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

Lendo (KSA/Fintech) secured a $690M credit facility from J.P. Morgan

Forus (KSA/Fintech) secured a $60M credit facility to support SMEs

Chatberry (KSA/AI Marketing) raised 1M SAR in a pre-seed round

Nabeeh (KSA-Palestine/PropTech) raised an undisclosed round

UpLevel (KSA/Edtech) raised a pre-seed round

Maalexi (UAE/Agritech) raised $3M in debt finance

Silkhaus (UAE/Proptech) raised a seven-figure growth round

Biosapien (UAE/Biotech) expanded its Pre-Series A round to $7M

Qora71 (UAE) invested in Basetwo (Canada) $11.5M Series A round

Qatar Investment Authority invested in Alice & Bob (France)

EasyBank (Tunisia/Fintech) raised 1.2M Tunisian dinars

Dsquares (Egypt/Loyalty Solutions) acquired a majority stake in Prepit

Fincart (Egypt/Logistics) raised a pre-seed round

Simplex (Egypt/Manufacturing) raised $13M to build a CNC factory

MSMEDA (Egypt) invested $7.5M in regional VC funds to boost startup growth

Main Headlines

Startup Syria published the Rising From The Rubble report, which provides an overview of the startup ecosystem in Syria, and launched the Hack4Syria Hackathon

Foundation Ventures concluded first close of its $25M fund

Arab Financial Services secured a retail payment license to expand into the UAE

Saudi Arabia and Estonia collaborated on a strategic partnership

Morocco unveiled a $4B expansion plan for its airports, a $3B investment in power projects, and $9.5B in rail network projects

Ecosystem Updates

StartUp Bahrain signed a strategic partnership with Brinc

Falak Angels launched Jeddah Angels

Core Istanbul expanding to Damascus

UM6P (Morocco) partnered with Station F (France) to Launch NextAfrica Program

MBRIF welcomed a new cohort of innovators in Dubai

Business Lobby to launch an initiative to train children in entrepreneurship in Egypt

Startup Highlights

Six Bahraini startups pitched during Riyada Business Accelerator demo day

LIRA Program winners announced in Lebanon

Just2Pay (Egypt) partnered with Swypex

Fintech Galaxy (UAE) to test open banking in Jordan

Paymob (Egypt) partnered with Woo to develop e-commerce in the region

NaTakallam (Lebanon) among Schwab Foundation awardees at WEF

Open For Application

Hack For Syria Hackathon | Damascus & Online

Flat6Labs Seed Program | Jordan, Palestine, Iraq & Lebanon

Zain Al Mubadara Program | Jordan

HUB71 Access Program | UAE

Get'IT PROP’A Expansion Program | Tunisia

TECHVIBES | Tunisia

i3 Healthtech Program | Africa

Cool Events

• AI Everything Global | 04.02 Dubai

• Egypt VC Summit | 04.02 Cairo

• Launching and Scaling Startups in Africa | 05.02 Virtual

• TechShift Summit | 08.02 Cairo

• Leap 2025 | 09.02 Riyadh

• Step 2025 | 18.02 Dubai

• Women In Tech Roadshow | 22.02 Beirut

• Hack For Syria | 22-28.02 Damascus & Virtual

Techy Bytes

Qatar launched 2024 Digital Inclusion Index Report

Oman to release new AI policy

SDAIA granted 40 AI service providers accreditations in Saudi Arabia

DeepSeek displaced ChatGPT as the App Store’s top app

OpenAI in talks to raise $40B at a $340B valuation