Welcome back to your weekly journey through the MENA startup landscape! This week we are bringing you the latest news, trends, and opportunities from across the region

Let’s get started!

Fundraising Roulette

Klickl (UAE/Fintech) raised $25M Series A round

Wafeq (UAE/Fintech) raised $7.5M Series A round

BioSapien (UAE/Biotech) raised $5.5M pre-Series A round

DeChat (UAE/Web 3.0) raised $1M

BuyAnyAutoPart (UAE/B2B Marketplace) raised $750k

Better (UAE/Wellness) raised $550k pre-seed round

Astra Tech’s Quantix raised $500M debt financing

Adlive (UAE) acquired by DXTA Technology

Orion Principals (UAE) acquired by Crypto.com

Disrupt.com (UAE) invested in LAAM (Pakistan)

G42 (UAE) invested in Inveniam (USA)

AlGooru (KSA/Edtech) raised $4M pre-Series A round

NEOM Investment Fund (KSA) invested in GMT Robotics (Denmark)

Unipal (Bahrain/Edtech) raised undisclosed Pre-Series A round

Hudhudshop (Qatar/e-Commerce) raised undisclosed pre-seed round

ZSystems (Morocco/B2B Marketplace) raised $1.5M seed round

Bekya Pay (Egypt/Cleantech) raised $30k

Youth (Egypt/Student Discounts) raised $20k

IM Ventures (Lebanon) invested in Tenzr Health (Canada), Jobs for Humanity (USA), and Wecheer (USA)

Main Headlines

Beam Foundation to launch $150M Beam Ventures Fund Abu Dhabi

100Unicorns accelerator (India) expanded to UAE

Iliad Partners (UAE) closed $50M Iliad Partners Tech Ventures Fund I

Ministry of Finance announced amendments to Corporate Tax Law in UAE

Egyptian government to launch strategic startup charter in early 2025

Cauris Finance announced $40M debt facility for African Fintechs

Camco secured $107M fund to support renewable energy projects in emerging markets

Qatar launched the fourth Industrial Revolution centre

Ecosystem Updates

Hub71 partnered with Google to launch the Google for Startups accelerator program in the UAE in 2025 and launched an AED150K angel investor support package

Khalifa Fund announced entrepreneurship competition winners and unveiled MZN Hub to transform the entrepreneurial journey in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi unveiled Hub71+ AI to boost AI startups

Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival is back on 1st Feb 2025

Sharjah launched Seal the Deal to back university startups

Tamkeen launched the Open Innovation Program in Bahrain

Capital Market Authority in Saudi licensed Watheeq, Nama, and Sukna

Tawuniya launched a virtual accelerator for MENA startups

MENA Fintech Association announced winners of MFTA Awards 2024

VentureX (Jordan) is hiring for multiple positions

Startup Highlights

Talabat (UAE) debuted on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) with an opening price of 1.7 AED/share

Stake (UAE) expanded to Saudi

BitOasis (UAE) granted full virtual asset

CozmoX AI (UAE) launched a voice AI employee platform

PayTabs (KSA) expanded to Kuwait

MNT-Halan (Egypt) expanded to UAE

Veehive (UAE) won the Red Bull Startup Studio award

Five Syrian entrepreneurs launched the Impact Gift Box in Netherlands

Open For Application

Regenerative Agriculture Venture Program | UAE

SANDBOX Startup Investment Program | UAE

Green Sprint Venture Program | UAE

Flat6Labs Riyadh Seed Program | KSA

WE Innovate Cybersecurity Academy | Egypt

C3 Net Zero Catalyst program | MENAT

Cool Events This Week

• Hub71 Info Session | 16.12 Virtual

• Oraseya Capital Ask Me Anything | 16.12 Dubai

• Social Contribution and Wage Protection in Saudi | 16.12 Virtual

• Mastering Financial Management for Growth | 17.12 Dubai

• Spark Angel Event by Numu Angels | 17.12 Riyadh

• Clara Connections #2 with Antler MENAP | 19.12 Virtual

Techy Bytes

Abu Dhabi launched AI & robotics climate tech venture to drive mangrove forestation

UAE Dirham-backed stablecoin was approved

Apple launched Tap to Pay on iPhone in the UAE

ADNOC launched an AI-powered investor relations chatbot in UAE

Uber introduced self-driving taxis in Abu Dhabi

Samsung Pay service launched in Saudi Arabia

Qatar Computing Research Institute launched Fanar Arabic LLM

Advanced AI cameras taking on traffic violations in Kuwait

Egypt allocated EGP 10B for digital infrastructure in public universities