Founding MENA #17
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
- 🇦🇪 CredibleX raised $15M in Series A led by Mubadala Investment Company. See more here.
- 🇧🇭 Siin raised $3M led by VentureSouq and Shift Group. See more here.
- 🇸🇦 Metafare raised $1M from Harmonics Ventures and family offices. See more here.
- 🇸🇦 Madeed raised $925K in pre-seed from SEEDRA Ventures, Unity Investment Partners, and Seen Growth. See more here.
📰 Startup News
Sarwa crosses $1bn in client assets
Mark Chahwan, Jad Sayegh and Nadine Mezher just crossed $1 billion in client assets at Sarwa, the first UAE-founded fintech to hit this milestone!
Founded in 2017 when they were accepted into DIFC's inaugural fintech accelerator program. First to graduate from the DFSA regulatory sandbox. First to receive backing from the DIFC FinTech Fund.
Sarwa was launched when most people said retail investing wouldn't work in MENA.
The conventional wisdom was that investors here were fundamentally different, that wealth management was only for high-net-worth individuals through private banks, and that mass-market platforms would never gain traction.
With more than one in five adults engaged in entrepreneurial activity in the UAE, there's a massive base of people building wealth who need investment infrastructure that works for them.
Retail investors in MENA are actively participating in global markets, building diversified portfolios, and thinking long-term about wealth creation.
Read more here.
Innovation City in Ras Al Khaimah launches the world's first blockchain-based digital business identity system.
Every company registered in Innovation City now receives a sovereign, cryptographically verifiable identity on IOPn's OPN Chain.
Not a PDF. Not a database entry. A living, immutable digital asset that proves itself without intermediaries.
The UAE government just announced its directive to transition 50% of federal sectors to agentic AI within two years.
For autonomous AI agents to process licenses, permits, compliance, taxation, and cross-border operations at machine speed, they need verifiable business identities that don't require human verification loops.
What actually changes:
- Banks, regulators, investors, and AI agents can verify business authenticity in seconds, not days.
- Every ownership change, compliance update, and verification is permanently recorded and auditable.
- Fraud risk around document forgery, shell companies, and beneficial ownership has dramatically reduced.
- AI-native infrastructure enabling autonomous government services
Companies securing a blockchain-based business identity today position themselves for preferential access to AI-powered government services and faster integrations with global partners.
The UAE's agentic AI directive means government systems will prioritise entities with verifiable digital identities within 24 months. Early movers get the integration advantage.
Read more here.
📰 Other News
Khwarizmi Ventures raises $70M+ for Fund II
Khwarizmi Ventures is led by Managing Partner Abdulaziz Al-Turki, alongside partners Homam Meaddawi, and Arjun Chopra, and founding partners Dr. Ibrahim Almojel and Yasser AlKadi.
Here's the track record: Fund I (launched 2021, $70M) backed 30+ startups including Calo Inc., eyewa, SiFi, Tamara, and HALA. Five exits have already been delivered within the first five years.
Saudi Arabia raised a record $1.7B across 257 deals in 2025, a 145% YoY funding growth and the highest annual deal count in the Kingdom's history.
But the numbers tell only half the story. What's actually changed is ecosystem depth: more repeat founders, stronger company formation, broader local institutional participation, growing international investor conviction, and a healthier capital stack from seed through growth.
Fund II will invest $1M-$5M initial cheques at Seed to Series A, with significant capacity for follow-on investment.
Sector-agnostic with continued focus on fintech, consumer tech, and AI applications.
Khwarizmi's model is institutional venture capital with operator DNA. The partners have built tech companies across the US, India, and MENA. They know the mechanics of scaling startups because they've done it themselves.
Read more here.
🤝🏼 Tools for Founders
Founding MENA has partnered with CapQuest, MENA’s leading equity management platform.
CapQuest’s automatic SAFE tracker is a game-changer. Upload all your SAFEs at once and it instantly models dilution, tracks valuations, and turns fundraising scenarios from a spreadsheet nightmare into something you can run in minutes.
All of our readers can get 20% off their first year with CapQuest using the code: scalingmena20.
That’s all for this week, thanks! All of our MENA based readers: please stay safe. Sam
First published 11 May 2026 on Substack
The week in MENA tech, every Monday. Free.
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