Happy Friday! Two weeks ago, we covered news that General Atlantic — a growth-stage investor with a track record in the region since 2012 — was establishing an office in Riyadh.

This week, another renowned VC firm, General Catalyst (famous for investments in Airbnb, Stripe, and Canva), made history with its first investment in Saudi, backing the open banking company Lean Technologies.

It’s a tremendous vote of confidence for the ecosystem at large, and here’s hoping it sparks further international investors to step up at the growth stage, where we’re currently rather lacking.

P.S.🍴Our deep dive this week, is all about the current state of the cloud kitchen industry in MENA, examining its growth drivers, business models, major players, and what the future may hold. You can check it out here.

Enjoy this week’s edition 👇

This week’s round-up is a 5 min read:

• 🏦 Saudi fintech Lean Technologies raises $67.5M Series B led by General Catalyst to expand its open banking platform

• 💳 Spend management platform Pemo secures $7m in pre-series A funding

• 💸 Talabat confirms IPO date for Dubai Financial Market

• ✍️ May Habib and Waseem AlShikh’s gen-AI startup, Writer, raises $200mn

• 🔈 Catch-up on Episode 18 of the VC React Podcast

🚀 Startup funding round-up

UnifyApps (🇦🇪 UAE), a SaaS platform enabling workflow automation across enterprise applications, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Iconiq Growth, with participation from Elevation Capital.

Pemo (🇦🇪 UAE), a spend management platform enabling real-time expense tracking and AI-driven accounting, has raised $7 million in a pre-Series A round led by Shorooq and Augmentum Fintech.

Popcorn AI (🇦🇪 UAE), a conversational commerce platform creating intelligent AI agents for customer engagement, has secured $500k in a pre-seed round with participation from Spring Studios Fund, Salica Investments, Al Waha Fund of Funds, and angel investors from KSA.

Efreshli (🇪🇬 Egypt), an interior design startup providing virtual decor tools and online furnishings, has secured an undisclosed Seed round led by Algebra Ventures, with participation from 500 Startups, Dar Ventures, and angel investors.

Fintech

Saudi fintech Lean Technologies raises $67.5M Series B led by General Catalyst to expand its open banking platform

🏦 Lean Technologies, a Riyadh-based fintech infrastructure provider, has closed a $67.5 million Series B round.

• Founded in 2019 by Hisham Al-Falih, Aditya Sarkar, and Ashu Gupta, Lean specialises in financial infrastructure that enables secure data-sharing between bank accounts and applications.

💰 Investor lowdown: The round was led by Silicon Valley's General Catalyst, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office, and Arbor Ventures, bringing Lean’s total funding to over $100 million.

• Notably, this is the first investment in Saudi Arabia for General Catalyst, Stanley Druckenmiller, and Bain Capital.

⚙️ Breaking it down

Lean facilitates direct account-to-account (A2A) payments, bypassing intermediaries like payment processors.

Operating under Saudi Arabia’s Central Bank regulatory sandbox, Lean has verified nearly 1 million bank accounts for clients like Tawuniya, Abdul Latif Jameel Finance, Salla, Tabby, and Tamara.

🐂 Bull case

With Saudi Arabia’s recent Open Banking Framework, Lean can now enable merchants to accept direct bank payments, unlocking new use cases and offering alternatives to card payments.

Regulated by ADGM in the UAE, Lean has processed over $2 billion in payment volumes through its A2A solutions, serving major clients like e&, DAMAC, and Careem.

🥊 Competition

Lean’s main competitor, Tarabut, has raised over $50 million, including a $32 million Series A last year.

🔮 Flashforward

The new funds will fuel Lean’s expansion of its Pay-by-Bank and Open Banking offerings, with plans to grow its product suite and strengthen regional partnerships.

💰 VC & PE round-up

🧬 Saudi Arabia announced the launch of the Life Ventures Capital Fund, dedicating approximately $50 million to support life sciences startups. The fund, announced at last weeks Biban24 forum, will aim to drive innovation and advance pioneering projects, particularly in science, health, and biotechnology solutions.

🇪🇬 Orange Egypt CEO Yasser Shaker has announced a €50 million investment to support African startups, primarily benefiting Egyptian companies, to boost youth-driven innovation. He highlighted Egypt’s strong position in African entrepreneurship and Orange Egypt’s role in expanding opportunities across the continent.

🌯 Abu Dhabi’s Vision Partners has invested $15.5 million in Epik Foods, a UAE-based multi-channel restaurant group, to fuel its expansion in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, support key acquisitions, and enhance working capital. Established in 2017, Epik Foods was formed through a partnership between KR&CO founders Khaled Fadli and Rania Bassiouny and Gulf Islamic Investments, merging three UAE-based food tech companies: Happy Platter Kitchen, Kreative Restaurant and Co, and Sweetheart Kitchen.

🌍 Global investments round-up

✍️ Writer, an enterprise generative AI startup founded by May Habib and Waseem AlShikh, has raised $200 million in a Series C round at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its platform. Habib and AlShikh began their entrepreneurial journey in Dubai with Qordoba in 2011, a language services company that helped businesses localise content across new markets, backed by Silicon Oasis Ventures and MENA Venture Investments. They subsequently moved to Silicon Valley and launched Writer in 2020, which has since grown into a leading generative AI platform serving customers like Qualcomm, Salesforce, and Uber.

🤖 AI-powered sales startup 11x has raised $50 million in a new funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Founded in 2022 by Syrian entrepreneur Hasan Sukkar, 11x develops AI bots to assist sales teams with routine tasks. Its flagship product, Alice, supports salespeople by generating leads, conducting research, and coordinating customer outreach. Sukkar, immigrated to the UK in 2015 at the age of 17, as part of the Syrian Refugee Crisis.

💸 Dubai Future District Fund has invested in TransFi, a cross-border payments platform that provides compliant, cost-effective solutions for global payouts, collections, and ramp services across 100+ countries and 80+ currencies. Founded by Raj Kamal, TransFi aims to streamline international payments with extensive local payment method coverage.

☕️ TeaLeaf, a U.S.-based tea distribution company founded in 2020 by Maggie Lubin and Roland Heath, has secured $6 million in funding with support from UAE-based FasterCapital through its Raise Capital program. TeaLeaf aims to create a transparent e-commerce platform for businesses and consumers, providing detailed information on tea quality and pricing. FasterCapital, based in the UAE, connects startups with investors through an AI-driven system and a team of financial experts.

⚙️ Tech round-up

💸 Talabat has announced plans to list on the Dubai Financial Market, with shares expected to begin trading on December 10. With 6 million active users, 119,000 riders, $5.4 billion in GMV, and a 6.7% EBITDA margin, Talabat is debt-free, unlike its parent company, Delivery Hero, which holds $3.5 billion in borrowings. Valuations by Emirates NBD suggest Talabat could reach up to $14.4 billion, potentially making it more valuable than Delivery Hero itself. Delivery Hero will sell a 15% stake, with investor orders open until November 27.

🚪 Abdallah Abu Sheikh, co-founder and CEO of UAE-based fintech Astra Tech, is exiting the company, selling his stake to existing shareholder to G42. Founded in 2022, Astra Tech has rapidly grown into a super-app with acquisitions like PayBy, Rizek, and Botim, now serving over 150 million users across 155 countries. In December 2022, G42 led Astra Tech's $500 million funding round, supporting its expansion. CTO and co-founder Long Ruan has stepped in as interim CEO. Abu Sheikh’s next venture remains undisclosed.

 🤝 Acquisitions

🎁 YOUGotaGift, a leader in digital gifting, has sold 91% of its shares to Japanese company giftee in a $26.6 million deal. This acquisition will enable giftee to expand in the GCC’s rapidly growing prepaid card market, projected to reach $20 billion by 2028. The existing management team will remain to ensure continuity and growth as the company enters this new phase.

📦 QiCard has acquired Miswag, Iraq’s e-commerce platform, in a seven-figure deal. Since the acquisition in April, Miswag has experienced tenfold growth, driven by its integration with QiCard and the launch of new services like “Installments Mall” for buy-now-pay-later options. Miswag founded by Ammar Ameen

💰 VC React Podcast: Episode 18

🎧 In this week’s episode, we covered Beta Lab’s $300M fund for deeptech, bridging Saudi Arabia and Southeast Asia; General Atlantic’s new Riyadh office deepening its MENAT presence; Ahmad’s latest venture, Revenya Capital, a revenue-based fund launched with Arzan VC for MENA startups; and NorthLadder’s $10M Series B targeting European expansion.

We also discussed MENA’s infrastructure for deeptech, the impact of General Atlantic’s investments, the appeal of non-dilutive financing, and the challenges of taking a MENA-tested platform to Europe.

⭐️ Opportunities

🇵🇸 Calling Palestinian Entrepreneurs!

The Problem-Solving Workshop for Social Impact Entrepreneurs is here to help turn your vision into action! In collaboration with BuildPalestine, Flow Accelerator is looking for individuals and teams ready to tackle challenges in Health, Education, and Utilities —or any social or environmental issue.

Apply by November 27, 2024 if you:

• 🌍 Are Palestinian and want to create social change

• 🤝 Can join both virtual and in-person activities

• 💡 Have a challenge to solve or a big idea to share