1. Bon Plus (🇴🇲 Oman), a HoReCa services provider offering a SaaS-enabled B2B marketplace that streamlines supplier operations for the hospitality and café sectors, has raised an undisclosed Seed round from Omantel via Omantel Innovation Labs, along with Omani and regional angel investors.

💸 Here’s Abyan Capital! A startup based in Saudi Arabia, Abyan Capital provides robo-advisory services to streamline long-term investment management in the region.

And they’ve just announced the closure of an $18 million Series A funding round!

• Founded in 2022 by Abdullah Aljeraiwi, Omar Almania, and Saleh Alaqeel, Abyan Capital is committed to democratising financial services through its automated investment solutions.

💰 Investor lowdown: The investment round was led by STV with participation from Wa'ed Ventures and RZM Investment. 

⚙️ Why? Long-term investment planning is crucial yet complex, particularly in emerging markets like Saudi Arabia where financial literacy levels vary significantly. 

A survey by S&P Global highlighted that less than 30% of adults in the Middle East are financially literate. 

This gap often hinders individuals from effectively managing and growing their wealth.

🤖 How does it work? Abyan Capital simplifies investing through its automated robo-advisory platform, designed to make the process intuitive and accessible.

The platform offers tailored investment advice based on users' specific financial goals and risk tolerance.

By automating investment allocation and continuously adjusting to market conditions, Abyan Capital enables individuals to build and manage their wealth efficiently.

📊 What? According to their website, they currently offer three different investment portfolios:

1. Growth Portfolio: Features 70% local and international stocks, with the remaining 30% distributed between sukuks and real estate, aiming for robust growth.

2. Moderate Wallet: Comprises 45% stocks and an even split of 30% in sukuks and 30% in real estate, balancing risk and return.

3. Conservative Wallet: Focuses on stability with 70% in sukuks, 20% in real estate, and a minimal 10% in stocks.

🔮 Flashforward

Abyan plans use the fresh funds to enhance its platform’s capabilities, expand its financial product offerings, and deepen its market penetration.

Let’s introduce you to the first cohort of the Google for Startups Growth Academy: Women in AI program, that kicked off last week in Dubai!

🏃‍♀️ State of play

Startups across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) raised a record $4 billion in 2023. But just 1.2% of that venture capital funding went to startups founded by women — and only a fraction of that went to women-led companies that are building with AI.

Needless to say, women founders are essential for creating economic opportunity and stronger, more inclusive AI solutions.

And with the number of female entrepreneurs in the region expected to double by 2030, investing in women-led AI companies is an absolute necessity.

⚙️ Break it down

The programme is run in collaboration with the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence and the Ministry of AI in the UAE, this equity-free program is designed to accelerate the growth of women-led startups building with AI in the Middle East and North Africa.

• Over the next six weeks, they’ll explore generative AI best practices, Google AI tools such as Google Cloud's Vertex AI and a comprehensive People + AI Workshop series focused on building human-centered AI products and solutions.

So without further ado, let’s meet the women founders selected for the program and the AI solutions they're building below:

👩‍⚕️ Dr. Rasha Rady and Dr. Doaa Aref, cofounders of Chefaa (Egypt), a patient-centric, AI-powered and GPS-enabled platform connecting more than 1.5 million users with over 1,500 pharmacies across Egypt.

 👧 Dragana Mujanović, founder of AIsthesis (Qatar), a company building software and algorithms to advance the understanding of sensory processing in children through wearable and ambient sensors.

🐶 Alaa Ateya, cofounder of Vetwork (Egypt), a one-stop mobile app marketplace for high-quality pet care services at home.

✏️ Christelle Connan, founder and CEO of Zidyia LXP™ (United Arab Emirates), a unified learning experience platform using Al and machine learning to create customised learning paths that empower educators with actionable data insights and engage learners with personalised education.

💨 Jessica Scopacasa, founder of Olive Gaea (United Arab Emirates), a carbon accounting tool helping organizations reach decarbonization and net zero emissions.


📢 Nour Taher, cofounder of Intella (Saudi Arabia), a startup aiming to bridge the gap between global AI advancements and the Arab-speaking world through flagship services, such as Intella Voice, a multi-dialect Arabic transcriber that converts speech to text.

💰 Purvi Monot, founder and CEO of Sav (United Arab Emirates), a goal-based savings and investing app designed to help users optimize savings, reduce debt and achieve financial dreams.

🧘‍♀️ Sandra Salame, founder of Siira (Lebanon), a wellbeing platform that aims to raise awareness of daily life struggles through preventative education, and harnesses the power of communities to enable individuals to live healthier lives.

👗 Shahad Geoffrey, founder of TAFFI (Saudi Arabia), an AI-powered styling-as-a-service platform that helps fashion businesses improve consumer engagement and drive sales through hyper-personalised experiences.

👩‍💻 Rana A. Batterjee, cofounder of EduPloyment (United Arab Emirates), a global online recruitment platform focused on upskilling workers with English language skills and providing them access to better jobs.


💻 SpeedInvest, a European early-stage venture capital fund, which manages assets worth $1 billion across 40 countries, is set to establish its office in the UAE to deepen its presence in the Middle East and Africa region. The PE firm’s UAE office will be its first hub outside Europe.

• The firm seeks to make investments in early-stage startups in the deep tech, fintech, health, industrial tech, marketplaces & consumer, software as a service & infrastructure, climate tech, merging markets, and crypto sectors.

💡 Bahrain-based alternative asset manager Investcorp will acquire NSEIT, the digital technology division of India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) in a deal valued at $120 million.

• The deal excludes NSEIT’s digital examination business, which offers online recruitment and promotion tests as well as digital upskilling services for corporates.

• Air pollution crisis. Cancer cases are rising in Beirut. Are diesel generators to blame?

• AI fluff. Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along

• Decelerator. They thought they were joining an accelerator — instead they lost their startups

• Happy Birthday. The BASIC programming language turns 60

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