Hello MENA founders and entrepreneurs!

This week, the MENA startup scene has been buzzing with exciting funding rounds, impactful acquisitions, and major ecosystem developments

Let’s get started!

Fundraising Roulette

The Box (UAE/Saas) raised $12.5M in funding led by Shorooq

Mansa (UAE/Fintech) raised $10M to expand stablecoin-based payments

GI WaaS (KSA/Cleantech) raised a seven-figure Series A round with a valuation exceeding $1B

Dabchy (Tunisia) raised an undisclosed pre-Series A round

Ibtikar Fund invested in Sellenvo (Palestine)

Wa’ed Ventures (KSA) invested in Ori (UK)

Qatar Insurance Group invested in three insurtech startups: Jaguar Transit, MIC Global, and Digital Petroleum

Dubizzle (UAE) acquired Hatla2ee (Egypt/Car Marketplace)

Surj Sports Investment (KSA) acquired a minority stake in Dazn

2PointZero (KSA) acquired Maseera (KSA/Fintech)

Arrow Capital (UAE) was acquired by InCred Group (India)

Pinewood Technologies PLC acquired 90.9% of Seez (UAE) for $42M

Main Headlines

SDB (KSA) announced a $360M initiative to support the esports and gaming sector

Saudi Arabia launched the Web3 Alliance to accelerate blockchain innovation

Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) reduced its business registration application fee by 90%, from $5,000 to just $500

Qatar announced plans to invest $10B in India and initiate free trade agreement (FTA) talks

Swiss Cleantech announced a $1B solar fuel project in Morocco

Algeria Telecom established an $11M fund to support AI companies in Algeria

500 Global launched a new fund to support startups in the MENA region

Palm Ventures unveiled a new $30M investment fund to support startups in the Arab Region

MENA InsureLab secured backing from Technology Innovation Capital's $100M fund

Golden Gate MENA received an investment from Oman Investment Authority

Open For Application

PIEC Incubation Program | Palestine

MBRIF’s Cohort 10 | UAE

InnovAIte 2025 Hackathon | UAE

WISE Edtech Accelerator | Qatar

Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global | MENA

OST Paper Plane 2025 | Africa

VivaTech Awards | Africa

UN Tourism AI Global Startup Challenge | Global

Techy Bytes

Saudi Arabia launched the world’s largest Sovereign AI Cloud

Oman launched a platform to track the progress of its green hydrogen ecosystem readiness

DIFC introduced a Proptech API to provide seamless access to real estate data in UAE

Gemini for Google Workspace now supports Arabic

Mistral AI introduced a regional Arabic model to enhance AI accessibility in the MENA region

OpenAI rolled out its AI agent, Operator, in multiple countries

xAI released its flagship model Grok 3