Happy Friday, friends 👋

And what a week it’s been, with Ninja officially joining the (still very exclusive) Saudi tech unicorn club, raising $250 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.

We thought this was the perfect moment to dig deeper into the story behind its co-founder and CEO, Ebrahim Al-Jassim – specifically, what led to his exit from HungerStation, the food delivery company he founded in the early 2010s, and how that departure escalated into a bitter corporate fallout with Delivery Hero in 2019. We’ve sifted through public court filings, arbitration documents, and corporate records to piece together the under-reported power struggle inside one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent tech companies.

Elsewhere, this week we saw PetroApp, a digital fuel platform that if we’re being totally honest, we actually hadn’t heard of before this week, drop a quietly massive $50 million funding announcement led by Jadwa who committed a cool $45M of that total amount.

There’s even more momentum to report out of Iraq’s startup ecosystem. EQIQ, whose managing partner Mohamed Al-Hakim we spoke with recently, has anchored a planned $15 million seed round for InstaBank, Iraq’s next-gen digital bank to be helmed by Iraqi-American banker Hussain Qaragholi. EQIQ is in for $3 million of that total.

In sovereign space news, Aspire Space, a SpaceX challenger of sorts, announced it’s relocating its HQ to the UAE and partnering with Leap 71 to develop reusable orbital launch systems.

And finally, Replit CEO Amjad Masad made his debut on the Joe Rogan Experience this week. His appearance didn’t touch much on the regional tech ecosystem, so unfortunately there’s not a whole lot to report there, but if Rogan’s your thing, you can check it out here.

Now, let’s get into this week’s edition👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

Ninja (🇸🇦 KSA), a quick-commerce platform delivering groceries and food across the GCC, has reportedlu raised $250 million in a new funding round led by Riyad Capital, valuing the company at roughly $1.5 billion and fuelling expansion ahead of a planned 2027 listing.

PetroApp (🇸🇦 KSA), a digital fuel-payment and fleet-management platform serving 10,000+ corporate clients, has secured $50 million in growth funding led by Jadwa Investment, with participation from Bunat Ventures, to scale its multi-market operations and prepare for a 2028 Saudi Exchange IPO.

InstaBank (🇮🇶 Iraq), the country’s first fully digital bank to be built on AI-driven infrastructure, has raised $3 million in Seed funding anchored by venture studio EQIQ, part of a larger $15 million target, to accelerate regulatory approvals and market launch.

Flawless (🇸🇦 KSA), an AI-powered career-guidance platform combining generative AI and social-psychology insights, has raised $1.5 million in a pre-Seed round from regional angel investors to enhance its technology and grow its team.

Byzanlink (🇦🇪 UAE), a blockchain startup tokenising real-world assets for compliant institutional investment, has secured $1 million from the National Program for IT Development, Outlier Ventures, Smart IT Frame, Sensei Capital, to fast-track product expansion and strengthen its compliance framework.

Feature

On April 16, 2019, employees at HungerStation, Saudi Arabia’s largest food delivery app, received an email from Delivery Hero’s co-founder and CEO, Niklas Östberg.

The subject was not routine. It informed staff that the entire executive leadership team of HungerStation; CEO and co-founder Ebrahim Al-Jassim, CTO Hossein Bukhamseen, CFO Sameh Hassan, and CPO Mishal Alshuwaikhat, had been terminated, effective immediately.

Östberg named Shabeb Al-Otaibi as interim manager and warned that any instructions issued by the former executives were not to be followed. “Should we identify any violations,” the email stated, “we will have to take corresponding legal action.”

No formal reason was provided in that initial communication. But within days, the picture sharpened.

🔈Saudi-based KBW Ventures, led by Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, has participated in a $60 million Series D round for Clearspeed, a US-based risk assessment tech company, bringing its total funding to $110 million. Clearspeed’s AI-powered voice technology enables rapid, scalable risk screening for sectors including defence, banking, and insurance. The new capital will support global expansion and product development.

🔐 MENA-based VC Silicon Badia has backed US-based Circuit in a $4.5M seed round to eliminate permanent digital asset loss. Led by Nyca Partners, the round also included Soma Capital, The Venture Dept., and others. Circuit’s Automatic Asset Extraction (AAE) technology enables real-time recovery of crypto assets without private keys, protecting users against wallet compromise, key loss, or custodian failure.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s Nearpay, a fintech infrastructure provider for merchant service providers, payment service providers, and startups, has announced its expansion into the United States. The move marks the company’s first major international push as it seeks to scale its payment solutions globally. Founded in 2020 by Mohammad Aleban and Hamzah Al Ghamdi, Nearpay raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Sanabil Investments in late 2023.

🪙 Zodia Custody, an institution-first digital assets platform, has acquired UAE-based Tungsten Custody, gaining an FSRA license in Abu Dhabi and initial approval from Dubai's VARA. Backed by Standard Chartered, SBI, NAB, and Emirates NBD, Zodia expands its regulated footprint in the Middle East. The deal adds Abu Dhabi’s Further Ventures, Tungsten’s incubator, to its investor base as Zodia targets institutional digital asset growth across key markets.

🇦🇪 UAE investment firm Aqua 1 has bought $100 million of WLFI governance tokens from World Liberty Financial, a US digital-asset platform tied to the Trump family, as part of a push to build a blockchain-based financial system spanning stablecoins, tokenised assets and AI. The untradable WLFI tokens – set to gain trading utility once the project’s ecosystem matures – give holders voting rights over the network’s tech roadmap. Aqua 1 plans to launch a new fund to back blockchain and AI startups across South America, Europe and Asia while accelerating digital transformation in the Middle East.

🎥 Dubai-based CAMB.AI has partnered with Saudi Arabia’s MBC Group to scale its real-time AI dubbing and voice translation tech across Arabic entertainment, education, and spiritual content. The company’s models, BOLI and MARS, preserve tone and dialect in 150+ languages and have already powered live broadcasts for MLS, Eurovision, and the Australian Open.

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🎧 This week on VC React, we unpack Valu’s market debut in Cairo, dig into why Careem is pulling the plug on its ride-hailing business in Pakistan, break down AppliedAI’s $55M Series A, and debate whether OpenAI’s new productivity push spells the beginning of the end for SaaS as we know it.