Saudi Arabia

ANALYSIS: What Uber’s $554M Blacklane deal could pay its Gulf backers

Nov 5, 2026

•

2 min read

ANALYSIS: What Uber’s $554M Blacklane deal could pay its Gulf backers

We break down what Uber’s acquisition could mean for the Saudi sovereign investor and Emirati family businesses that backed Blacklane, from potential payouts to estimated returns.

Jamie Lane

Results

Uber singles out Middle East dark stores in Delivery Hero takeover

Nov 5, 2026

•

2 min read

Uber singles out Middle East dark stores in Delivery Hero takeover

The agreed acquisition would give Uber control of Talabat and HungerStation and their grocery fulfilment networks in a region that generated 59% of Delivery Hero’s first-half adjusted EBITDA.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

Aramco acquires 49% of HUMAIN in deal including $2.6B cash injection

Nov 1, 2026

•

1 min read

Aramco acquires 49% of HUMAIN in deal including $2.6B cash injection

PIF retains majority ownership of the Saudi AI company as it targets three gigawatts of data-centre capacity by 2030.

Jamie Lane

Food Delivery

Saudi Arabia becomes Delivery Hero’s largest MENA market by orders

Oct 30, 2026

•

3 min read

Saudi Arabia becomes Delivery Hero’s largest MENA market by orders

The HungerStation market reached the milestone as regional transaction growth accelerated to 20.6%, with MENA accounting for almost a third of the group’s global GMV.

Jamie Lane

Public Markets

Property Finder, Fresha, eyewa backer General Atlantic eyes $10B IPO valuation

Oct 23, 2026

•

3 min read

Property Finder, Fresha, eyewa backer General Atlantic eyes $10B IPO valuation

The growth investor has deployed more than $3 billion in the Middle East and secured a $500 million commitment from QIA as it broadens its business beyond private equity.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

Saudi regulator proposes fuller VC fund disclosures on valuations and exits

Oct 23, 2026

•

2 min read

Saudi regulator proposes fuller VC fund disclosures on valuations and exits

Draft rules would require venture capital and private equity funds to give investors details of individual holdings and realised returns, alongside broader reforms to Saudi capital markets.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

Oct 20, 2026

•

2 min read

How SPICE is shaking up Saudi dining

After exiting ifood.jo and POSRocket, Zeid Husban is back with SPICE, a Saudi dining platform that gives restaurants cash upfront in exchange for dining credit. We get into how the model works, why it offers diners 20% cashback, and what building a third startup has taught him.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Oct 20, 2026

•

1 min read

Saudi fintech Vrtx raises $3.6M pre-seed to help businesses launch wallets and cards

Founded by former Tweeq colleagues, the fintech has backing from Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures and preliminary SAMA approval for an electronic money licence.

Jamie Lane

SaaS

Saudi auto-parts platform Autobia raises $12M Series A led by Artal Capital

Oct 11, 2026

•

1 min read

Saudi auto-parts platform Autobia raises $12M Series A led by Artal Capital

The company connects spare-parts retailers and repair shops with wholesalers, and has added instalment products covering both merchants’ stock purchases and their customers’ payments.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

Endeavor Catalyst closes oversubscribed $320M fifth fund, its largest yet

Oct 8, 2026

•

2 min read

Endeavor Catalyst closes oversubscribed $320M fifth fund, its largest yet

The oversubscribed fund counts Jordan’s ISSF and Careem founders among its backers, with Replit already in the portfolio and total assets under management now above $850 million.

Jamie Lane

Startups

Saudi AI company Echelon targets enterprise deployments with backing from RAED Ventures, Avra and Ben Horowitz

Oct 6, 2026

•

2 min read

Saudi AI company Echelon targets enterprise deployments with backing from RAED Ventures, Avra and Ben Horowitz

Founded by Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, the Riyadh business is pairing technology partnerships with engineers embedded in customer operations, with training and defence divisions also planned.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

erad raises $22M Series A led by MEVP as SME financing reaches $133M

Sep 28, 2026

•

2 min read

erad raises $22M Series A led by MEVP as SME financing reaches $133M

The Riyadh-based fintech has received more than $1 billion in financing requests and is expanding into logistics, manufacturing and wholesale after reporting eightfold annual growth in Saudi Arabia.

Jamie Lane

Startups

MASNA Ventures seeks $150M fund capacity as Saudi defence investor accelerates maritime push

Sep 25, 2026

•

2 min read

MASNA Ventures seeks $150M fund capacity as Saudi defence investor accelerates maritime push

Saudi Arabia’s first defence-focused VC fund is seeking a 50% increase in capacity as it expands its focus on autonomous systems and builds out local manufacturing partnerships.

Jamie Lane

Op-ed

Money 20/20 Field Notes: mega-rounds, growing faultlines, and the increasing importance of taste

Sep 16, 2026

•

9 min read

Money 20/20 Field Notes: mega-rounds, growing faultlines, and the increasing importance of taste

Mega-rounds, Saudi-UAE faultlines, an alarming amount of AI-generated slop and why Paul Graham’s 2002 essay on taste feels more and more relevant; some semi-unfiltered observations from three days at Money20/20 in Riyadh.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Tabby raises $233M Series F at $6.5B valuation as it pushes beyond BNPL

Sep 14, 2026

•

2 min read

Tabby raises $233M Series F at $6.5B valuation as it pushes beyond BNPL

The round comes as new Saudi lending licences and a UAE wallet licence expand it into longer-term credit, SME finance and everyday money management.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Tarabut secures $50M from Saudi banks and business groups as it deepens Kingdom focus

Sep 14, 2026

•

2 min read

Tarabut secures $50M from Saudi banks and business groups as it deepens Kingdom focus

Riyad Bank, SAB Invest’s X-Tech Fund and GIB Saudi Arabia are among the backers, three years after Tarabut’s $32 million Series A was itself raised to expand in Saudi.

Jamie Lane

SaaS

Saudi used-car platform Carly takes Pinnacle investment in primary-secondary deal

Sep 10, 2026

•

1 min read

Saudi used-car platform Carly takes Pinnacle investment in primary-secondary deal

The undisclosed transaction is the first investment from Pinnacle’s new growth and secondaries fund, launched last month to back later-stage Saudi tech companies while providing liquidity to existing shareholders.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

Gaia raises $1.5M led by SEEDRA to build sovereign AI layer for Saudi enterprises

Sep 8, 2026

•

1 min read

Gaia raises $1.5M led by SEEDRA to build sovereign AI layer for Saudi enterprises

The Riyadh startup is building a permission-aware search, assistant and AI agent layer across companies’ internal systems, with data kept inside Saudi or deployed on-premise.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

Sav raises $3.5M pre-Series A led by Phoenix Venture Partners for Saudi expansion

Sep 7, 2026

•

2 min read

Sav raises $3.5M pre-Series A led by Phoenix Venture Partners for Saudi expansion

The UAE consumer fintech has broadened from a savings app into a regulated personal-finance platform spanning cards, investments and account aggregation, taking total funding to about $6 million.

Jamie Lane

Public Markets

HUMAIN starts IPO preparations 16 months after launch, with revenues still undisclosed

Sep 7, 2026

•

3 min read

HUMAIN starts IPO preparations 16 months after launch, with revenues still undisclosed

The Saudi AI company says its compute is selling before it is built, but an eventual public-market pitch will need to show who is paying for it and how much demand comes from outside the Kingdom’s state-backed ecosystem.

Jamie Lane

Fintech

PayTabs agrees $100M-plus deal for Amazon Payment Services’ MENA operations

Sep 7, 2026

•

2 min read

PayTabs agrees $100M-plus deal for Amazon Payment Services’ MENA operations

The Saudi payments company will take over a business that began as PayFort before joining Amazon through its 2017 acquisition of Souq, creating a combined platform expected to process more than SAR 150 billion annually.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

The AI announcements from LEAP 2026 worth knowing

Sep 4, 2026

•

2 min read

The AI announcements from LEAP 2026 worth knowing

LEAP closed in Riyadh yesterday after four days dominated by Saudi Arabia’s AI buildout, with HUMAIN responsible for a fairly extraordinary share of the announcements.

Jamie Lane

Food Delivery

Keeta records first profitable month in Saudi Arabia after 22 months as delivery price war bites

Sep 4, 2026

•

6 min read

Keeta records first profitable month in Saudi Arabia after 22 months as delivery price war bites

Keeta took 29 months to reach the same milestone in Hong Kong, where it launched in May 2023.

Jamie Lane

Saudi Arabia

HUMAIN says planned $10B global VC fund could be larger, unveils separate Saudi-focused vehicle

Sep 4, 2026

•

2 min read

HUMAIN says planned $10B global VC fund could be larger, unveils separate Saudi-focused vehicle

The Saudi AI company will create HUMAIN Limitless, a separate initiative specifically focused on investing in and supporting AI companies within Saudi Arabia.

Jamie Lane

Startups

Sirdab raises $10M Series A from Elm and BECO to expand Saudi logistics platform across GCC

Sep 3, 2026

•

1 min read

Sirdab raises $10M Series A from Elm and BECO to expand Saudi logistics platform across GCC

The profitable Saudi logistics startup has grown revenue 20x since Y Combinator and now connects more than 850 businesses to a network of 120+ warehouses and 60+ transport providers.

Jamie Lane