Happy Friday, friends 👋

In the interest of time, we’ll resist pontificating at length on the significance of HUMAIN’s launch, or the Trump administration’s decision to lift restrictions on Nvidia’s highest-performing chips straight from the off.

What we will say is that the figures being thrown around are mind-boggling, and frankly, hard to fully contextualise. So, keep an eye out for a deep-dive soon – once we’ve had a chance to do some more back-of-the-napkin maths.

A thank you as well to everyone who reached out with kind words about the launch of the MENA Founder Playbook on Wednesday. And if you haven’t yet, consider signing up for a premium subscription so you can read the full piece below.

Without further ado, let’s dig into this week’s edition.

Recommend reading this one online so you don’t get cut off halfway through 👇

This week’s round-up is a 7 min read:

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia launches HUMAIN to anchor AI leadership, signs landmark deals with NVIDIA, AMD, and AWS

• 🧠 STV launches $100M AI fund backed by Google, marking tech giant’s first VC bet in MENA

• 🏠 Egypt’s Nawy secures $75M in equity and debt to scale its full-stack proptech platform across MENA

• 🏗️ Saudi contech startup WakeCap raises $28M Series A to scale AI-powered site productivity platform

• 💾 Tala Al-Jabri launches MENA’s first AI-native VC fund, Wyld VC, with $50M to back early-stage AI talent across the region

• 🇸🇾 YC-backed, London-based nsave opens access to secure financial accounts for Syrian users following sanctions lift

🚀 Startup funding round-up

Nawy (🇪🇬 Egypt), a full-stack proptech platform offering mortgage financing, fractional ownership, and B2B brokerage enablement, has raised $52 million in a Series A equity round led by Partech, with participation from e& Capital, March Capital, VKAV, DPI via Nclude, VentureSouq, Shorooq, and others. An additional $23 million in debt was secured from Egyptian banks to scale Nawy Now, its mortgage product.

WakeCap (🇸🇦 KSA), a contech startup providing AI and IoT-powered workforce and productivity tracking on construction sites, has raised $28 million in a Series A round led by UP Partners, with participation from Graphene Ventures and others.

AqlanX (🇦🇪 UAE), an AI company building Arabic-first, UAE-made automation tools, has secured a $10 million investment from Lakeba Group via its venture DoxAI. The investment will support regional expansion and establish an AI Centre of Excellence in Dubai.

Kilow (🇸🇦 KSA), a healthtech startup delivering a multi-stack AI-powered weight management platform, has raised $2.5 million in Seed funding led by Sanabil Venture Studio in partnership with Stryber.

Markopolo.ai (🇧🇩 Bangladesh / 🇸🇦 KSA), a deeptech company building AI marketing agents for consumer brands, has raised $2 million in Seed funding led by Joa Capital, with participation from Team Ignite Partners and angels.

Amwal Tech (🇸🇦 KSA), a fintech startup enabling secure e-commerce instalment payments via bank credit limits and FIDO authentication, has received investment from Salica Investments’ Oryx Fund.

Classy Games Studios (🇦🇪 UAE), a cross-regional gaming studio developing culturally resonant RPG titles, has secured strategic funding from Merak Capital and Exel by Merak.

Premium deep-dive

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An 18,000-word playbook drawn from interviews with 7 of MENA’s top post-Series A founders, tackling how to build trust before brand equity, validate before users, retain in transient markets, and know when to follow data – and when to trust your gut.

AI

Saudi Arabia launches HUMAIN to anchor AI leadership, signs landmark deals with NVIDIA, AMD, and AWS

Saudi Arabia has officially launched HUMAIN, a new Public Investment Fund (PIF)-owned AI operator designed to build and lead a full-stack national AI economy – from infrastructure and chips to models and applications.

The company is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and led by former Rakuten Mobile CEO Tareq Amin.

During a high-profile visit by US President Donald Trump, HUMAIN announced major partnerships with NVIDIA, AMD, AWS, Cisco, and others, setting in motion a multi-billion-dollar AI buildout across the Kingdom.

⏪ Background

The Kingdom has been laying the groundwork for this move for over a year – from early reports of a $40 billion AI investment fund to chip and data centre initiatives under PIF-backed entities like Alat.

HUMAIN represents something of a strategic leap forward: not a fund, policy initiative, or lab – but an operating company tasked with owning and integrating the entire AI value chain.

Its executive team includes leaders from Microsoft, Nokia, and Groq, and it is closely aligned with SDAIA, the Saudi Data and AI Authority.

💸 VC

🧠 Riyadh-based STV has launched a $100M AI-focused fund backed by Google – the tech giant’s first VC partnership in MENA. The fund marks a shift from STV’s typical growth-stage focus toward the earlier-stages, targeting application-layer AI, localised models, and infrastructure. MENA’s largest VC firm, with over $900M in AUM, STV also recently launched a $100M venture debt fund in partnership with SAB Invest. Just 1.5% of MENA’s 2024 VC funding went to AI startups, compared to 38% in the U.S. and 13% in India. STV’s past investments include Tabby, Salla, Foodics, Floward, and Calo.

💾 Saudi-based Wyld VC, founded by investor Tala Hasan Al-Jabri, has launched a $50M AI-focused fund. Backed by the US-based family office of Lawrence E. Golub, the fund will invest in AI middleware and application-layer tools rather than foundation models, with a focus on early-stage startups. Al-Jabri, was the first-ever female partner at a Saudi VC firm and is an early investor in startups like Tabby and US-based StarCloud.

📉 In 2024, for the first time, MENA had more investors active in venture deals than new startups being formed – that’s according to a preview of the forthcoming 2025 MENA Early-Stage Data Handbook by ClearWorld. The data shows a clear divergence: startup formation is on a confirmed downtrend, while the number of active investors continues to rise. Driving factors cited include macroeconomic pressure, KSA’s push to attract fund managers, and a surge in sovereign capital.

🌍 International investments

🧠 US-based AI infra startup TensorWave has raised $100M in new funding, with Prosperity7 – the VC arm of Aramco – joining as a key backer. The round was led by Magnetar and AMD Ventures, with additional support from Nexus Venture Partners and Maverick Silicon, bringing total capital raised to $146.7M. Founded in 2023, the company has already deployed a massive AMD-based GPU cluster and is on track to surpass $100M run-rate revenue by year-end.

🚘 Mubadala is reportedly eyeing a $400M investment in Kakao Mobility, South Korea’s largest ride-hailing platform, as part of a consortium led by VIG Partners targeting a 40 - 49% stake. Goldman Sachs is also investing $300M, with the group acquiring shares from existing investors including TPG, Carlyle, LG, Google, and Kakao’s parent company. The deal values Kakao Mobility at around $4.4B and is expected to close in May.

🛡️ Portuguese drone and defense tech firm TEKEVER has raised new funding at a valuation exceeding $1B, becoming Europe’s latest defense unicorn. The round was led by UAE-based Ventura Capital, with backing from Baillie Gifford, the NATO Innovation Fund, Iberis Capital, and Crescent Cove. TEKEVER’s drones have logged over 10,000 combat flight hours in Ukraine, contributing to the reported destruction of $3B+ in Russian military assets.

📊 Qlik, a data analytics and AI solutions company, has closed a new investment round led by a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), with participation from Thoma Bravo. The round, originally slated for November 2024 and now fully approved, aims to accelerate Qlik’s growth in enterprise AI. It follows the company’s recent acquisition of Upsolver.

💰 Fintech

🌍 London-based fintech nsave has officially opened access to Syrian users, marking a milestone in its mission to serve those excluded from global financial systems. Co-founder and CEO Amer Baroudi called it “the moment I started nsave for,” as the company begins onboarding Syrians via a new waitlist – offering early access to the first 10,000 signups. The announcement comes on the heels of US President Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh, during which the lifting of sanctions on Syria was declared – paving the way for broader financial inclusion. nsave raised a $18M Series A round back in January 2025, led by TQ Ventures, with backing from Sequoia, YC, and others.

🏦 Abu Dhabi-based NymCard has become one of the first companies to secure regulatory approval under the UAE Central Bank’s Open Finance framework, allowing it to offer regulated payment capabilities through its modular embedded finance platform. Unlike pure connectivity providers, NymCard delivers full-stack financial products via a single integration – targeting fintechs, banks, SMEs, and marketplaces. This milestone follows its recent $33M Series B, led by QED Investors.

🤝 New Entrants

🤖 Scale AI, the Amazon-backed data labelling unicorn serving clients like OpenAI and Microsoft, has announced plans to open a new office in Riyadh by the end of 2025 – its second in the Gulf following the UAE. The company is valued at $13.8B, and achieved $870M in revenue in 2024.

🪩 India’s Flam has raised $14 million in a Series A round led by RTP Global, with participation from Dovetail and strategic investors, to scale its AI-powered mixed reality platform. With this new funding, Flam will expand across the Middle East, North America, and Europe, while deepening its operations in Asia.

🎥 ByteEdge, an Indian AI startup focused on transforming enterprise knowledge into cinematic video content, has raised $1.5 million in a round led by Japan’s TRTL Ventures. The company is now eyeing expansion into the Middle East and the U.S., with plans to raise an additional $3M in the coming months.

🤝 Acquisitions

💸 Coinbase has acquired UAE-based crypto derivatives platform Deribit for $2.9B, the largest deal in crypto history by value. The transaction includes $700M in cash and 11M Class A shares, and is expected to close by year-end pending regulatory approvals. Originally founded in the Netherlands and now HQ’d in Dubai, Deribit processed over $1T in trading volume in 2024 and holds $30B in open contracts. The deal strengthens Coinbase’s presence in crypto derivatives – a segment where it trails competitors like Binance.

📈 Public Markets

🍽️  Talabat reported a nearly 4x surge in Q1 2025 net income to $103M, marking a standout quarter following its 2024 DFM listing. Revenue rose 34% YoY to $846M, GMV hit $2.1B, and adjusted EBITDA grew to $140M, driven by growth in groceries, retail, and regional scale. The InstaShop acquisition contributed meaningfully, with that vertical accounting for a third of GMV. Non-GCC markets like Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq also gained share, supported by increased order frequency and talabat pro adoption. Adjusted net income hit $99M, and free cash flow rose 39% to $135M.

🚚 Jahez Group posted a 184.7% YoY surge in Q1 net income to $9.4M, with net revenue up 9.4% to $140.2M. GMV climbed 10.9% to $426.5M, supported by strong performance in KSA and improved margins across Kuwait and Bahrain. The group’s ad revenue soared 93% YoY, and newer verticals like Blu Store and Sol showed promising early scale.

💳 Egypt’s Fawry reported strong Q1 2025 results, with revenue rising 65.1% YoY to approx. $37.3M and net income up 97.1% to $12.6M. EBITDA surpassed $20.8M for the first time, driven by standout growth in Financial Services (+164.2%) and Banking Services (+55.9%).

🚌 Swvl reported a strong Q1 2025, achieving 12.4% YoY revenue growth (47% in constant currency) and $0.8M in net profit, alongside record performance in Saudi Arabia with 100% QoQ revenue growth and a 97% jump in gross margin. Dollar-pegged revenue rose to 34.7% of total revenue—up 118% YoY—while recurring revenue hit an all-time high of 86%.

🏍️ Food delivery

🚕 Talabat has partnered with ride-hailing platform Bolt to offer talabat pro users in Dubai 10% off 10 Bolt rides each month, mirroring Careem’s existing ride discount for its subscription members. The move is the latest in an ongoing tit-for-tat between the two super apps, following recent solo-meal bundle rollouts. Talabat says the Bolt integration expands its loyalty program beyond food, offering added mobility perks alongside free delivery, DineOut savings, and grocery deals.

💰 VC React Podcast: Episode 34

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🎧 This week on the VC React Podcast, we look at two stories that hint at how exits are evolving in the region – from a cybersecurity acquisition that keeps the core team and tech intact, to a surprise IPO push from one of Silicon Valley’s most controversial founders, now looking east.

📆 Events and Opportunities

👩‍💻 Standard Chartered has launched the third edition of its Women in Tech Accelerator in Saudi Arabia, offering $45,000 in equity-free grants to the top three women-led tech startups. Run in partnership with Falak Investment Hub, the eight-week program includes advanced training, 1:1 mentoring, and access to regional investor networks. Applications close June 27. Apply now.

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