A week of verticals (TWIF - MENA 29/05)

Marhaba, fintech friends!

This edition marks one month of tracking fintech across MENA and already, so much has happened in the region's hottest sector.

Thanks for reading, forwarding, sharing thoughts or keeping tabs. It means a lot. If you’ve got ideas or feedback, I would love to hear it (Message me on LinkedIn).

We’re here to build something useful, consistent and better every week.

Here’s to the next four - and every four after that!

💸 Fundraises and Exits

 🇦🇪 Qashio, a B2B spending management start-up, raises $19.8 million in a new funding round led by Rocketship

🇶🇦 Qatar-based BNPL, PayLater, secures funding from LuLu AI, the financial arm of LuLu Financial Holdings

🇪🇬 Valu, Egypt-based BNPL subsidiary of EFG Holding, closes $27 million in funding from the Saudi Investment Bank, Sanabil Investments and other undisclosed Saudi-based investors

The start-up also received approval from the Egyptian Exchange to list its shares, distributing 20.488% of Valu’s shares to shareholders

 🇦🇪 Gainz raises a 7-figure pre-seed round led by Antler MENAP, Lithium Holdings, and Eleventh Invest Inc. on its mission to expand access to Shariah-compliant alternative financing for SMEs across the GCC

🇸🇦 Stitch, Saudi-based fintech infrastructure platform, closes a $10 million seed round from investors including Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures and Saudi Venture Capital.

💰 Funds

EQIQ, Abu-Dhabi based VC and venture builder, doubles its fund size to $30 million to back Iraqi start-ups in fintech, e-commerce and logistics

COREangelsMEA, an angel network based in Egypt, introduces its $10 million fund to invest in SDG-aligned start-ups across MEA. The network also announced its investment in Egypt-based AI-driven loyalty and savings platform, Aqua Offers, and Monak App, UAE-HQ bundled finance, health and insurance for migrant communities

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

The Dubai Land Department launches MENA's first licensed tokenized real estate investment platform, Prypco Mint, in collaboration with Prypco, VARA, CBUAE and the Dubai Future Foundation

areeba, a UAE-based global leader in payment infrastructure, partners with Foo, a provider of digital banking and fintech solutions, to introduce an integrated Card-as-a-Service program for banks and fintechs

Mastercard launches its Cyber Resilience Center in Saudi to reinforce the Kingdom's cybersecurity infrastructure

India's Paytm appoints ex-Magnati founding CEO, Ramana Kumar, to head its Middle East operations

SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's innovation and venture arm, partners with the DIFC Innovation Hub to launch a national venture studio in Dubai

🏛 Licensing & Regulations

The Central Bank of Iraq launches the ‘National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2025-2029’ with the aim of increasing access to banking services, strengthening consumer protection and improving digital payments infrastructure

ADGM's Financial Services Authority grants a Financial Services Permission to US-based equity management platform, Carta

China’s securities watchdog approves Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, QIA, to acquire a 10% stake in its second-largest mutual fund company, ChinaAMC.

💡 This week in: Insights

Home to some of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world (137% in Bahrain, 200% in the UAE, 99% in Egypt); a young, tech-savvy population and to innovation-minded governments, MENA's fintech scene has been on a consistent growth trajectory over the last few years, powering other sectors from commerce, mobility and healthcare - and it shows:

For a full read on how fintech is powering e-commerce across MENA, click here.

Thank you for tuning in!

If you have feedback on this edition of This Week in Fintech MENA, please reach out on LinkedIn.

Until next week,

Salam ✌🏼