Happy (Fintech) Friday! Yes, with 24 Fintech having taken place in Riyadh this week, it’s no surprise that this edition is dominated by fintech funding, acquisitions, and announcements held in reserve by startups. We certainly appreciate their commitment to thematic alignment — it’s made our job easier! In all seriousness, it’s been an extraordinary week, so let’s get into it 👇

P.S. Our deep dive this week, is the first instalment in a new two-part series, where we’ll be diving into a sector that has experienced a remarkable 1069.7% year-over-year increase in regional funding — contech 👷‍♀️. You can check it out here.

P.P.S. There’s A LOT in this edition, so we recommend reading it online to avoid anything getting clipped at the end:

This week’s round-up is an 8 min read:

• 🤝 Tabby to acquire Saudi digital wallet Tweeq in move to expand services beyond BNPL

• 💰 UAE fintech Ziina raises $22 million Series A to grow its payments platform for businesses

• 💸 Payroll startup Cercli secures $4M to build the ‘Rippling for MENA’

• 🏦 1957 Ventures confirms $216 million fintech-focused fund

• 🔈 Catch-up on Episode 10 of the VC React Podcast

This week’s edition is brought to you by SuperReturn Middle East!

SuperReturn Middle East returns to Dubai this October!

Join 500+ Middle East-focused senior private capital executives from 20+ countries to discover where the region’s most influential investors are looking to do deals.

Connect with 500+ senior private equity leaders, including founders, CEOs and managing directors in the investment community.

Grow your network and expand your opportunities by connecting with 175+ LPs and 200+ GPs.

Get the latest insights from senior private equity leaders on the top investment strategies and hottest trends reshaping the industry today.

Speakers confirmed so far include KfW Capital, Headway Capital Partners, Gulf Capital, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), VentureSouq, NBK Capital Partners and more...

Don’t forget to quote VIP code FKR3559FWDS to save 10%.

🚀 Startup funding round-up

Syarah (🇸🇦 KSA), an autotech platform for buying new and used cars online, has raised $60 million in a Series C round led by Artal Capital, with participation from Elm, Impact46, Tawuniya Insurance, Derayah Ventures, and Yousef Alrasheedi, along with a $20 million venture debt facility from PFG.

Malaa (🇸🇦 KSA), a fintech simplifying financial management by allowing users to track expenses, credit scores, and investments from multiple accounts, has raised $17.3 million in a Series A round led by SNB Capital, with participation from Derayah Financial, Khwarizmi Ventures, Impact46, and WKN.

Ziina (🇦🇪 UAE), a YC-backed fintech offering digital payments and financial management solutions for retail and business customers, has raised $22 million in a Series A round led by Altos Ventures, with participation from Activant Capital, Avenir Growth, FinTech Collective, FJ Labs, Jabbar Internet Group, MEVP, and Y Combinator.

Reachware (🇸🇦 KSA), an integration platform offering system integration, process automation, and advanced analytics services, has raised $3 million in a Seed round led by Sadu Capital, with participation from 500 Sanabil Investments and Elm Company.

The Lending Hub (🇸🇦 KSA), a P2P crowdfunding platform connecting investment seekers with investors, has raised $3.2 million in a Seed round led by Embark Saudi Mubarak and angel investors.

Wattnow (🇹🇳 Tunisia), a cleantech startup offering IoT-based smart energy management solutions, has raised a multi-million dollar round led by Lateral Frontiers and 216 Capital, with additional backing from Outlierz Ventures, Satgana, and angel investors.

Hulexo (🇦🇪 UAE), an ERP provider that optimises stock levels and operational efficiency, has secured an undisclosed Seed investment from Arzan VC.

Thakaa Med (🇸🇦 KSA), a healthtech startup specialising in AI-driven predictive, preventive, and personalised healthcare solutions, has secured Seed funding through a Falak Angels syndicate.

HRtech

💸 Payroll startup Cercli secures $4M to build the ‘Rippling for MENA’

💸 UAE-based HRtech Cercli has raised $4 million in a Seed round to expand its unified platform for managing and paying global workforces across the MENA region.

• Founded in 2023 by Akeed Azmi and David Reche, the YC-backed startup streamlines payroll, workforce management, and compliance in the MENA region by integrating payroll, contractor management, HR, and onboarding functions.

💰 Investor lowdown: The funding round was led by Afore Capital, marking its first investment in the MENA region, with additional participation from COTU Ventures, Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, and notable angel investors, including Karim Atiyeh (Ramp), Sebastian Mejia (Rappi), Tony Dong (Rippling), Tony Jamous (Oyster), and Allison Pickens.

📖 The back story

Both Azmi and Reche have a proven track record in scaling regional unicorns like Kitopi and Careem.

Recognising a significant gap in the market for an HR platform with everything under one roof, they developed a solution to unify local and global payroll, HR, onboarding, and compliance management.

⚙️ Breaking it down

Cercli’s platform is designed to simplify the complex layers of workforce management by replacing multiple isolated systems with a single source of truth.

For instance, most businesses rely on several tools, often three or more, to manage tasks that Cercli folds into a single solution.

This approach helps reduce errors, ensure data integrity, and strengthen compliance with local regulations.

🐂 Bull case

• Since launching, Cercli claims to have grown by 25% MoM and has processed over $23 million in employee salaries across 31 countries!

• $2 billion market opportunity in MENA for payroll alone

🔮 Flashforward

Cercli plans to use the fresh funding to further enhance its product and accelerate its expansion to Saudi Arabia.

💸 Acquisitions round-up

🤝 Tabby, a Riyadh-based buy now pay later (BNPL) platform, has acquired Tweeq, a Saudi digital wallet licensed by the Saudi Central Bank. This is Tabby's first acquisition, aimed at expanding its digital banking services in Saudi Arabia, where 80% of its 14 million users are located.

• Tabby, founded in 2019, raised $200 million in a Series D round last November. Tweeq, founded in 2020, has raised over $1 million from STV and Raed Ventures, both early investors in Tabby.

• The acquisition includes integrating Tweeq's 50+ employees and maintaining existing services.

• Tabby also plans a future listing on the Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul, though no date has been set.

💸 UAE-based open banking platform Tarabut has acquired London-based fintech Vyne to enhance its capability to provide faster, more interconnected financial services globally. Founded in Bahrain in 2019, Tarabut connects banks and fintechs via a universal API.

• It raised $32 million in a Series A round in May 2023, led by Pinnacle Capital and including Aljazira Capital, Visa, and Tiger Global.

• Vyne, also founded in 2019, offers real-time account-to-account (A2A) payments and has processed over £1 billion in transactions. It raised $15.5 million in seed funding, the largest in the UK open banking market at the time.

• This acquisition will enable Tarabut to offer instant, bank account-linked payments to businesses across various sectors, starting with its first customer in Bahrain in a few weeks time.

💰 VC round-up

💰 Saudi-based VC firm 1957 Ventures confirmed the size of its fintech-focused fund at $216 million during the 24 Fintech event in Riyadh this week. CEO Emad Kashgari emphasised the pivotal role they hope to play in supporting the Kingdom’s fintech ecosystem by helping startups scale. Launched by Riyad Capital, a subsidiary of Riyad Bank, in May 2024, this is the firm’s second fund, following the Riyad Taqnia Fund (RTF), which has invested in companies like Foodics, TruKKer, Beehive, and Souqalmal.com since 2016.

🤖 SparkLabs, an early-stage VC firm known for backing AI startups like OpenAI, has closed a $50 million AIM AI Fund to support global AI startups, with a focus on Saudi Arabia through its AIM-X accelerator. Launched to advance AI in Saudi Arabia over the next five years, AIM-X will allocate 10-20% of the fund to startups in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region, with the rest targeting Series A and B rounds globally. The first batch of startups will be revealed at the Global Artificial Intelligence Summit in Riyadh on September 10.

🌱 SAB Invest has launched its first tech-focused VC fund, targeting early and growth-stage fintech startups and tech companies to drive financial innovation. While the fund size has not been disclosed, SAB Invest will provide financial backing and leverage its network to enhance the Saudi fintech ecosystem and foster innovation in the financial industry.

🤝 Saudi-based BIM Ventures has partnered with SC Ventures, a unit of Standard Chartered, to drive digital transformation in Saudi Arabia. The agreement, signed at 24 Fintech, aims to combine SC Ventures’ global expertise with BIM Ventures’ local knowledge to develop fintech and investment technology startups, supporting regional growth and innovation.

🖥️ Fintech round-up

🛍️ Not be outdone by its BNPL rival, Tamara, announced that they’ve received preliminary approval from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) for a consumer finance license. This approval will allow Tamara to expand its services to include a broader range of financial products. The company aims to strengthen its presence in Saudi Arabia and the GCC through this move. Last year, Tamara raised $340 million in a financing round that values the fintech at $1 billion, making it the first Saudi-born fintech unicorn startup.

🏦 The Saudi Central Bank SAMA has launched the second phase of its Open Banking Framework, focusing on Payment Initiation Services (PIS). This phase aims to improve transaction efficiency, enhance consumer experience, and expand fintech solutions in Saudi Arabia, supporting its goal of becoming a global fintech hub.

✅ At the 24 Fintech conference on September 3, Saudi fintech startups XSquare, NeotTek, and MoneyMoon received permits from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to test their solutions in its regulatory sandbox.

📲 During the event, SAMA announced a new agreement with Samsung to launch Samsung Pay in Saudi Arabia by the fourth quarter of this year. This service will allow users to store and manage digital payment cards within the Samsung Wallet app.

🏆 The winners of the Fintech Forge competition at 24 Fintech were:

• Ejari ($100,000) – 24 Fintech Award

• Axiology ($50,000) – Sprint Start Award

• Kestrl ($50,000) – Fintech for Good Award

• Abwab AI ($50,000) – Innovation to Watch Award

💰 VC React Podcast: Episode 10

🎧 In this week's episode of the VC React Podcast, we dived into why some family offices are launching their own VC firms instead of investing as LPs and what this means for the VC landscape. We also explored the merger of two of Africa’s largest B2B e-commerce platforms - Egypt’s MaxAB and Kenya’s Wasoko - analysing how they plan to tackle the challenges of the fragmented African market.

Finally, we discussed a $10 million funding round for Dubai-based Web3 streaming company myco.io that utilized equity crowdfunding, and the broader implications for alternative financing in the MENA region.

This week, Ahmad and Jamie had the pleasure of speaking with:

• Ali Almajthoob, Managing Director at Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP)

• Hasan Zainal, Managing Partner at Arzan Venture Capital

• Tambi Jalouqa, Managing Partner at Propeller

📰🎧 Recommended Reads / Listens

• Ahmad Takatkah. VC Evolve: Navigating the Art, Science, and Future of Venture Capital in an Ever-Evolving Startup Frontier

• Leah Hodgson. What happens if Middle Eastern VC money stops flowing?

• Claudia Zeisberger. VC Valuation in MENA: A Reality Check

• Dana Labin. From Local to Global: The Urgent Shift for MENA’s Startup Scene