Completely happy Friday pals 👋
Quite sadly, FWDstart understands that Careem aren’t the one regional tech firm to have made important cuts over the previous week or so, although it is price noting that MENA is way from alone right here, with the likes of Meta, Cloudflare, and Coinbase all saying important layoffs this week too, with AI getting the lion’s share of the blame (although some would argue it is a handy excuse to reverse just a few years of exuberant hiring). We’ll deliver you extra on these developments over the approaching days.
This and far more beneath 👇
This week’s round-up is a 5 min learn:
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CredibleX (🇦🇪 UAE), an ADGM-regulated SME lender providing working capital via revenue-based, receivables, and payable financing, has raised $15M in a Sequence A spherical, led by Mubadala Funding Firm, with participation from Additional Ventures.
Siin (🇧🇭 Bahrain), a reside buying platform for purchasing and promoting high-value items via real-time livestreamed and gamified experiences, has reached $3M whole funding, co-led by VentureSouq and Shift Group, with participation from Plus VC, Oqal, and regional angels.
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eVoost (🇦🇪 UAE), an AI-powered actual property advertising and marketing platform for new-build property builders, has raised $1.2M from Spanish VC First Drop, alongside angels from the Abu Dhabi and Hub71 ecosystem.
Metafare (🇸🇦 KSA), a digital well being platform combining VR and AI to ship distant wellbeing periods, has raised $1M in its first funding spherical, backed by Harmonics Ventures and household workplaces.
Madeed (🇸🇦 KSA), a personalised preventive healthcare platform utilizing biomarkers and AI for early illness detection, has closed its pre-Seed at $925K, with participation from SEEDRA Ventures, Unity Funding Companions, and Seen Development, alongside present backer Imaginative and prescient Ventures.
💰 Saudi-based Khwarizmi Ventures has accomplished Fund II’s first shut at $70M+, matching the full dimension of Fund I in 2022. The agency is constant to boost towards a $100-120M goal, as FWDstart first reported final June. Fund II will make investments $1-5M cheques into seed and Sequence A startups throughout the GCC, up from the $500K-2M vary in Fund I. Led by managing companion Abdulaziz AlTurki, Fund I backed 30+ startups together with Tamara, Calo, Eyewa, and TruKKer, delivering 5 exits inside its first 5 years with capital already distributed to LPs.
👤 Sukna Ventures has appointed Mazin Alshanbari as GP. Alshanbari was beforehand CIO at Jada Fund of Funds and earlier than that led Jada’s VC and Enterprise Debt portfolio for almost six years, having joined as worker primary when the fund of funds launched in 2018. Sukna Ventures, the tech funding arm of Sukna Capital, is concentrating on $133M in belongings in response to CEO Fares Bardeesi chatting with Asharq Enterprise final 12 months, and has invested in 20+ startups throughout Saudi and MENA together with MoneyHash, OCTA, SPICE, and Abhi.
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🚗 Careem is winding down most of its shopper providers in Saudi and has made sweeping layoffs throughout a number of markets, FWDstart broke this week. Co-founder Abdulla Elyas confirmed a “strategic pause” of fast commerce in KSA, with a expertise placement web site itemizing 62 senior employees searching for new roles and stating that “with the exception of Rides and Bikes, Careem KSA is winding down most of its platform services.” Individually, Careem’s Berlin engineering staff has been laid off in full with the workplace closing completely, and cuts have hit departments throughout the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and Pakistan.
The retreat comes roughly 13 months after Careem launched grocery supply in Riyadh and lands as majority proprietor e& not too long ago appointed a brand new Group CEO. Uber, which retains 42% of Careem Applied sciences, informed traders its Q1 2026 mobility income was hit by the Center East battle, citing Saudi and the UAE particularly.
💳 Lean Applied sciences has expanded its Pay by Financial institution capabilities within the UAE beneath the newly operational Open Finance framework, consolidating deposits, collections, checkout, and subscription flows right into a unified A2A cost suite. Lean has processed billions in TPV within the UAE since 2022 with purchasers together with e&, Careem, DAMAC, and OKX, serving to companies save $100M+ on card charges. The growth follows Lean turning into the primary totally licensed open banking supplier in Saudi Arabia in March and receiving In-Precept Approval from CBUAE, giving the corporate licensed or near-licensed standing in each of the Gulf’s largest fintech markets.
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