate investment.

Startups across the Middle East and North Africa raised $1.1 billion through 73 deals during the month, up 193% from August. Yet the recovery looks less dramatic when compared with last year: funding remained 68% below September 2025.

The rebound was also highly concentrated.

Barq’s $329.5 million Series A, Tabby’s $233 million Series F and Lendo’s $200 million debt financing together brought in $762.5 million, accounting for nearly 70% of all capital raised during the month.

That concentration offers a more nuanced picture of September. Capital returned in force, but it flowed disproportionately to a handful of large, predominantly Saudi fintech companies rather than evenly across the ecosystem.

Debt also remained a significant feature of the funding landscape, accounting for 31.7% of September’s total. That is substantially lower than the 76% recorded in September 2025, suggesting equity played a much larger role in this year’s headline figure.

Saudi Arabia takes back the lead

Saudi Arabia returned to the top of the regional funding table in September, with 40 startups raising a combined $947.2 million.

The kingdom alone accounted for roughly 86% of all capital raised in MENA during the month, underlining just how heavily September’s performance rested on the Saudi market.

Fintech was the clear driver. The sector accounted for 86% of Saudi Arabia’s funding, buoyed by the large rounds raised by Barq, Tabby and Lendo.

The UAE, which led the region in August, slipped to second place with $98.4 million raised across 12 deals.

Five of those companies were fintech startups, and together they accounted for 71% of the UAE’s total funding, showing that the sector’s dominance was not confined to Saudi Arabia.

Egypt, meanwhile, returned to the regional top three after recording no funding in August.

Seven Egyptian startups raised $49.2 million, although here too the total was shaped by one standout transaction. Paymob’s $35 million pre-Series C round accounted for about 71% of the country’s funding for the month.

Further down the table, Qatar moved into fourth place with four deals worth a combined $2.4 million, followed by Kuwait, where COFE recorded an estimated $1 million transaction.

Startups in Syria and Palestine raised a combined $580,000 across two deals, while Bahrain recorded five transactions worth $275,000.

Fintech is back in command

After losing some of its momentum in previous months, fintech returned decisively to the top of the sector rankings.

Twenty fintech startups raised $930.6 million in September, equivalent to around 85% of all funding deployed across MENA.

But, as with the regional total, much of that figure came from a small number of companies. Barq, Tabby and Lendo accounted for around 82% of all fintech funding during the month.

That makes September as much a story about deal size as sector strength. Fintech clearly remained the region’s most capital-intensive vertical, but its performance was amplified by three unusually large transactions.

Proptech came a distant second with $50.2 million raised across three deals. Rize’s $50 million round accounted for virtually all of that total.

Traveltech ranked third, attracting $25.2 million across two deals.

Later-stage deals make a comeback

September also brought some relief at the later end of the funding spectrum.

Five later-stage startups raised a combined $288 million during the month, a notable return of larger equity rounds after a period in which investors had largely favoured smaller and earlier-stage bets.

Early-stage companies nevertheless remained the dominant funding category in September, leading both by deal count and capital raised, with $418.2 million secured across 39 transactions.

Another 23 startups did not disclose the stage of their rounds, while six transactions were classified as debt deals.

The split suggests investors have not abandoned early-stage companies, but larger companies are once again finding ways to secure sizeable pools of capital, an encouraging signal after a year marked by tighter funding conditions.

B2B continues to attract the most deals

Business-to-business startups remained the most active segment of the market, raising $457.7 million across 47 transactions.

Consumer-focused companies attracted $406.4 million across 16 deals, while the remaining capital went to startups operating across both B2B and B2C models.

The figures reinforce a trend that has been visible throughout much of the year: investors continue to favour companies selling to businesses, particularly those with clearer paths to recurring revenue and enterprise-scale growth.

Female founders remain severely underfunded

One imbalance showed little sign of improving.

Male-led startups received around $1 billion in September, dwarfing the $2.4 million raised by female-founded companies.

Startups with mixed-gender founding teams attracted another $7.3 million.

The disparity is difficult to overlook. Even in a month when regional funding topped $1 billion, only a fraction of that capital reached companies founded or co-founded by women.

September’s rebound, in other words, did little to narrow one of the ecosystem’s most persistent funding gaps.

A strong headline, but not yet a broad recovery

September gave the MENA ecosystem one of its strongest monthly funding totals of the year and pushed third-quarter investment above $1.7 billion.

But the composition of that funding matters as much as the total.

Three transactions accounted for almost 70% of September’s capital, one country absorbed about 86% of the region’s funding, and one sector captured roughly 85%.

Strip away those mega-deals, and the picture becomes considerably more modest.

That does not make September’s rebound insignificant. The ability of regional startups to close transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars — across equity and debt — shows that investors are still willing to make large commitments when they see the right companies and opportunities.

What September does not yet show is a broad-based return of capital across the ecosystem.

That will be the more important test in the fourth quarter: whether the momentum created by a few outsized transactions begins to spread across more countries, sectors and funding stages, or whether MENA’s funding recovery remains dependent on a narrow group of heavyweight deals.

Wamda’s upcoming Q3 report will examine how those dynamics shaped the region’s venture funding landscape over the quarter.

These monthly reports are a collaboration between Wamda and Digital Digest.

AI that cuts software incident resolution by more than 90 per cent, monitors industrial safety through more than 400 deployments, and reads customer sentiment in 17 Arabic dialects will be among the transformative startup technologies on show at the world’s largest AI-first Expo and Summit this week in Abu Dhabi.

Taking place from 6 to 7 October at the ADNEC Centre, Ai Everything Abu Dhabi will bring together more than 400 global tech companies and award-winning startups. The two-day event’s startup showcase, Ai StartX Everything, will feature more than 150 startups, connecting founders with 200+ investors representing US$100 billion in assets under management from 30 countries. Below are some of the standout global startups to look out for on the show floor.

Portugal: VisionHammer maps, diagnoses and resolves the risk hidden in enterprise software

VisionHammer, a Portuguese AI-native software assurance company, presents a platform that maps, diagnoses and resolves the risk hidden in companies' software systems, with human control over every change. When an incident occurs, VisionHammer reads the error, identifies its root cause, writes and tests the fix, and delivers a pull request for approval by one of the client's engineers.

In one production deployment, incident resolution time went from around five hours to an average of four minutes, allowing the engineering team to shift its focus from maintenance to product development. Resolution runs inside the client's own infrastructure, and code analysis can run in VisionHammer's EU cloud or on the client's premises, making it suitable for regulated sectors. 

"The biggest demand isn't for more AI features," said Tiago Silva, co-founder and COO of VisionHammer. "It's for AI you can trust on the systems that matter, with human control and full auditability."

At Ai Everything Abu Dhabi, VisionHammer presents CodeScan, a security analysis of code on every release, and Assessment, a complete mapping and diagnosis of a company's systems, and highlights its expansion into the Gulf. 

Singapore: AI that monitors industrial safety across 400+ deployments

Singapore-headquartered Ailytics, which develops AI-powered video analytics for industrial safety and operations, will showcase AilyssaX, its vision language model-powered platform that transforms existing CCTV infrastructure into real-time safety and operational intelligence for heavy industries. The technology detects safety hazards, verifies compliance with work procedures and uses advanced visual reasoning to reduce false alarms. It works with existing cameras and can be deployed in days without additional hardware.

Ailytics has completed over 400 deployments across more than 15 countries, with customers including Changi Airport Group, DHL, Laing O’Rourke and Obayashi. Following its recent Series A funding round, the company is expanding in the Middle East, including new deployments with regional energy and infrastructure players. 

“The problem we solve is simple: industrial sites already have thousands of cameras, but nobody can watch them all,” said Tan Wei Zhuang, CEO of Ailytics. “Our AI does, detecting safety hazards, verifying compliance with work procedures, and reducing false alarms through advanced visual reasoning.”

Saudi Arabia: Agentic CX that resolves customer issues in 17 Arabic dialects

Saudi-based Lucidya, the Agentic CX Platform that enables organisations to autonomously turn customer and market intelligence into real-time resolution and measurable business outcomes, will showcase its AI Agent.

The platform supports 17 Arabic dialects with +92 per cent accuracy and draws on billions of data points to understand customer and market signals. Visitors will get an early look at its Agentic Workflows, designed to orchestrate end-to-end customer journeys across enterprise systems. Lucidya is ISO/IEC 42001 certified and compliant with PDPL, GDPR and SOC 2, supporting adoption among regulated industries and government customers.

"What we're demonstrating is how organisations can move from simply understanding customer signals to autonomously resolving issues through a governed, enterprise-ready system," said Yara Milbes, SVP Marketing & Growth at Lucidya.

UAE: Sovereign AI built in the Gulf, running inside the enterprise

Dubai-registered MetisJean, an AI research and development company focused on sovereign enterprise intelligence, will launch Jean 1001, its sovereign operating system for AI, with a live demonstration showing how the platform connects to existing enterprise systems and makes its reasoning traceable to the source. Jean operates inside a customer’s own infrastructure, with every action recorded on an immutable, audit-ready ledger, while reducing token consumption by up to 90% in some use cases.

“Our ambition is not simply to sell into the Gulf, but to build sovereign enterprise AI here, with Gulf customers as the reference, and take it outward,” said Alexander Haywood, Founder and CEO of MetisJean. “Stop renting intelligence. Start owning it.”

US: Screen-aware, proactive floating AI agent that eliminates the user prompt barrier and AI-related context switching

US-based Newrunio, an agentic AI research lab focused on redesigning Human-AI interaction paradigm, will introduce Personal Super-Intelligence (PAI) 1.2 to the global market for the first time. It will showcase an always-on screen-aware floating AI agent designed to work seamlessly within a user’s digital environment rather than requiring them to switch between applications and AI tools.

PAI understands what is happening on a user’s screen in real-time and proactively provides contextual suggestions and can execute tasks with a single click, while orchestrating multiple agentic workflows in parallel. PAI eliminates AI-related context switching by removing tab switching while keeping users in their existing work environment.

“PAI is designed not simply to answer questions, but to understand the user’s contexts, proactively anticipate needs, and take meaningful action within the workflow securely,” said Eon Yulheon Seung, Co-Founder and CEO of Newrunio.

Connecting entrepreneurs with US$100 billion in investor assets

Ai StartX Everything will also connect founders with investors, sovereign funds, technology companies and enterprise buyers through its Investor Programme. The programme will feature the Supernova AI Global Pitch Competition, where five finalists will compete for equity-free prizes, pitching their ventures directly to investors and industry leaders.

Organised by inD, with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement as Host Partner and Solutions+, a Mubadala company, as Global Partner, Ai Everything Abu Dhabi brings together leading Abu Dhabi institutions including ATRC, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Hub71, alongside global technology leaders AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft, Mistral AI and ASUS, among others.

TiE Dubai, the regional chapter of TiE Global has officially announced the five regional winners, who will compete at the seventh edition of the TiE Women MENA program 2026. Following a series of virtual regional finals held from September 8 to 17, five women founders emerged as track winners, one from each category. In the country tracks, Naglaa Mohamed, Co-Founder of P-Vita (Egypt), Lea Mehaweg, Co-Founder and CEO of Maison Safqa (Saudi Arabia), and Anuscha Iqbal, Co-Founder and CEO of Qanooni AI (UAE) took top honours. Rowan Alawi, CEO of Trase, won the Rest of MENA track, while Aisha Alyassi, Founder and Brand Director of SCULP, was named the Emirati track winner.

This year drew 250+ licensed, women-founded businesses, up from almost 200 in 2025, with strong showings in AI and SaaS, AgriTech and FoodTech, HealthTech, sustainability and fashion. From this pool, 228 founders were shortlisted and 46 went on to pitch in the regional finals, where each track named one winner and two runners-up. Founders were assessed on their idea, go-to-market strategy, team strength, competitive advantage, product-market fit, financial objectives, and operational and technical viability. Each finalist was paired with dedicated mentors who worked closely with them to get pitch- and market-ready, helping them sharpen and scale their businesses ahead of the regional finals.

At the regional finals, shortlisted founders pitched before juries drawn from venture capital, technology, banking, media and innovation. The Egypt panel featured Angeliki Karayianni of Nokia, Dina El-Shenoufy of F6 Ventures and Haifa A, formerly of Riyad Bank; Saudi Arabia brought together Abdulrahman AlJiffry of 500 Global, Dalia Nabil of Nokia and former Google and Microsoft leader Roberto Croci. The Rest of the Middle East jury included Dalia Amin of Nokia, Dr. Islam Shdaifat of JoVision and Nesma Abdel Azim of Wamda, while the UAE panel comprised Aamer Sheikh of Homegrown Ventures, Jacopo Carlo Canale of Global Ventures and May El-Rafie of Nokia. The Emirati track was judged by Lucy Chow of Pact Ventures, Saeed Alnofeli of in5 Innovation Centers and Sönke Peters of Nokia.

At Expand North Star in GITEX Global 2026, the winners will receive a dedicated pod to showcase their businesses, gaining direct access to investors and other key stakeholders. The five founders will now compete for the MENA title at the finals in December at GITEX Global 2026.

Beyond the winners' circle, the 2026 cohort tells a clear story of founders building for the region's most pressing challenges. AI ran through almost every track, powering solutions in legal services, construction, livestock health, prenatal care and community platforms, while sustainability shaped ventures turning farm waste into fertilizer, discarded yarn into premium textiles and smart sensors into water savings of 30-45% in a water-scarce region. Equally striking was the number of founders designing products specifically for women, from safe mobility to mental wellbeing and maternal health.

The program is run by TiE Dubai and powered by official partner Nokia, alongside longtime partners TECOM, Dubai Internet City and the in5 Innovation Centers. It is further supported by a wide network of ecosystem partners that continue to strengthen the region's entrepreneurial network.

5 mentors, the majority TiE Charter Members, will continue supporting the cohort beyond the finals.

Carlina Marani and Shameema Parveen, Co-Chairs of TiE Women MENA 2026, commented, “The quality of the candidates and their pitch decks was exceptionally high this year, and what stood out was the diversity of sectors represented. We saw everything from Emirati food products and AI-powered solutions for water conservation and fetal health to second-hand and sustainability-focused businesses. Across the program, there was a clear sense that these women are building businesses with the intention to create meaningful impact. Their enthusiasm was infectious throughout the finals, both online and in person across the UAE and Emirati tracks.We are now looking forward to the GITEX finals and to seeing these companies continue to grow and make their mark across the region.”

Despite MENA startups raising USD 150 million across 27 deals in April 2026, the funding gap for female-founded startups remained stark, with just USD 2.5 million going to them in H1 2026, or 0.14% of the region’s USD 1.7 billion venture funding. TiE Dubai remains committed to closing the gap through practical support, mentorship, funding access, visibility and a clear path from pitch to market, backing women entrepreneurs with regional networking and community engagement initiatives that strengthen their growth and presence in the ecosystem.

In the MENA region, the program has supported more than 1,000 women-led businesses, curated 350+ pitches and awarded AED 380K in equity-free prize money over the past four years. Globally, TiE Women has become one of the largest pitch platforms for women entrepreneurs, receiving more than 11,000 applications across 62 countries and accelerating over 500 women-led startups.

Aisha Alyassi, Founder of SCULP, winner of the Emirati track of TiE Women MENA 2026, reflected, "Being named a TiE Women MENA Regional Winner is an incredibly meaningful milestone, especially as a founder building SCULP from the ground up. The experience has pushed me to think bigger, sharpen my vision, and connect with a community of women who genuinely believe in what we’re building and where it can go.”

Danial Mausoof, Vice President MI Segment, MEA at Nokia, said: “At Nokia, we believe that innovation thrives when diverse perspectives, bold ideas and entrepreneurial ambition come together. We are proud to partner with TiE Women MENA and support a platform that gives women founders across the region the visibility and mentorship they need to turn innovative

ideas into businesses with real impact. The diversity and ambition we have seen throughout this year’s program are a strong reflection of the depth of entrepreneurial talent across MENA. We congratulate all five regional winners and look forward to seeing them taking their businesses to the next level and showcase the innovation emerging from the region on the global stage.”

Ahead, all five regional winners will continue one-to-one work with their assigned mentors to sharpen their pitch, go-to-market strategy and investor materials ahead of the MENA finals at GITEX Global 2026 in December. For more information, visit the official TiE Women website.

About TiE:

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals with roots in the Indus region. There are currently 12,000+ members, including over 3,500 charter members, in 63 chapters across 16 countries. TiE's mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, education, incubating, and funding. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE's focus is on generating and nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs.

TiE Dubai was established in 2003 to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship in the Middle East region and was inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the TECOM Free Zone Authority. Through its diverse charter members, TiE Dubai provides assistance and guidance to a community of more than 3,000 budding entrepreneurs.

Press release:

Saudi construction and procurement technology startup Project Suppliers has raised SAR3.75 million ($1 million) in its first Pre-Seed funding round, with participation from a group of angel investors whose identities were not disclosed.

Co-founded by Hossam Gaber, Project Suppliers operates a digital platform connecting suppliers and buyers across the construction and procurement sectors in Saudi Arabia.

The platform provides a specialised search engine alongside digital tools that allow contractors and suppliers to manage and track requests for quotations and generate reports. According to the company, its database currently includes more than 12,000 suppliers and contractors, while nearly 600,000 requests for quotations have been submitted through the platform.

Project Suppliers plans to use the new capital and the operational data generated through its platform to develop a suite of cash flow management solutions targeting companies and suppliers operating in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) and construction sectors.

The company plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into its data analysis to develop predictive and financing tools aimed at helping businesses manage liquidity, address delayed payment and collection cycles, and improve supply chain efficiency.

"This investment round comes at a pivotal time, reinforcing the importance of the platform as an innovative tool that combines operational connectivity with smart financial solutions," said Hossam Gaber, co-founder and CEO of Project Suppliers.

"The MEP supply and construction sector is a key backbone of major projects in Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030. However, the sector continues to face structural challenges related to cash flow management and delayed financial settlement cycles between contractors and suppliers," he added.

Project Suppliers is preparing to launch its new financial and technology solutions for contractors and suppliers operating across Saudi Arabia's MEP and construction sectors, with plans to expand the offering across the wider GCC market.

Press release:

Aligator, the agentic AI startup redefining how public relations is done, today announced the successful close of its seed funding round, raising $1.2 million (QAR 4.3 million). Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and Next Ventures, a fund by Media City Qatar, led the round, with additional participation from a group of private investors.

Aligator is building autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents purpose-built for the PR industry, capable of drafting and distributing press materials, monitoring media coverage, identifying journalist and outlet matches, and managing outreach workflows end to end. By pairing agentic AI with deep domain knowledge of communications, Aligator enables PR teams and agencies to operate with the speed and scale of a much larger organization.

Aligator was founded by, and is powered by, a team of Qatar Foundation alumni, graduates of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar and Texas A&M University at Qatar. The company stands as a homegrown success story of Qatar's investment in world-class education, with talent cultivated in Education City now building globally competitive AI technology from Doha.

Since its inception, Aligator has focused on solving a persistent challenge in the communications industry: PR professionals spend the majority of their time on manual, repetitive tasks such as tracking coverage, building media lists, drafting routine materials, and chasing follow-ups, leaving little room for strategy and relationship-building. Aligator's agents take on this operational load autonomously, learning each client's voice, media landscape, and objectives to deliver work that is fast, consistent, and on brand.

"Public relations is one of the most relationship-driven and time-intensive industries, yet much of the day-to-day work is repetitive and ripe for intelligent automation," said Ali Abbas, founder of Aligator. "This investment allows us to accelerate our product roadmap, grow our engineering team, and bring agentic AI to communications professionals across the region and beyond."

The new capital will be used to:

• Accelerate product development, expanding Aligator's suite of autonomous PR agents.
• Grow the team, with key hires across engineering, AI research, and go-to-market.
• Expand regionally, serving agencies, corporates, and government communications teams across the GCC and MENA.

“Aligator reflects the growing potential of Qatar’s homegrown innovation ecosystem and the strong technology talent emerging from the country. At Qatar Development Bank, we are committed to enabling promising startups through the capital and ecosystem support needed to develop their solutions, strengthen their capabilities and pursue their next stage of growth. We are pleased to invest in Aligator as it builds on this foundation and works toward its ambitions in Qatar, the region and beyond,” said Mohammed Al-Emadi, Executive Director of Incubation & Venture Capital Investment.

Khalid Mubarak Al-Naimi, Director and Board Member at Next Ventures, said: “We were established to back promising companies with the potential to strengthen the sector and shape its future. Our investment in Aligator reflects this purpose, supporting technology that addresses real market needs and providing the financial and strategic backing needed to scale from Qatar into regional and international markets, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.”

The investment reflects growing momentum in Qatar's technology and startup ecosystem, and underscores investor confidence in applied AI ventures emerging from the region, particularly those built by local talent.

Press release:

Shorooq, the leading regional multi-strategy investment firm, and Presight, a global leader in applied AI for intelligent systems and a G42 company, have invested in Maven Robotics, an intelligent industrial robotics company building the first general-purpose robotics system. The investment was made through the Presight–Shorooq AI and Bedaya Funds managed by Shorooq, alongside RoboStrategy, LocalGlobe, Vine Ventures and XTX Ventures.

Founded in 2024 and based in Santa Clara, California, Maven designs, builds, and deploys intelligent robots for logistics and manufacturing. The company started with mixed-case palletizing and tote handling, two workflows that represent an estimated $80 billion addressable market. Maven’s robots already run up to sixteen hours a day at customer sites with reliability above 99 percent. The company plans to build 250 of its third-generation machines as it expands across a market for warehouse automation worth tens of billions of dollars. 

Maven represents exactly the kind of company Shorooq was built to back: a founder tackling a real, physical problem at global scale, where applied intelligence turns automation from a research demo into working infrastructure. That thesis — backing the companies moving artificial intelligence off the screen and into the physical world — is what drew Shorooq to the deal. 

“The first wave of AI reshaped how we work with information; the next will reshape how the physical economy runs, and that is a far larger prize,” said Bilal Baloch, Partner at Shorooq. “What sets Maven apart is that Hamza and his team are not chasing a research benchmark — they are solving one industrial problem at a time, with the discipline and return-on-investment focus that real operators demand. Backing a company like this, from Abu Dhabi into Silicon Valley, is precisely what it means to invest in the frontier from the region, for the world.”

The investment also reflects a deliberate pairing of capital with capability. Where Shorooq brings the investment discipline and company-building track record, Presight brings deep expertise in applied intelligence and access to one of the most significant AI and compute ecosystems in the world through G42 — an advantage designed to help portfolio companies scale faster than capital alone would allow.

For Presight, the investment reflects its focus on applying intelligence to complex operational challenges. ”AI creates value when it works reliably in the environments where businesses operate,” said Thomas Pramotedham, Chief Executive Officer of Presight. “Maven is applying intelligence to the physical work of moving and handling goods, where performance is measured in operational results. Through the Presight–Shorooq Fund I, we aim to support companies like Maven with capital, applied AI expertise and relationships that can help them scale. This investment reflects our belief that the value of intelligence is realized through its application.”

Maven's approach has already won it work against rivals with robots long in the market, and its founding team draws on veterans of AI, robotics, engineering, and autonomous systems programmes — among the few groups to have solved the data pipelines that let hardware learn from real-world operation. The new capital will fund the build-out of its third-generation fleet and the design of a fourth, as the company moves from palletizing toward broader materials handling.

For Maven's founder, the backing brings partners who understand both the technology and the region's ambition to lead in it. “We're not in the race to build the biggest model — we're in the race to solve industrial labour and make this work possible at the scale the world needs,” said Hamza Derbas, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Maven Robotics. “Shorooq and Presight understood that from the first conversation. Beyond the capital, they bring an ecosystem — compute, data and enterprise relationships — that helps us deploy faster and reach customers we might not have reached alone. We also see the region a node from where we can take our robots global.”

The investment adds to a growing portfolio of frontier technology companies backed by Shorooq, which invests in category-defining artificial intelligence and deep-tech businesses worldwide and connects them to the capital, compute and enterprise networks of the UAE's AI ecosystem.

Press release:

Saudi workforce housing startup Rela has secured an investment from Yazeed Al Rajhi & Brothers Holding, which has joined the company as an investor and strategic partner, as the startup looks to expand its workforce accommodation network across Saudi Arabia.

The financial value of the investment and the stake acquired by the holding company were not disclosed.

Launched in early 2026 under the leadership of Salman Al Jabrain, Rela provides technology-enabled workforce housing and accommodation management services, combining licensed accommodation with property management, operations and supporting services through a single platform.

The company's business model connects property owners, investors and developers with companies looking for accommodation for their employees and workers. Rela manages the properties and related services rather than operating solely as a marketplace connecting supply and demand.

Its services cover the preparation, management, operation and maintenance of workforce housing facilities, alongside transportation and catering. Its technology platform allows corporate clients to manage reservations, monitor occupancy rates, allocate workers across properties and analyse operational data.

Rela targets businesses operating across sectors including construction, operations and maintenance, logistics, industrial, hospitality and retail, as well as companies working on major projects that require accommodation for large workforces.

The company focuses on providing accommodation in locations aligned with its customers' operational requirements while standardising the management and services associated with workforce housing.

Following the investment, Rela plans to expand its network of properties and residential complexes across Saudi Arabia by working with property owners, developers and investors to bring additional buildings onto its platform.

The company aims to match these available properties with corporate demand for workforce housing, while handling their management, operations and associated services.

The investment comes only months after Rela began operations, giving the company a strategic partner as it looks to expand its footprint in Saudi Arabia's workforce accommodation market.

Press release:

Saudi investment firm Pinnacle Capital, through its Pinnacle Growth & Secondary Fund, has made an additional investment in Saudi alternative accommodation platform Gathern, increasing its ownership in the company.

The financial value of the transaction and Pinnacle's resulting ownership stake were not disclosed. Pinnacle described the investment as part of its strategy to identify secondary investment opportunities in regional technology companies.

Founded in 2016 by Latifah Altamimi and Faisal Alanazi, Riyadh-based Gathern operates a digital marketplace for alternative accommodation, allowing travellers to book locally hosted properties across Saudi Arabia, including apartments, villas, chalets, farms and camps.

Pinnacle previously backed Gathern as part of the company's SAR270 million ($72 million) Series B, which closed in August 2025. The round was led by Sanabil Investments, wholly owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, Pinnacle, Nuwa Capital and STV.

The Series B valued Gathern at more than SAR1 billion ($267 million) and was intended to support its local and regional expansion, technology infrastructure and growth of its host network.

At the time of the round, Gathern said it had surpassed 5 million registered users from 150 nationalities, with more than 72,000 accommodation units available through its platform.

The company also said it had paid more than SAR2 billion to local hosts, while estimating its share of Saudi Arabia's alternative accommodation market at 44%, rising to 53% in Riyadh.

Pinnacle said its decision to increase its investment was supported by Gathern's operational performance, expanding market presence and its path towards a potential public listing.

Gathern has previously outlined plans for an eventual listing on the Saudi Exchange. In September 2025, CEO Latifah Altamimi said the company was targeting an IPO in 2028, alongside plans to expand into adjacent travel services.

The latest transaction increases Pinnacle's exposure to Gathern as the company continues to expand its position in Saudi Arabia's hospitality and alternative accommodation market.

Press release:

erad, the Riyadh-headquartered alternative financing platform for SMEs, today announced the close of a $22 million Series A funding round (SAR 78.75 million) led by MEVP, with participation from new investors SVC, 500 Global, S60 Ventures, ANB Capital, Conjunction Capital, and Araya Ventures. Existing investors Khwarizmi, Nuwa Capital, Aljazira Capital, Oraseya, and Joa Capital also participated, reinforcing their continued conviction in erad's trajectory. 

The raise comes on the back of 8x year-over-year growth for erad in Saudi Arabia, having deployed over SAR 500 million ($133 mn) in cumulative financing to SMEs, indicative of growing demand for alternative growth capital across the GCC. The company has received more than SAR 4bn ($1bn) in financing requests from SMEs to date, which underscores the scale of unmet demand for working capital across the region.

erad is currently seeing growth beyond its original target sectors to serve businesses across logistics, medical equipment, and wholesale distribution. The company’s data-driven underwriting enables it to track client cash flows, limit risk, and manage additional financing needs.

"SMEs represent approximately 50% of regional GDP and employ two-thirds of the workforce across the GCC, yet face a financing gap that limits their growth. This round marks a pivotal chapter for erad as our clients seek speed to capital and markets. We have proven that our model works and businesses across sectors are coming to us because we make financing fast, fair, and frictionless, said Salem Abu-Hammour, Co-founder of erad. “What excites me most is where we go from here, which is deeper into new sectors, into new products that did not exist before, and powering the businesses that are scaling across the region.”

Across the region, erad's financing has translated into real growth for the businesses it serves, funding everything from fleet expansion and inventory to new locations and larger contracts, without tying up the cash they need to operate. On average, clients are approved within 48 hours, and 85% continue to grow with erad, expanding their financing within the first year.

Jad EL Boustani, Partner at MEVP, said, "We're backing erad because they're addressing the GCC's $250 billion SME financing gap while building a sustainable, high-quality financing business. What gives us the most conviction is the team: Salem and the founding team have paired real domain expertise with disciplined execution, turning a clear market need into 8x year-over-year growth in Saudi and a 48-hour approval engine that scales. Their technology-first approach and rigorous underwriting balance growth ambition with risk discipline, which is exactly what the GCC's economic transformation needs. This round reinforces MEVP's commitment to Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC tech ecosystem.

The company currently offers multiple working capital products to serve businesses in various sectors. Its proprietary AI models enable the platform to process higher volumes and larger ticket sizes while managing risk. Financing from erad is available up to SAR 10 million and is fully Shariah-compliant, giving businesses flexible payment terms at the point of need.

Following its Series A, erad will double down on new financing products built to serve the demand it's seeing across the market. These offerings will be tailored to the needs of the sectors erad is expanding into; including industrial, logistics, and manufacturing; capital-intensive industries that are scaling rapidly across the GCC and beyond. erad will also grow its team across the region, with strategic hiring across technology and commercial functions.

Press release:

Dubai-born beauty brand deepening Saudi Arabia presence this month following 9x growth in the UAE, with Kuwait and Qatar to follow as it builds globally ambitious consumer brands from the Middle East.

Dubai, UAE, September 28, 2026: Amaani, the company behind Middle Eastern beauty brand AÏZA, has raised $5 million in Series A funding as it prepares for its next phase of expansion across the GCC and beyond. The round was led by BECO Capital, with participation from Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV's Surge, bringing Amaani’s total funding to $8 million.

Founded in Dubai and launched in December 2024, AÏZA is building a beauty brand inspired by the ingredients, rituals and culture of the Arab world, developed to compete with leading global brands. In the first half of 2026, AÏZA’s net revenue increased more than 9x year-on-year as the brand expanded from a digital-first business into regional retail. Today, it is available through aiza.co, Ounass and Ulta Beauty in the UAE, where it ranks among the top 10 brands across more than 300 global and regional brands. AÏZA was also named to BeautyMatter’s NEXT50, becoming the first and only Middle Eastern brand included in its annual global list of 50 emerging beauty and wellness companies to watch.

"Three years ago I left Sequoia Capital India with one conviction: the Middle East had become one of the world's most sophisticated consumers of global beauty, but too few globally ambitious brands were built around the region's own beauty culture”, - says Shubham Poddar, Founder and CEO of Amaani. “AÏZA was created to change that, with original products inspired by the ingredients, rituals and cultural intelligence of Arabia, held to the formulation standards required to compete anywhere. This funding allows us to deepen what we have built in the UAE, expand across the GCC and begin proving that a brand born here can travel far beyond it."

AÏZA’s products reinterpret ingredients associated with the region, including dates, black seed, frankincense, rose and bakhoor, through modern skincare and haircare formulations developed with laboratories in Korea, Japan and Italy. The company combines regional roots with a digital-first operating model designed to help it learn and scale quickly. Its team uses technology and AI across areas including creative testing, customer analytics, performance marketing and operational planning, bringing the speed and discipline of a technology company to the traditionally brand-led beauty category.

Abdulaziz Shikh Al Sagha, Managing Partner, BECO Capital, shared: “We examined the beauty and wellness category in the Gulf and broader Middle East for a number of years, looking for brands built here with the operating discipline to scale beyond the region. Amaani combines that discipline with a deep understanding of what regional consumers want. That combination gave us the conviction to back Shubham and the team at this stage of their journey.”

“In consumer brands, a compelling story may drive the first purchase, but great products and execution are what bring customers back. AÏZA has both. The team is building original products rooted in the region’s ingredients and rituals, while executing with a level of discipline that is rare at this stage”, - said Nader Amiri, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Homegrown Ventures. “Rather than importing an established global playbook into the Middle East, Shubham and the team are building one from here. AÏZA is showing that a brand can be authentically rooted in the Arab world and still have the ambition and product quality to compete globally.”

The new capital will support AÏZA’s expansion across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, alongside continued investment in product development, talent and the technology infrastructure behind the business. Saudi Arabia will be the priority market in the next phase of expansion. AÏZA is set to launch with Ulta Beauty at Red Sea Mall in Jeddah and Riyadh Park in Riyadh at the end of September, with Kuwait and Qatar expected to follow in Q4.

Every major technology platform tends to follow a similar evolution. It begins with the digitisation of individual products. Over time, those products become connected. Eventually, the competitive advantage shifts from what each product can do to how intelligently the system works as a whole.

Smartphones evolved this way. Hardware, software and services became one seamless experience.

Cloud computing evolved this way. Independent applications became interconnected systems capable of operating at a global scale.

Artificial intelligence is evolving the same way. The conversation has already moved beyond individual models to how multiple models, tools and workflows coordinate to solve increasingly complex tasks.

Finance has reached that same moment. Over the past two decades, financial innovation has produced extraordinary products. Digital banks transformed banking. Payment platforms accelerated commerce. Accounting software modernised finance teams. Investing became accessible from a smartphone. Each innovation solved an important problem.

Every financial decision, however, still depends on financial data scattered across multiple institutions and platforms. Businesses reconcile payments across systems. Consumers piece together balances, commitments and goals before making important financial decisions. The products have advanced rapidly, but the responsibility for connecting them has remained with the customer.

At Ziina, we see this fragmentation in the way businesses manage money every day. A business can receive payments through one system, hold funds in another, issue invoices somewhere else and manage its books on a separate platform. The business owner ends up becoming the integration layer. What looks like a collection of separate financial products to the industry feels like one financial life to the customer.

That fragmentation carries a real economic cost. Every hour spent reconciling information, transferring financial data between systems or making decisions with an incomplete financial picture reduces productivity. At a broader level, fragmented information can limit how efficiently capital flows through the economy.

Based on 2019 data, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimated the financing gap for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across emerging and developing economies at $5.7 trillion. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), financing gaps were among the largest relative to GDP, averaging close to 30%.

A business may have healthy revenue, reliable customers and predictable cash flow, yet those signals can remain distributed across multiple systems. The institution making a financing decision sees only the information available to it. The business experiences the whole picture.

This is where connected financial systems change the equation.

Imagine a business receiving a payment from a customer. The payment reaches the bank account. The accounting platform updates automatically. Cash flow projections refresh. Working capital is recalculated. Financing options adapt to the business’s latest financial position.

The payment itself is only the starting point. What matters is that every connected product works from the same context and responds in coordination.

The same principle applies to consumers. Financial guidance becomes far more useful when it reflects a more comprehensive financial picture rather than isolated snapshots. Income, savings, investments, recurring commitments and long-term goals all contribute to better decisions. Artificial intelligence makes those interactions conversational. Connected systems give them context, allowing financial products to work together instead of operating independently.

Open Finance provides the foundation for that coordination. By enabling customers to securely share financial data across institutions, it can give financial service providers a more connected view of a customer’s financial world. Banks, payment providers, lenders, accounting platforms and investment services can respond to the same financial context, subject to the customer’s consent and the services connected to the system.

Open Finance goes beyond Open Banking by extending connectivity beyond bank account data to a broader range of financial products and services.

The UAE is building this infrastructure at the ecosystem level. The Central Bank of the UAE’s Open Finance framework introduced common infrastructure for secure data sharing and transaction initiation, supported by an API Hub and Trust Framework. The significance is larger than any individual Open Finance product: It creates common rails through which financial institutions and fintechs can build connected experiences.

For markets across the Middle East and North Africa, this creates an unusual opportunity. Much of the region’s digital financial infrastructure is being developed at the same time that Open Finance and AI are becoming increasingly viable. That creates an opportunity to design systems around the needs of today’s consumers and businesses rather than yesterday’s infrastructure.

Brazil offers one of the clearest examples of where the industry is heading because its central bank approached Open Finance as an ecosystem capability rather than another financial product. Financial data shared with customer consent gives institutions a richer understanding of financial behaviour, creating the conditions for faster, more informed decisions.

The results are already visible. According to Banco Central do Brasil, between the beginning of Open Finance implementation in 2021 and June 30, 2025, R$31 billion in credit operations originated from the analysis of data shared through Open Finance. That included R$5.4 billion in new credit generated by fintechs for 6 million customers.

Brazil also shows what it takes to build Open Finance at the ecosystem level. It requires common standards for consent, authentication, security and data sharing. Those foundations create the trust required for customers to allow financial institutions and third parties to work with their data.

The UAE now has an opportunity to apply those lessons as it builds its own digital financial infrastructure at speed.

AI can reason across a financial context, while connected systems give it access to the systems and services required to act. This changes the role of AI in finance. Today, an AI system can explain a transaction, summarise spending or answer a question about a financial product. With access to connected financial infrastructure and the right permissions, it can begin to act on that understanding.

Consider a business owner facing a cash flow gap. An agent could see incoming payments, expenses, invoices and account balances, recognise that a shortfall is emerging, evaluate the available options and explain the trade-offs. With the right permissions, it could then take action and monitor the outcome.

The same principle applies to consumers. An agent could monitor recurring commitments across connected accounts, identify an upcoming liquidity requirement, move money between eligible accounts or initiate a payment according to rules established by the customer.

This is what financial agents make possible: systems that can understand financial context, make decisions within defined parameters and act on a customer’s behalf.

The harder question is how much authority we grant these systems.

An agent can analyse, recommend and prepare an action. The customer decides how much authority to delegate, within clearly defined permissions and controls. The more consequential the action, the more important transparency, authentication and human oversight become.

The industry will have to solve these questions as the technology develops. Who is liable when an agent makes a mistake? How should consent work when an agent acts continuously rather than during a single transaction? How much authority should a customer grant an agent?

These questions will determine how quickly financial agents move from an intriguing technology to something people trust with their money.

Every major technology platform eventually reaches a point where individual components become infrastructure for a larger system. Finance is entering that phase now, with value increasingly coming from connecting data, decisions and services into experiences that feel effortless for the customer.

For the Middle East and North Africa, the opportunity is significant. The region can build the connective infrastructure and intelligence layer together, with Open Finance creating trusted pathways between financial institutions and AI creating new ways to interact with them.

Open Finance gives us the connected financial system. AI gives that system intelligence. Financial agents give customers a way to turn that intelligence into action.

The result will be a fundamentally different way of building, delivering and experiencing financial services.

Universal Payment Network (UPN), owned by FinTra Holding, has launched the UPN Consortium, an open global platform bringing together payment networks, banks, financial institutions, digital wallets, remittance companies and open finance providers to help shape the network’s strategy, market priorities and cross-border payment infrastructure.

The consortium was announced at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh, as UPN expands across more than 50 markets, serving more than 500 million accounts and providing access to more than 100 Alternative Payment Methods (APMs).

UPN also announced the completion of its first live transaction from a local wallet in Africa through the global network, marking a key step in the network’s transition from development to live operations.

The UPN Consortium is designed to provide a global framework for collaboration across the payments and financial services ecosystem, enabling participating institutions to share market insights and contribute directly to UPN’s strategic and commercial priorities.

Participants will have the opportunity to contribute to the network’s future direction, including its strategy, roadmap, pricing principles, market priorities, and the development of cross-border payment and remittance solutions.

UPN will operate the consortium and continue to develop its infrastructure and capabilities while providing participating institutions with a structured framework to contribute to the network’s development. The model is designed to maintain clear operational and regulatory responsibilities as UPN builds a secure and scalable global network.

Dr. Waleed Sadek, Founder and CEO of FinTra Holding, said the launch of the UPN Consortium comes as the global payments industry continues to expand across card networks, digital wallets, instant payment systems, remittance services, banking and open finance.

He noted that many of these ecosystems continue to operate across separate technology, commercial and settlement environments, increasing the complexity of connectivity and extending the time required for institutions to enter new markets. Sadek said UPN was designed to address this challenge by operating as a neutral interoperability layer, connecting participating networks and institutions through unified global infrastructure.

The model enables each institution to retain its local identity, regulatory responsibilities and customer relationships while expanding its reach into other payment ecosystems around the world.

UPN currently spans more than 50 markets worldwide, covering more than 500 million accounts and providing access to more than 100 Alternative Payment Methods, supporting its objective of building an interconnected payments and remittances ecosystem across multiple markets.

Connecting to UPN enables eligible institutions to expand their ability to send and receive payments and remittances, reduce the need for multiple bilateral integrations, and access additional transaction flows and potential revenue opportunities.

Participation in the network may also, subject to the availability of relevant remittance corridors, regulatory requirements, commercial arrangements and settlement structures, support access to foreign currencies and liquidity capabilities.

UPN is designed to support multiple transaction categories across participating markets, including peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers between individuals and between accounts and wallets connected to the network; person-to-merchant (P2M) payments across physical stores, e-commerce platforms and digital marketplaces; and business-to-business (B2B) trade payments across connected markets.

The UPN Consortium is open to eligible institutions across multiple segments of the payments and financial services industry.

These include domestic and international card networks, instant payment networks, national payment switches, banks, microfinance institutions, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) providers, mobile money operators and digital wallet providers.

The target participants also include remittance companies, foreign exchange companies and FX service providers, open banking and open finance providers, account-to-account payment solution providers, payment processors, payment acquirers, government payment platforms, licensed digital asset service providers, and institutions operating in clearing, settlement, liquidity and correspondent banking services.

Participation applications will be assessed against a set of criteria, including regulatory standing, market coverage, compliance controls, technical readiness, settlement capabilities, transaction use cases and the value an institution can contribute to the ecosystem.

Sadek said the next generation of global payments will not be built by replacing successful local payment systems, but by connecting them to one another.

He added that the UPN Consortium provides a practical platform for institutions already moving money to contribute to the development of a network designed with interoperability at its core, while meeting commercial requirements and respecting local sovereignty.

“We invite payment and remittance industry leaders around the world to join the dialogue and contribute to building this infrastructure together,” Sadek said.

The collaborative structure of the UPN Consortium is designed to reflect the needs and priorities of participating institutions while maintaining the operational clarity required to build a secure and scalable network.

Under the model, UPN remains responsible for operating the network and delivering its capabilities, while participating institutions contribute to shaping strategic and market priorities.

The completion of UPN’s first live transaction from a local wallet in Africa through the global payments network this month represents a key milestone in the network’s development and demonstrates its ability to connect local payment ecosystems through its global interoperability infrastructure.

The milestone, together with UPN’s access to more than 100 Alternative Payment Methods and its network of more than 500 million accounts, supports the network’s plans to build global infrastructure capable of enabling interconnected payment and remittance flows across different markets while maintaining local regulatory and commercial requirements.

The UPN Consortium is an open community led by participating institutions across different segments of the global payments and remittances ecosystem.

It provides a structured framework for participants to contribute to the network’s direction, roadmap, pricing principles, market priorities and strategy, while UPN remains responsible for the operation and development of the network.

Universal Payment Network (UPN), a FinTra Holding company, is a global payments network designed to enable instant, sovereign global financial flows through a neutral interoperability layer connecting local payment systems, financial institutions, digital wallets, remittance service providers, open finance platforms and other entities operating under applicable regulatory frameworks.

Press release:

Huspy, the company building one of the largest and fastest-growing AI operating systems for real estate and mortgage brokers  in Europe and the Middle East, announces the acquisition of Integra Finance, an Italian credit company serving individuals and businesses. The transaction marks the first step in Huspy's strategy for Italy, where the company plans to invest USD 86 million (AED 315 million), with the aim of building one of Italy's leading operators in mortgage finance and real estate.

Founded in Dubai in 2020, Huspy now operates in 15 cities across the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Italy, providing AI-native technology, services and support to real estate agents and mortgage consultants. The launch marks the next stage of Huspy’s expansion, advancing its ambition to build the largest homebuying platform in the Middle East and Europe, with an AI-native platform designed to improve the experience of home buyers and sellers while increasing efficiency and opportunities for the professionals who support them.

Jad Antoun, Co-founder and CEO of Huspy, commented, "We are doubling down on Europe, and Italy is central to our next phase of growth. Integra Finance has built a fast-growing business with a high-calibre management team, an established network of advisors and partners, underpinned by a highly efficient operating model. By combining this expertise and market presence with our AI-native technology and systems, we aim to accelerate Integra's growth and help transform the way real estate agents, credit advisors and clients experience the process of buying, selling and financing a home."

Italy is the fourth market in which Huspy now operates, following the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Saudi Arabia. Its entry into the country forms part of an international expansion that began in Europe with Spain in 2022 and is driven by the ambition to replicate in Italy a model based on the integration of technology, a network of real estate professionals and financial solutions, making the entire property purchase and financing journey simpler and more efficient. Huspy's decision to enter Italy also reflects the central role of the real estate sector in the country and the opportunities created by its gradual technological evolution. In a market characterised by an extensive network of real estate agents and professionals, Huspy aims to make its AI-native platform available to industry operators, combining technology and services to simplify processes, create more opportunities and improve the experience of buying and selling a home.

The acquisition of Integra Finance is the starting point for this strategy in Italy. Founded in 2020, Integra Finance is a credit intermediation company focused on mortgages, loans, financing and credit services for individuals, professionals and businesses. Integra Finance now has more than 160 advisors and a network of more than 50 banking, financial and insurance partners, operating in both the B2C and B2B segments.

The company has also developed a diversified offering that includes mortgages, salary- and pension-backed loans, personal loans and corporate financing, as well as insurance services through its subsidiary Bicher, enabling it to support clients across a range of financial needs.

Ziad Nassar, Co-founder and Deputy CEO of Huspy, commented, "For Huspy, a company founded in the UAE, entering Italy is an important strategic step, and Integra Finance is the ideal platform from which to begin. Our investment builds on the long-standing economic partnership between our two nations, reflected in the UAE’s USD 40 billion investment commitment announced in February 2025 during HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed’s visit to Italy. Integra Finance is Huspy's fifth acquisition in the credit intermediation sector, and we can draw on a proven model, already applied successfully, to integrate these businesses."

Enrico Quadri and Samuele Lupidii, CEO and Chairman of Integra Finance, added:

"We are delighted to begin this new chapter with Huspy. We built Integra with the ambition of creating a strong, innovative and customer-focused company. We are proud of what we have achieved and grateful to our network and to everyone who believed in the project.

We believe Huspy is the ideal partner to accelerate our growth. Combining our experience and network with Huspy's technology and international vision will enable us to create something unique: a new force in Italian credit intermediation and a magnet for the best professionals in the market."

The transaction reflects an expansion model Huspy has already used in other markets. The company has also grown by acquiring established businesses and integrating their teams and local expertise with its own operating model, technology and investment capacity. In the United Arab Emirates, Huspy acquired Home Matters in 2021 and subsequently acquired other smaller businesses; in Spain, it acquired Mortgage Direct in 2023.

In 2026 and 2027, Huspy plans to focus on developing the Italian market, expanding to additional markets in Europe and the MENA region,, and strengthening its presence in Spain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.