Happy Friday, friends 👋

Such an incredibly diverse array of stories to sink our teeth into this week.

From DPI taking over the reins of Nclude’s $105 million Egyptian fintech fund, to Jordan's Little Thinking Minds being acquired by US-based Seesaw, to signs of intensifying competition in the Banking-as-a-Service space, with BKN301 raising just under $24 million to go head-to-head with Nymcard following their $33 million Series B last month.

Meanwhile, Saudi’s quick commerce battle continues to heat up even further, with news that Careem has gone live with its grocery delivery service in Riyadh – and in crypto, Shorooq-backed Mantra saw its token crash over 90% just days after unveiling a $108 million ecosystem fund – ouch.

This is a long one, so we recommend enjoying this week's edition online 👇

This week’s round-up is a 7 min read:

•  🏗️ EXCLUSIVE Interview: Trubuild’s CEO Bisrat Degefa on raising $1 million to prevent delays and unexpected costs in construction project delivery

• 🇪🇬 DPI takes over $105M Nclude fintech fund, launches VC arm to double-down on early-stage push in Egypt

• 📚 Seesaw acquires Jordan’s Little Thinking Minds to deepen Arabic edtech push across MENA

• 🏦 BKN301 raises $23.8M to target UAE & Saudi expansion as MENA BaaS race intensifies

• 🛒 Careem launches grocery delivery in Riyadh as quick commerce battle heats up in Saudi Arabia

• 🌐 Mantra’s OM token crashes 90% days after unveiling $108M ecosystem fund

🚀 Startup funding round-up

Sadq (🇸🇦 KSA), a digital signature and document authentication platform, has closed a $1.5 million pre-Series A round led by X by Unifonic Fund, with participation from a group of investors and a strategic investment from Unifonic.

TruBuild (🇸🇦 KSA), a construction tech company using AI to reduce inefficiencies, improve collaboration, and prevent project variations, has raised $1 million in Seed funding led by Wa’ed Ventures and Dar Ventures, with participation from Plug & Play Ventures, OQAL, Taz Investment, and angel investors including Simon Moon.

Metric (🇦🇪 UAE), an AI fintech offering a financial intelligence platform and a Chief Financial AI for SMEs, has secured a seven-figure Seed round with participation from Sanabil 500 Global, Hub71, i2i Ventures, Plus VC, Epic Angels, and Accelerate Prosperity, alongside notable GCC angel investors.

VOVE ID (🇲🇦 Morocco), a digital identity verification platform using AI to power KYC solutions for startups and SMEs, has received an undisclosed investment from The Baobab Network to support its expansion across Africa and the Middle East.

AIREV (🇦🇪 UAE), an AI startup enabling users to build applications using large language models and intelligent agents, has secured an undisclosed investment from Venturewave Capital as part of its Series A round.

Premium deep-dive

Building a band-aid for cancer ↗

Seven years, 959 rejections, and a circuitous journey from San Diego to New York to Abu Dhabi – Khatija Ali and BioSapien’s mission to deliver chemotherapy locally is as much about persistence as it is about innovation.

Interview

🏗️ Trubuild’s blueprint to build better

Trubuild’s CEO Bisrat Degefa on what makes construction tech such a tough sell, why most tools fail in the field, and what meaningful disruption actually looks like in one of the world’s most traditional industries.

In a region where megaprojects dominate headlines — and delays dominate timelines — Bisrat Degefa and Dr. Sari Sabban launched Trubuild to fix one of the most persistent issues in the construction industry: inefficiency.

Before founding Trubuild, Bisrat had spent over 15 years inside some of the sector’s biggest players — leading digital transformation at Atkins and Gleeds, two global construction giants. That experience gave him a front-row seat to the systemic problems plaguing large-scale developments across the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

The takeaway? The problem isn’t talent — it’s structure. Poor planning, redundant workflows, legacy processes, and misaligned incentives are costing the industry billions.

Trubuild’s solution is deceptively simple: don’t just digitise existing problems — remove them entirely. The platform uses AI to streamline the pre-construction phase, focusing on scope alignment, tender evaluation, and eliminating the compounding issues that derail projects before they ever break ground.

On the back of Trubuild announcing a $1 million Seed round led by Wa’ed Ventures and Dar Ventures earlier this week, I sat down with Bisrat to talk about what makes construction tech such a tough sell, why most tools fail in the field, and what meaningful disruption actually looks like in one of the world’s most traditional industries.

We also unpacked Trubuild’s evolving GTM strategy, and how the startup is navigating long sales cycles, cultural resistance, and the hard business of earning trust in construction.

💸 VC

🇪🇬 Development Partners International (DPI), a UK-based Africa-focused private equity firm, has taken over investment advisory responsibilities for Nclude, the $105M Egypt-based fintech fund originally launched by Global Ventures and backed by state-owned banks Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, and National Bank of Egypt, alongside Mastercard, e-Finance, and EBC. Founded in 2022, Nclude has deployed $28M into startups including Paymob, Khazna, and FlapKap, with DPI now managing its assets via a newly formed Egypt-based team. This move marks DPI’s deeper push into early-stage tech through the launch of DPI Venture Capital.

🇯🇴 ISSF has invested $3 million in the Antler MENAP Fund LP, a $60 million early-stage VC fund backing startups across MENA. The move aims to boost Jordanian founders by linking them with Antler’s global network and early-stage funding model. Mohammed Almuhtaseb, CEO of ISSF, framed the partnership as a strategic bet on Jordan’s startup talent and its position as a regional innovation hub, while Magnus Grimeland, Antler’s CEO, emphasised the country's entrepreneurial potential and Antler’s commitment to building from “Day Zero.”

🤝 New Entrants

🏦 BKN301 Group, a London-headquartered Banking-as-a-Service provider, has raised $23.8 million from investors including CDP Venture Capital, Azimut Libera Impresa, SIMEST, and Alisei Forinvestments to fuel its global expansion, with a focus on the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The company recently established its MENA HQ in Qatar and is pushing to capture market share in a region where competition is heating up – Nymcard closed a $33 million Series B just last month.

👷 Viact, a Hong Kong-based startup using AI to monitor workplace safety, has raised $7.3 million in a Series A round led by Ireland’s Venturewave Capital, with participation from Singtel Innov8, Korea Investment Partners, and others. Founded by Gary Ng and Hugo Cheuk, Viact already works with Aramco and the Neom project in Saudi Arabia—key footholds that it now plans to build on as it deepens expansion into the Middle East.

🤖 BridgeWise, a global AI investment intelligence firm, has officially entered the Middle East with a new DIFC license and a strategic investment from Emirates NBD as part of its Series A round. The company, which delivers explainable AI insights on 90% of global equities and ETFs in multiple languages including Arabic, will now base its MENAT operations in Dubai under regional head Ayush Khatri.

⛓️ Blockchain

🌐 Just days after announcing its $108 million Mantra Ecosystem Fund to accelerate adoption of tokenised real-world asset projects – backed by partners like Laser Digital, Shorooq, and DAMAC – Mantra’s OM token has collapsed by over 90%, falling from $6.30 to under $0.50 and wiping out more than $6 billion in market value. The cause remains unclear, though co-founder John Patrick Mullin attributed the crash to reckless liquidations, not team activity, and denied allegations of a rug pull. The crash comes despite recent momentum: Dubai-based VC Shorooq led an $11 million funding round into Mantra last year, and the firm recently signed a $1B tokenisation deal with Dubai-based property behemoth DAMAC.

🤝 Acquisitions

📚 US-based Seesaw has acquired Jordan’s Little Thinking Minds, a female-founded edtech company known for Arabic literacy platforms like I Read Arabic and Mizan, for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2004 by Lamia Tabbaa and Rama Kayyali, LTM has reached 400,000+ students across 10+ countries and was backed by investors including Algebra Ventures, Mindshift Capital, and ISSF. The acquisition marks Seesaw’s deeper push into the MENA market, pairing its AI-driven PreK–12 tools with LTM’s Arabic curricula ahead of launching its first Arabic-language platform in 2026.

🏘️ Dubizzle Group, the UAE-based classifieds giant behind dubizzle and Bayut, has acquired UAE proptech Property Monitor for an undisclosed sum, strengthening its real estate data offering ahead of a planned IPO. Property Monitor, founded in 2014, provides market intelligence and automated valuations to developers and agencies through its PMiQ platform. The move follows recent acquisitions of Hatla2ee and Drive Arabia, part of a broader strategy to consolidate regional verticals before a public listing reportedly targeting $500M–$1B with support from Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and Emirates NBD.

🚖 ITHCA Group and Yango have jointly acquired Oman’s ride-hailing platform OTaxi as part of a larger plan to roll out Yango’s digital ecosystem in the country. Backed by the Ministry of Transport, the move will see OTaxi’s infrastructure upgraded and its services expanded into delivery, rentals, and mapping. Yango is also bringing other AI-powered services, including logistics, e-commerce tools, and potentially fintech products.

💰 Quick commerce

🛒 Careem has launched Careem Market in Riyadh, entering Saudi Arabia’s competitive e-grocery space with 20-minute delivery across 24 neighborhoods. Backed by a network of localised warehouses and integrated into the Careem app, the service targets rising demand for convenience, with 2.5% of grocery sales in the Kingdom now online. The move comes just as Egypt’s Rabbit announced its entry into Saudi, joining a crowded field that includes Jahez, Ninja, Nana, Hungerstation, and Keeta. With speed, tech infrastructure, and brand familiarity on its side, Careem is positioning to lock in early share as quick commerce heats up in the Kingdom.

⌨️ Tech

☁️ Amazon Web Services (AWS) has teamed up with Manara, the MENA-focused social impact startup, to train 2,500 software engineers across the region in cloud computing and AI, backed by a $3.6M investment over two years.

The initiative will prioritise top tech talent – especially women – from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and will be delivered via Manara’s proprietary platform, culminating in AWS Certifications and access to global job opportunities.

Founded in Silicon Valley and backed by top investors like Y Combinator and Reid Hoffman, Manara is fast becoming a key force in MENA’s tech upskilling movement.

This programme follows AWS’s broader regional commitment, including a $5.3B investment in Saudi Arabia.

💰 Fintech

💸 Partners for Growth (PFG) has extended a credit facility to Dubai-based fintech Comfi Payments, which offers B2B Buy Now, Pay Later solutions with 30–90 day terms for SMEs across emerging markets. Founded by Sanjar S. and Alisher Akbarov, Comfi aims to ease cash flow constraints and boost purchasing power for businesses. The new facility will help scale Comfi’s loan book and fuel expansion across products and markets. It’s the latest in a string of MENA venture debt plays by PFG, which has previously backed Tabby, TruKKer, Ejari and Syarah.

💳 In 2024, 79% of retail payments in Saudi Arabia were electronic, up from 70% in 2023. The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) reported over 12.6 billion non-cash transactions, with $178 billion in point-of-sale activity and $52 billion in e-commerce spend. The country now has more than 1.9 million active POS terminals.

💰 VC React Podcast: Episode 31

This episode is brought to you by OCTA - AR Automation – the AI-powered accounts receivable platform trusted by 100+ companies like Careem, Lean Technologies, and ZenHR to automate collections, resolve disputes, and unlock financing with zero hassle.

👉 Visit www.weareocta.com/fwdstart to get your first 6 months free

🎧 This week on the VC React Podcast, we explore what it looks like when founders expand with intent — from cross-border B2B consolidation and fintech infrastructure built for Gulf markets, to Cairo-born chips powering AI data centres, and the next phase of online grocery competition in Saudi Arabia.

📆 Events and Opportunities

🇸🇦 ANB has launched its first fintech accelerator in partnership with Plug and Play, targeting early-stage fintech startups in Saudi Arabia. The “Goal Program” offers investment, mentorship, and global expansion opportunities, aligning with Vision 2030 and the Financial Sector Development Program, with application now open!

🇲🇦 Tamweelcom has partnered with Flat6Labs to launch a new startup support program in Morocco, backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The initiative will offer mentoring, technical, and financial support for early-stage startups across AgriTech, FinTech, GreenTech, AI, digital health, and more — aiming to qualify high-potential companies for investment and international expansion.

📚 What we’re reading

• The fraud that brought down Indonesia’s eFishery (Bloomberg)

• Why Gen Z news platform Moniify is struggling to monetise (Semafor)

• 80% of Egypt’s B2B startups are ‘digital ghosts’ (Wamda)

• Riyadh: An Emerging Platform for Entrepreneurs (Endeavor)