Founding MENA #8
Welcome to the Founding MENA newsletter - bringing you the top stories from across the region every week.
Before we get into it, I hope all of our MENA based readers are safe and well. As a resident of the UAE, I share the widely held desire for de-escalation of conflict across the region.
I hope you find the newsletter insightful, but I’m always open to feedback and suggestions. Let’s get into it!
💰 Investment Rounds
- 🇸🇦 LIV Golf raised $266.6M from PIF. See more here.
- 🇲🇦 WafR raised $4M in seed co-led by LoftyInc Capital. See more here.
- 🇦🇪 Immensa raised undisclosed amount in growth funding led by Dubai Future District Fund. See more here.
- 🇦🇪 Takeem raised undisclosed amount from REACH Middle East. See more here.
📰 Startup News
Presight-Shorooq AI Fund backs 5 startups in 120 days
The $100M Presight–Shorooq AI Fund just deployed into 5 frontier AI companies in 120 days after screening 1,000+ startups.
Launched in September 2025 as a partnership between Presight and Shorooq Partners, the fund is bridging world-class AI innovators with Abu Dhabi's sovereign infrastructure and MENA's capital ecosystem.
Portfolio companies don't just get capital, they get access to Presight's AI infrastructure (cloud compute, GPU resources, secure data environments), G42's ecosystem, and Shorooq's track record scaling category leaders like Tamara, Lean Technologies, Pure Harvest Smart Farms, NymCard, TruKKer MOZN.
The first cohort includes founders from Google DeepMind, Google X, Meta, and Stanford University, co-investing alongside Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, GV (Google Ventures), and Y Combinator.
The 5 investments:
- NodeShift - $1M seed, Abu Dhabi.
- Candid Intelligence - $6M seed, US.
- Hebbia - Undisclosed, US.
- Blue - $5.5M seed, US.
- Crunched - $6M seed, US.
The fund targets 25-30 AI and deep tech startups total, with 40% of capital reserved for follow-on rounds.
Focus areas include: smart cities, energy, fintech, AI/ML, AR/VR, GameDev, Industry 4.0, deep tech.
Abu Dhabi is connecting Silicon Valley innovation with sovereign infrastructure, market access, and distribution channels across MENA and beyond.
Read more here.
🔦 Spotlight
Keeta has seen rapid growth, but what’s their story?
Keeta is disrupting the GCC's food delivery market, but most people don't know the full story.
In 2010, Xing Wang (Tsinghua grad, University of Delaware CS dropout) founded Meituan in Beijing. The name means "beautiful group" in Chinese.
Wang had previously built xiaonei.com (China's Facebook) and Fanfou (China's first Twitter clone) and sold both businesses.
This time, he targeted group-buying, inspired by Groupon's success in the US. Meituan's journey:
- Started as Groupon clone in March 2010
- Merged with Dianping in October 2015 to become Meituan-Dianping
- IPO'd on Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Sept 2018 at HK$69/share
- Grew into super-app: food delivery (65% market share in China), hotel bookings, travel, movie tickets, bike-sharing (acquired Mobike 2018)
- Processes 150M+ daily orders in China with 770M+ annual transacting users and 14.5M+ active merchants
But the international play is Keeta.
In May 2023, Meituan launched Keeta in Hong Kong, its first venture outside mainland China. The playbook: aggressive pricing, free delivery, waived commissions for merchants, tech-driven logistics.
Within a year, Keeta overtook Foodpanda and Deliveroo to lead Hong Kong's food delivery market with 43% order volume share (Q1 2024).
Wang Xing moved Keeta directly under his leadership in early 2024. In October 2025, he promoted Keeta CEO Tony QIU to Meituan's S-team, the company's top decision-making body modelled after Amazon's S-team.
Then comes Keeta's GCC expansion:
- Saudi Arabia (Sept 2024): Launched in Al-Kharj, scaled to Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina. Captured 10% market share in 5 months, becoming the number 3 player behind HungerStation and Jahez. Committed SAR 1B ($267M) to the Saudi market.
- Qatar (Aug 2025): Free vouchers, merchant partnerships, strong alternative in a concentrated market.
- Kuwait (Oct 2025): Founding Vendor program for early merchant onboarding.
- UAE (Sept 2025 - Dubai, Oct 2025 - Abu Dhabi): 50% off promotions, on-time delivery guarantee, signed MoU with the UAE Ministry of Investment to create 350+ high-skilled jobs and onboard 5,000 SMEs.
The competitive weapon? Meituan's 10+ years of operational infrastructure built in China: AI-driven logistics, smart routing, delivery cloud, and faster delivery times than incumbents.
Keeta Drone secured the UAE's first commercial Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone delivery license in Dec 2024. Dubai is the first overseas market for drone delivery, operating routes in Dubai Silicon Oasis and Nad Al Sheba.
The model worked in China (65% market share). It worked in Hong Kong (43% in 1 year). It's working in Saudi Arabia (10% in 5 months).
Morgan Stanley reports Keeta aims to cover all six GCC markets within months.
Read more here.
📰 Other News
Beltone launches its Private Equity platform
Led by Ali Mokhtar (CEO & Managing Partner of Beltone Venture Capital), the new platform provides growth-stage capital to companies entering advanced expansion phases, enabling a structured transition from venture-backed growth to institutional-scale investment.
Early-stage capital is flowing. VCs are writing seed and Series A cheques. IPO markets are opening up (Egypt, Saudi, UAE all active). But growth-stage capital (the $10M-$50M rounds that bridge venture to public markets) remains scarce.
Most regional funds can't write large enough checks. International growth investors rarely lead in MENA.
Companies that need $20M to scale regionally struggle to find it locally, forcing them to either raise internationally or grow slower than the market allows.
The firm already operates Beltone Venture Capital, which backs high-growth startups at early stages (Pre-Seed to Series A). Now with the Private Equity platform, Beltone can follow winners all the way through.
One integrated ecosystem. Long-term capital partnership. Same team that backed you at Seed can write the $25M Series C.
This positions Beltone as one of the few firms in MENA that can genuinely support founders from first check to exit.
MENA's venture ecosystem is maturing. The infrastructure is getting built
Read more here.
That’s all for this week, thanks! All of our MENA based readers: please stay safe. Sam
First published 2 Mar 2026 on Substack
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