Founding MENA #19

Newsletter #19

Founding MENA · 25 May 2026 · 6 min read

Saudi Arabia Fintech

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

🇦🇪 Core42 raised $550m from HSBC. See more here.
🇦🇪 GymNation raised $100m from Blackrock. See more here.
🇸🇦 Arib raised $23.5M led by Merak Capital. See more here.
🇦🇪 RemotePass raised $17.4M led by EBRD Venture Capital. See more here.
🇪🇬 ARRW raised $4M from Tasheed Egypt. See more here.
🇦🇪 eVoost AI raised $2.2M led by First Drop VC. See more here.
🇦🇪 Peekabox raised $1.5M in seed. See more here.
🇹🇳 EYST raised undisclosed six-figure investment from 216 Capital. See more here.

📰 Startup News

Jordanian founders get a new growth fund in Manara Ventures.

Jordan Capital & Investment Fund launches Manara Ventures, a $70.5M growth fund backing Jordanian tech companies scaling regionally.

Manara Ventures is specifically structured to back Jordanian founders with $750K-$3M checks plus follow-on capital for regional expansion.

The fund secured backing from Abu Dhabi-based Lunate and was established in ADGM as fully Sharia-compliant.

Manara is targeting 20+ growth-stage investments, with additional capital reserved for 15 high-performers pursuing regional expansion.

Leading the fund: Luma Fawaz, one of Jordan's most respected figures in startup acceleration. She previously ran Oasis500, where she oversaw 180+ early-stage investments and worked with 2,500+ entrepreneurs across the region.

Jordan has exceptional entrepreneurial talent but faces a capital gap at the growth stage. Seed funding exists. Late-stage capital goes to the UAE or Saudi Arabia.

Jordanian companies can now raise meaningful growth rounds without relocating headquarters or restructuring as UAE or Saudi entities.

Read more here.

Saudi’s next fintech unicorn?

Sahm Capital crosses 2M users to become one of Saudi Arabia's fastest-growing investment platforms.

Launched December 2023. Crossed 2M users in under 30 months. Now one of the region's leading retail investment platforms.

The growth reflects changing investor behaviour. Retail investors want more than just market access.

Sahm App built exactly this. Access to Saudi and US equities. ETFs, options, derivatives. AI assistant with 1M+ interactions.

Arabic-native community with 600K users. Structured education through Sahm Academy with 2.34M content views and 30K course likes.

Most investment platforms are transaction engines. Execute trades, charge fees, done. Sahm has built an integrated ecosystem around the transaction.

Sahm AI analyses market information and identifies investment opportunities. Sahm Community lets users exchange insights in real-time within the trading platform. Sahm Academy provides courses, articles, tutorials, and offline workshops. All are integrated into the same interface where you execute trades.

The Saudi retail investment market is expanding rapidly. Young, tech-savvy population. High smartphone penetration. Growing financial literacy. Vision 2030 is pushing capital market participation. Tadawul is opening to more retail access.

Read more here.

$4.4 trillion in assets under management moved to Abu Dhabi in a 60 day window.

Eight global asset managers registered through ADGM to raise capital and deploy it into the Gulf.

Capital Group ($3.3T AUM)
Barings ($481B)
Man Group ($228.7B)
Bain Capital ($225B)
Hillhouse Investment ($100B+)
Muzinich & Co ($30.5B)
Rokos Capital Management ($22B)
Hashed Global Management ($324M)

For 50 years, global finance has had four homes: London, New York, Geneva, and Singapore. Now it's choosing Abu Dhabi.

ADGM Q1 2026 numbers tell the story:

57% growth in assets under management in one year.
13,353 active company licences make it MEASA's largest international financial centre.
961 new company licences in Q1 alone.
3,741 operational entities, up 34%.
263 investment funds managed from ADGM, up 43%.

This is a structural shift. Twenty years ago, Gulf capital moved west to find financial returns. Today, Western capital moves east to find returns in the Gulf.

None of this capital is here for oil. It's here for what comes after oil.

AI infrastructure, sovereign technology, digital transformation, Vision 2030 deployment. The Gulf is building the next generation of economic infrastructure.

Abu Dhabi isn't competing with London or New York. It's offering something different.

Access to Gulf sovereign wealth deployment. Proximity to the fastest-growing markets in Asia, Africa, MENA. Regulatory framework built for 2026, not 1986. Time zone advantage bridging Asian and European markets.

For founders, this means growth capital is relocating closer to where you're building.

Read more here.

📰 Other News

Growthlabs acquires Startup Gate EG to build MENA's first unified digital infrastructure for startups.

Most ecosystem builders operate in silos. Accelerators run programs. Communities host events. Tech platforms manage data. Nobody connects the full journey.

GrowthLabs just changed that by acquiring Startup Gate and integrating it with Catalyst OS (their operating system for incubators and accelerators).

The result is a unified platform spanning community discovery, program execution, and real-time analytics across the entire startup lifecycle.

The acquisition was orchestrated by M-Empire Angels, an angel syndicate with $40M AUM and 200+ startups across 30+ countries in their portfolio.

Here's what GrowthLabs now controls:

Startup Gate: a community platform connecting founders, investors, service providers, and mentors across MENA.
Catalyst OS: a digital operating system for incubators and accelerators to manage programs and measure impact with precision.
GrowthLabs: end-to-end execution layer supporting startups from company registration through growth.

Growthlabs has executed 60+ international programs, 5,000+ startups supported across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Pakistan, and South America.

Who’s is behind the UAE’s new payment disruptor?

You've probably seen this new QR code popping up at your favourite restaurants across Bahrain, Dubai, and Riyadh. But who's behind it?

No branding. No press releases. No big launch events. Just a simple code on the table.

That's Local. And if you haven't heard the name yet, you're about to see it everywhere.

Founded by Saad Ahmed, Local is quietly replacing card machines at 200+ venues across the GCC. Nando's tables. Chili's booths. Fuddruckers counters. Hotel restaurants. Even hospital cafeterias.

Guests scan the code at their table, and the bill appears on their phone. They split it however they want. Pay in seconds. Walk out. Table turns are up 25%.
Tips doubled. Payment time dropped from 5-10 minutes to 30 seconds.

But here's the part most people don't see. Every payment is building a customer database. Who visits. How often. What they spend. Automatic loyalty points. Venues that switched to Local three months ago now know more about their customers than competitors who've been operating for three years.

Integration with BenefitPay (Bahrain's dominant wallet). Apple Pay. Google Pay. Every GCC payment method. Every major POS system (Odoo, Oracle, Lightspeed, Square).

Saad isn't doing the conference circuit. He doesn't post on LinkedIn every day. He's not raising venture rounds with PR campaigns.

Before Saad built Local, he built LocalBH, one of Bahrain's fastest-growing digital media platforms. Trending news, viral videos, social updates. The number one source for things to do in Bahrain for millennials and Gen Z.

One of the most stealthy yet customer-obsessed founders I have ever met, we're all watching where you take Local, Saad.

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