Happy Friday, friends 👋

An extremely sleepy post-Eid week, so things are relatively quiet on the news and announcement front. However, you're in luck…

…as that means you’ve got plenty of time to dig into the first edition of the MENA VC Playbook which we published earlier this week! If you missed it, you can check it out here.

One story that did catch our attention this week was Talabat CEO Tomaso Rodriguez’s interview with CNBC’s Dan Murphy. Generally, these kinds of interviews tend to be pretty banal and not especially insightful, but there were a couple of genuinely interesting nuggets in this one.

From why Talabat isn’t rushing into Saudi, to the early efficacy of their new embedded finance functionality, to how any Saudi entry (if it happens) will likely be via M&A.

There’ll be no shortage of quick commerce players to acquire, that’s for sure.

Elsewhere, PRYPCO is still slicing and dicing Dubai real estate – its second fractional property listing sold out in under two hours. Stargate UAE may not be as much of a done deal as it first seemed. Qatar is jumping into the sovereign AI race with new bilingual Arabic-English LLMs, and Kuwait is joining the open banking party with a newly published draft regulatory framework.

Plenty of interesting deep dives coming up over the next few editions as well, especially if you’re into BNPL, spacetech, venture debt, or founders with an exit under their belts.

But without further ado, let’s get into this week’s round-up 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

🇦🇪 Qanooni, an AI-powered legal tech platform that helps lawyers draft and review documents inside tools like Word and Outlook, and co-founded by the team behind Spotii, has raised $2M (pre-Seed) from Village Global, Oryx Fund, TA Ventures, and angels.

🇦🇪 SANTECHTURE, a healthtech company focused on revenue cycle management, received a strategic investment from CorroHealth (US) to integrate AI solutions across the GCC.

🇸🇦 Meda, a digital marketplace for building materials that allows contractors to compare suppliers and track orders through its mobile-first interface, has closed a Seed round from undisclosed angel investors.

🇦🇪 Best Kept Shared, a P2P luxury fashion rental and resale platform, has received funding from MTNC to expand its tech and brand partnerships.

A 12,000-word playbook built from interviews with eight of MENA’s top investors, breaking down the founder traits VCs prioritise, frameworks for high-quality inbound dealflow, and strategies for spotting breakout startups before they exist.

Takeaways

When Talabat went public in December 2024, it wasn’t just the UAE’s biggest tech moment of the year, it was the largest tech IPO globally, raising over $2 billion on the Dubai Financial Market.

While the company’s stock has dipped around 9% since listing, Talabat has nearly quadrupled its profitability, according to CEO Tomaso Rodriguez, who spoke in an interview with CNBC’s Dan Murphy this week.

We break down some of the most interesting takeaways and insights from the interview below.

🏗️ UAE-based Dar Ventures, the VC arm of global design and engineering firm Dar and founder of Sidara, has joined Pi Labs’ latest £100M fund targeting early-stage built environment tech startups. The fund will back up to 50 AI-native companies tackling challenges in real estate, construction, infrastructure, and sustainability—from reducing carbon footprints to automating logistics and city planning. Dar Ventures joins a global LP network that includes APG, Aldar, Swire, and Embassy Group. Pi Labs, the world’s most active early-stage proptech VC, has delivered 17 exits and previously achieved a 10x gross return on its first fund.

🌍 European angel network Super Capital is expanding into the Middle East and Africa through a new venture with Axel Peyriere, co-founder of AUTO24.africa and an active regional investor with 50+ deals under his belt, including Julaya, Bumpa, Zazu, and Curacel. Founded by Corentin Orsini, Thibaut Gimenez, and Frédéric Baecke, Super Capital has backed 150+ European startups with over €30M since 2019. The newly launched MEA Club plans to fund up to 10 startups per year, writing €100K–€250K cheques across fintech, SaaS, logistics, healthtech, mobility, and consumer sectors.

🛰️ The UAE’s planned $multi-billion Stargate UAE AI campus, a 10-square-mile data centre cluster backed by G42 and featuring Nvidia, OpenAI, Cisco, Oracle, and SoftBank – remains in limbo due to still unresolved U.S. security concerns, according to reporting from Reuters. Despite fanfare during former President Trump’s recent visit to Abu Dhabi, the deal hinges on U.S. export controls for Nvidia’s AI chips and assurances that sensitive tech won’t be diverted, given the UAE’s ongoing ties with China. The U.S. has yet to define security conditions, and the timeline remains uncertain, with bipartisan skepticism in Washington over enforcement and compliance risks.

🧠 Qatar’s Fanar Project has released its bilingual Arabic-English LLMs – Fanar-1-9B and Fanar-1-9B-Instruct – on Hugging Face. Developed by the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) at HBKU, the 9B parameter models are trained on over 1T tokens spanning Modern Standard Arabic, regional dialects, and English. Released under Apache 2.0, the models top benchmarks like OALL, HellaSwag, and Belebele (Arabic), and are now publicly available for download, fine-tuning, and integration.

💼 European HR tech startup Nova has raised $3.65M in a round led by MENA-based BY Venture Partners and CDP Venture Capital, with Doha Tech Angels also participating. Founded in 2020 by Andrea Marino, Ramon Rodriguez, and Lars Henrik Friis Molin, Nova operates a selective talent platform and is building Nova Recruiter, a hiring tool positioned as an alternative to LinkedIn. The funding will support expansion across European capitals and further development of its matching algorithm.

🚀 Vessel, an AI-powered fund and investor management platform, has raised $7.5 million in a Seed round co-led by Inovia Capital and Afore Capital, with participation from MENA-based BY Venture Partners, FJ Labs, Golden Ventures, Telegraph Hill Capital, and Four Cities Capital. Founded by Thomas Terrats and Thierry Ajaltouni, Vessel helps GPs automate reporting, compliance, and LP engagement.

💸 German fintech Payrails has raised €27.7M in a Series A round led by HV Capital’s Growth Fund, with backing from EQT Ventures, General Catalyst, and a16z. Founded by ex-Delivery Hero execs, the startup powers enterprise payments via a modular OS used by clients like Careem, Puma, and Just Eat. The round brings total funding to €45.8M and will fuel product innovation and expansion across across Europe and MENA.

🧾 France-based fintech Inovat, which simplifies travel-related VAT refunds, has received an undisclosed investment from UAE angel network AngelSpark. Founded by Ilya Melkumov, Sonya Baranova, and Igor Titov, Inovat lets travellers submit refund claims by uploading receipts via platforms they already use, no paperwork or extra apps required. The funding will support global expansion.

🛍️ VenueX, an Istanbul-based retail AI startup, has raised $1.2M in a bridge round led by Orbit Startups, with backing from Re-Pie, Akkök Holding, and Akyasam. Launched in 2022, the company links digital ad spend with offline retail sales, and plans to expand into Dubai and Riyadh.

🔓 The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has released a draft Open Banking Regulatory Framework, laying the groundwork for banks and fintechs to securely share customer data, with user consent, to offer services like account aggregation, spending insights, and direct payments. The framework supports Kuwait’s broader digitisation agenda under “New Kuwait 2035” and will enable Open Banking Service Providers licensed by CBK to operate in the market. A fintech firm is already piloting these services in CBK’s regulatory sandbox, Wolooj. Feedback on the draft is open for four weeks, with a phased rollout planned post-finalisation.

🏦 Saudi digital bank D360, backed by the Public Investment Fund and Derayah Financial, is reportedly preparing for a Series A funding round slated for early 2026 and is currently in talks with potential investors from Europe and the U.S. The Shariah-compliant bank, which launched in December and has already secured $500M from existing shareholders, aims to use the new capital to expand SME and retail lending. Former JPMorgan banker Mohammed Nazer has joined as CFO to lead the process, with advisors expected to be appointed by July. D360 currently serves over 1M users and is targeting 4M ahead of a potential IPO within four years.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition!

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