Founding MENA #27
Welcome to the Founding MENA newsletter, bringing you the top stories from across the region every week.
I hope you find the newsletter insightful, but I’m always open to feedback and suggestions. Let’s get into it!
💰 Investment Rounds
- 🇸🇦 Think raised $8M in pre-seed co-led by RAED Ventures and Wa’ed Ventures. See more here.
- 🇲🇦 ORA Technologies topped up Series A to $10M from Moroccan investors. See more here.
- 🇪🇬 Mylerz raised $2M in funding from Lorax Capital Partners and Fawry. See more here.
- 🇸🇾 AlMkhtar closed $100K seed round led by angel investors. See more here.
📰 Startup News
Revolut has got in-principle approval from VARA for a Virtual Assets Service Provider licence in Dubai.
That's three UAE regulatory approvals in one year. CBUAE granted Revolut its payments licences earlier in 2026.
Now VARA has approved broker-dealer, management and investment, and exchange services, clearing the path for Revolut to offer regulated crypto buying, selling, and custody to UAE customers through both its main app and Revolut X, its standalone exchange.
75 million customers globally. 16 million crypto users already on the platform. One of the most trusted trading environments in the UK and EEA now coming to the UAE.
For the UAE's digital assets ecosystem, this is another signal that VARA's framework is attracting the world's most credible fintech operators.
The build phase continues for Revolut, but the regulatory foundation is now fully in place.
Read more here.
An AI unicorn just raised $130 million to dominate the GCC market.
Emergent, the AI software creation platform, closed a Series C led by Creaegis, with Claypond and Sentinel Global co-leading.
Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Lightspeed India, and Y Combinator all participated.
The valuation: $1.5 billion. That's a 5x increase in four months.
Emergent allows users to build full-stack web and mobile applications using AI agents. 70% of Emergent's users have zero programming experience.
Governments across the Gulf are spending billions on digital transformation.
The bottleneck has never been money; it's been the ability to build software fast enough to match the ambition. Emergent lets organisations bypass that bottleneck entirely.
Governments and enterprises across the GCC are actively spending on AI and digital transformation, with an urgent need to build custom tools faster than traditional development allows.
One year old. Unicorn. GCC next. This one will move fast.
Read more here.
📰 Other News
MENA startups raised $1.7 billion across 242 funding rounds in the first half of 2026.
Against H1 2025's $2.1 billion, this is an 18% decline.
Against the geopolitical backdrop of the past six months, it's a demonstration of ecosystem resilience.
Debt fell from 44% of total capital in H1 2025 to 29% in H1 2026, meaning equity made up a larger share of the mix.
Deal volume dropped 28% year-on-year, reflecting investors becoming more selective rather than retreating entirely.
Capital is concentrating around stronger companies, larger ecosystems, and clearer paths to scale.
The country breakdown is where the real story lives.
The UAE raised $1.2 billion across 83 deals, up 125% on H1 2025 and representing roughly 70% of all regional capital.
Saudi Arabia raised $259 million across 80 deals, down significantly from a record 2025, but with 80 transactions showing a deep and active deal pipeline.
Egypt raised $158.9 million across 29 deals, down 11% but producing two later-stage rounds.
The number that deserves more attention: female-founded companies raised just $2.5 million, 0.14% of total capital.
That gap isn't new. It isn't improving. It's the single most systemic failure in an otherwise developing ecosystem, and no amount of headline fundraising progress changes that until it does.
The second half of 2026 starts with an active pipeline, fresh venture capital ready to deploy, and several high-profile IPOs and exits building toward completion.
Read more here.
🤝🏼 Tools for Founders
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All of our readers can get 20% off their first year with CapQuest using the code: foundingmena20.
That’s all for this week, thanks! Sam.
First published 20 Jul 2026 on Substack
The week in MENA tech, every Monday. Free.
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