UAE
SaaS
+3
May 22, 2026
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2 min read
UAE-founded Fresha reaches unicorn status with $80M KKR investment as beauty platform hits $15B in annual transactions
Founded by William Zeqiri and Nicholas Miller, Fresha provides booking, payments, point-of-sale, marketing and business management tools to over 130,000 beauty and wellness businesses across 120 countries.
Startups
+4
May 20, 2026
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1 min read
RemotePass raises $17.4M Series B led by EBRD as global employment platform expands into Europe and the US
Founded in late 2020 by Kamal Reggad and Karim Nadi, RemotePass enables businesses to onboard, manage and pay employees and contractors in more than 150 countries.
Fintech
+3
May 18, 2026
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2 min read
Abu-Sheikh's Mal lands in-principle CBUAE banking approval months after record $230M Seed
The Abu Dhabi-based fintech, founded by former Astra Tech CEO Abdallah Abu-Sheikh, has cleared the first regulatory step required to launch a Sharia-compliant digital bank in the UAE.
Jordan
+5
May 7, 2026
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1 min read
Careem makes sweeping layoffs across multiple markets, closes Berlin office
The cuts span the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and Germany, with Careem yet to publicly acknowledge them.
Fintech
+3
May 6, 2026
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2 min read
Mubadala leads $15m Series A for UAE embedded finance lender CredibleX
Founded in 2023 by Anand Nagaraj, Ahmad Malik and Hassan Reda, CredibleX is an ADGM-regulated lender that provides SMEs with working capital through revenue-based financing, receivables financing and payable financing via an embedded, API-enabled platform.
Fintech
+4
Apr 27, 2026
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1 min read
Dubai's Comfi raises $65M pre-Series A in equity and debt to scale B2B buy now, pay later across MENA
The company offers a B2B buy now, pay later product that allows SME suppliers to provide up to 90-day payment terms to their business customers while receiving payment themselves within 24 hours.
News
+3
Apr 20, 2026
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2 min read
Speedinvest launches flagship Middle East and Africa fund backed by Mubadala, QIA and EIB Global
The fund is led by partners Deepali Nangia and Rana Abdel Latif and will invest across fintech, embedded finance, health, climate, AI, consumer and digital infrastructure in markets spanning MENAPT and Sub-Saharan Africa.
News
+2
Apr 17, 2026
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2 min read
UAE's Homegrown Ventures closes $22.8m debut fund as MENA's first VC firm dedicated to consumer brands
The fund is founded by Nader Amiri and Ahmad Shamieh, who between them have spent more than 30 years inside the CPG industry at Unilever, Coca-Cola, Kraft/Mondelez, Danone, Nokia and Microsoft.
Fintech
+3
Apr 16, 2026
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1 min read
Tabby secures UAE wallet licence, extending financial services push into its second core market
The BNPL unicorn has cleared the regulatory hurdle to hold customer funds and roll out a broader suite of financial products in the Emirates, including spending accounts, cards, and money management tools.
Fintech
+3
Apr 8, 2026
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4 min read
Nubank to establish headquarters at ADGM as Latin America's largest digital bank eyes MENA expansion
The ADGM base will be set up in collaboration with leading Abu Dhabi investment, economic and financial institutions, including integrated digital banking platform Wio Bank.
News
+2
Apr 6, 2026
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4 min read
Abu Dhabi's Lunate owns a stake in $90B venture firm Insight Partners, court filings reveal
Lunate, which manages over $115B, is controlled by companies associated with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security advisor and brother to the president. Lunate is also a limited partner in multiple Insight funds.
Funding
+3
Apr 2, 2026
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5 min read
Abu Dhabi's MGX co-leads as OpenAI closes $122B round at $852B valuation
The co-lead position represents a deepening of a relationship that began in October 2024, when MGX participated in OpenAI's $6.6 billion Series E.
SWFs
+4
Mar 26, 2026
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5 min read
Jeff Bezos pitches Gulf sovereign wealth funds on $100B manufacturing automation fund
If it closes at that scale, the fund would rival SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund as the largest private investment vehicle ever assembled, and like the Vision Fund before it, its viability would depend heavily on Gulf sovereign capital.
Foodtech
+4
Mar 23, 2026
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5 min read
Travis Kalanick folds CloudKitchens into new robotics company Atoms, raising questions over shelved Middle East IPO
The announcement ends eight years of stealth during which thousands of Atoms employees were reportedly not permitted to publicly name their employer.
Analysis
+3
Mar 18, 2026
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22 min read
AI is eating legal work, so why aren't MENA startups queuing up?
Harvey is worth $8 billion, and Anthropic just sent LexisNexis to its worst day since 1988. Legal AI is the hottest vertical in tech, and the GCC is almost entirely absent from it. We spoke to the founders of the region's only funded legal AI startup to understand the structural reasons why, what they're building in response, and whether there's a path through.
