Welcome to #55 of This Week In MENA’s Startup Scene!

This week was packed with groundbreaking funding rounds, strategic partnerships, and exciting ecosystem developments. From AI-powered innovations to cross-border expansions, the MENA region continues to shine as a hub for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Let’s get going!

Fundraising Roulette

Flow48 (UAE/Fintech) secured $69M in a Series A blend of debt and equity financing

Journify (UAE/Saas) secured $4M in funding

Omnispay (UAE/Fintech) secured $1.5M Seed round

khk & partners (UAE) invested in Lambda

CQR (KSA/AI) raised $3M round

Bayanat (Oman/Data & AI) secured an undisclosed Pre-Series A round

Lillia (Qatar/Healthtech) received a $1.7M grant from the Qatar Research Council

Lola (Bahrain/Foodtech) raised $1.3M in a pre-Seed round

Basata (Egypt) acquired an additional stake in Madfoatcom (Jordan/Fintech)

Fawry (Egypt/Fintech) acquired a 56% stake in Virtual CFO

DHL entered the Saudi logistics market by acquiring AJEX (KSA/Logistics)

Main Headlines

Web Summit Qatar Concluded with a record 25700 attendees, over 723 investors and 1520 startups

Disrupt.com (UAE) pledged $100M to invest in next-generation AI startups globally

Yasha Global Capital (UAE) launched a global sports investment fund

Tunisia reported 1,146 startups labeled under its startup act

Utopia launched a new platform to foster innovation and empower startups across MENA

Investopia revealed the Future 100 list, showcasing the top 100 startups in the MENA region for 2024

Watheeq Financial announced its successful exit from Rize (KSA/Proptech) achieving a 4x ROI

Ecosystem Updates

Outlier Ventures and NEOM concluded the first Deep Tech Web3 Accelerator Program in Riyadh

Morocco launched an initiative to support 200 Moroccan startups at GITEX Africa

Startup Bahrain and General Assembly partnered to enhance entrepreneurial opportunities

Al Madinah Angels launched in Saudi Arabia

500 Global and ITIDA kicked off the third edition of their Scale Up Program in Egypt

Startup Highlights

Alkremeya (Libya) went live aiming to transform B2B trade in Libya

Nasheedio (Global) debuted its AI-powered Muslim-friendly audio app

KidZania (Egypt) launched a fun, educational initiative teaching kids about trading stocks

Souhoola (Egypt) partnered with Visa to launch a new payment card

iAccel Gulf Business Incubator welcomed five new tech startups to its program

Orange Summer Challenge awarded three startups at its 2nd edition in Casablanca

Open For Application

Omran Incubation Program | Syria

JOIN Fincubator Program | Jordan

WISE Edtech Accelerator | Qatar

SME Empowerment Program | KSA

E-Business Awards 2025 | MENA

Mastercard EdTech Fellowship | MENA

Techy Bytes

Iraq announced plans to launch a digital currency

Arab Financial Services launched Athar to simplify crypto payments in the UAE

Qatar Government signed a five-year deal with Scale AI to deploy AI-powered tools

Visit Qatar and Microsoft partnered to revolutionize smart tourism with AI-driven solutions

Yango Group (UAE) launched Yasmina Lite, its smallest and brightest smart speaker yet

Pure Harvest Smart Farms opened an AI-powered high-tech farming facility in Al Ain

DeepSeek accelerated its new AI model launch

Google introduced a free AI coding assistant with high usage caps

Perplexity launched a $50M seed and pre-seed VC fund to support early-stage AI startups