Asas Specialized Information Technology, a Saudi-based startup and the parent company of Resquad AI, has closed a SAR 1.2 million ($320K) pre-seed funding round by angel investors.
Why it Matters? The platform empowers software development companies to flexibly share their available developers with each other or with external clients.
More to Know:
- The company was founded in 2024 by Abdullah Al Jaafari and Anton Brychak in AlDamam, Saudi Arabia.
- The funds will enable the company to accelerate its growth in Saudi Arabia and enhance innovative solutions.
- The platform allows companies looking for developers to search for available developers and hire them directly.
Ebra, a Saudi-based fintech startup, has raised a $2 million Seed Round led by Scene Holding, with participation from Raz Holding and other undisclosed investors.
More to Know:
- Ebra was founded in 2024.
- Its core business focuses on debt collection and settlements on behalf of companies and third parties.
- It offers a variety of payment plans and methods for people to settle debts.
Flex League, a sports tech platform based in Saudi Arabia, has told Zero to One that it has secured a Seed round from the Professional Tennis Academy, Vamos Tennis, and PAD-L Group. (The startup asked not to disclose the value).
More to Know:
- Flex League was founded in 2023 by Ibrahim Akeel, Faisal Sindi, and Mazen Madani.
- It is a platform that enables players to join competitions, book courts, and track their progress.
- The funding will be used to launch a full court booking and match organization system.
- The round will also support hiring and expansion into key Saudi and regional cities.
- In addition to capital, Flex will gain direct access to venues and communities of Vamos Tennis Academy and PAD-L Group.
Saudi Arabia-based AlMenu has announced that it closed a SAR 38 million ($10.12 million) investment round led by AlMajdiah Investment with participation from other investors.
More to Know:
- The company was founded in 2022 by Mamdouh Ali and Bilal Mahdi.
- It provides operational solutions for restaurants and cafes through training and supervision of work teams.
- The investment aims to help the company expand its services.
Ziina, the fintech UAE-based startup, has raised $22 million in a Series A Funding round led by Altos Ventures, Jabbar Internet Group, Fintech Collective, FJ Labs, Avenir Growth, and Y Combinator.
Why it Matters? The platform offers services for individuals and companies alike.
More to Know:
- Founded by Faisal and Sarah Toukan in 2020.
- The startup offers money transfer and payment splitting services for individuals.
- It provides a payment platform that allows companies and online stores to receive, manage, and track transactions.
- Ziina plans for Saudi Arabia and Jordan expansion.
BRKZ, a Saudi-based construction startup, has secured a $9 million in Series A funding round led by Wa’ed Ventures and BECO Capital. Better Tomorrow Ventures, Class 5 Global, Fluent Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, MISY Ventures, RZM Investment, and 9900 Capital all participated in the round.
More to Know:
- BRKZ is a B2B marketplace for the construction sector founded by Ibrahim Manna in 2022.
- The latest funds included $8 million in equity and $1 million in venture debt.
- In March 2024, BRKZ announced that it raised $8 million in a Series A round. This brings the total funds of its Series A round to $17 million.
Turkish crypto exchange Paribu has announced the acquisition of Bahrain-based CoinMENA in a transaction valued at over $240 million, marking the largest deal to date…
Yalla Plus, a Saudi-based technology solutions provider for restaurants and cafes, has closed a $2.7 million (10 Millon SAR) round led by Merak Capital, with participation from Khwarizmi Ventures, Isometry Capital, and angel investors from the Middle East and the United States.
Why it Matters? The round is the fourth for startups in the F&B sector. It underscores the huge interest from investors in the field.
More to Know:
- Yalla Plus was founded in 2022 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by Abdullah Alrabeh and Bader Alnasser.
- The Startups said it works in 11 countries and provides services for thousands of restaurants and cafes.
- The funds will be used to attract local and international talents and improve the startup solutions.
Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) has invested $20 million in Booster IV, a venture capital fund managed by BECO Capital.
More to Know:
- BECO Capital is interested in early-stage investments in the Gulf region and manages assets worth $495 million across 4 funds.
- The fund focuses on early-stage investments from seed to Series A across all sectors, with a focus on Saudi Arabia and the GCC region.
Related Comments:
- “Our investment in Booster IV managed by BECO Capital is part of our fund investment program in line with our strategy to support funds investing in Saudi startups, especially during their early growth stages,” said Dr. Nabil Koshak, CEO and Board Member of SVC.
- “This partnership with the SVC team is an important step forward, and we look forward to maximizing the impact we can together make for Saudi founders in the years to come,” said Danny Farha, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at BECO Capital.
US-based Seesaw, a Prek-12 learning experience company, has acquired Jordanian Edtech Company Little Thinking Minds, focused on Arabic Literacy solutions.
More to Know:
- Little Thinking Minds was founded in 2004 and offers three main platforms: I Read Arabic, I Start Arabic, and the Mizan assessment platform. The company reports having served over 400,000 students across more than 10 countries.
- In 2018, Little Thinking Minds closed a Series A investment round led by Algebra Ventures, with participation from Mindshift Capital, Al Turki Ventures, and the ISSF Fund, along with support from WAIN and Oasis500.
- The acquisition is part of a strategic move by Seesaw to expand its presence in the MENA region.
- As part of the deal, Little Thinking Minds’ solutions will be integrated into Seesaw’s platform, which plans to launch its first Arabic-language platform in 2026.
- The two companies will collaborate to deliver multilingual, interactive educational content tailored to the needs of schools, educators, and education ministries in the region.
Related Comments:
- Matthew Given, CEO of Seesaw, said “This partnership marks a major step in our mission to create engaging and effective learning experiences for students worldwide,” he added. “Little Thinking Minds has built a strong reputation and effective products for improving Arabic literacy, and by joining forces, we can empower more students and teachers with localized, high-impact learning solutions.”
- “We’re incredibly proud to be joining the Seesaw family,” said Rama Kayyali, co-founder and CEO of Little Thinking Minds. “As the leading Arabic language K-12 edtech in the region—with curriculum alignment across most Arab countries, a strong footprint in public and private schools, and pioneering research and development in AI for Arabic literacy—this milestone represents a powerful next step in our mission.
- Startup: Climate Tech.
- Founding date: 2020.
- Country: Oman.
- Investors: Shorooq Partners, Equinor Ventures, Others.
Omani Startup, 44.01, has announced the closure of a $37 million Series A funding round co-led by Equinor Ventures with Shorooq Partners. Air Liquide Venture Capital, Alumni Ventures, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Climate Investment, Innovation Development Oman, Planet A Ventures, Salica Oryx Fund, Siemens Financial Services, Sumitomo Corporation participated in the round, as well as existing investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
44.01 said the funding will enable it to continue to refine its technology, develop commercial-scale projects, and expand its deployment internationally after completing successful pilot projects in Oman and the UAE, and winning the Earthshot Prize in 2022 for the ‘Fix our Climate’ category.
The startup was founded in Oman in 2020 by Talal Hassan, Ehab Tasfai and Karan Khimji. Its solutions focus on reducing CO2 and global warming by turning CO2 into rocks by leveraging the huge amount of peridotite formation in Oman, which reacts with CO2 to form a solid carbonate-like limestone or marble mineral.
STUCK?, the Saudi language intelligence platform, has announced the closing of its 6-figure Pre-Seed investment round, led by UK-based Mena Tech Fund. The round also saw participation from the KAUST Innovation Fund and several prominent angel investors, including Maha Taibah, founder of RUMMAN, Basma Bushnak, co-founder and former CEO of Emkan Education, as well as investors from the OQAL network.
More Details:
- STUCK? was founded by Asmaa Naga in September 2022, with Tasneem Islam as a partner and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Hossam Ahmed, Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
- The platform operates in the language intelligence sector, offering an AI-powered solution for content creation and translation.
- It provides services through three modes: fully AI-driven, fully human, or a hybrid of both, allowing organisations flexible control over their messaging.
- The investment will be used to develop localised Arabic AI models, expand into new languages such as Chinese, and offer on-premise solutions for enterprises.
- Sanabil 500 MENA has previously backed STUCK?.
The Q1 2025 ended with increased value and announced VC deals in the Middle East, surpassing $475 million across 85 deals.
This report provides an overview of the venture capital and startup landscape in the MENA region, featuring a comprehensive analysis of the deals, startups, investors, and key sector trends during the first three months of the year — with a particular focus on the Saudi Arabia market.
Explore the full details in the report (here)
Latest News
More to Know:
– Nabt provides a marketplace connecting farmers with commercial buyers
– It operates from a central warehouse hub, managing order fulfillment, sorting, and temperature-controlled logistics through to final delivery
– It recently launched the Nabt Auction to facilitate large-scale produce trading across the Kingdom, and Nabt Intel, which delivers real-time price and market-demand intelligence
– The company previously raised $1.5 million in its Seed round led by Merak – Founded by Abdullah Alotaibi in 2022.
- Mahmoud Qandeel
The UAE-based startup Reno raised $4 million led by MENA 500, Hub71, Plus VC, Zero 100 VC, Flyer One Ventures, Sandstorm VC, AngelSpark, and Swiss Founders Fund.
More to Know:
– Reno focuses on “Renovate Now, Pay Later” solutions in the home and building renovation management sector – It provides a system that integrates design solutions, project management, contractor oversight, and financing options
– The funding is a mix of equity and debt, and will be used to launch its application in early 2026 and expand into GCC markets
– Founded by Marc Michel, Amr Hosny, and Farah Karabeg in 2024
- Mahmoud Qandeel
More to Know:
– It utilizes the chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting technique to explain the specific decisions a vehicle makes while driving
– It processes data captured by the vehicle’s sensors and transforms these observations into a clear, human-readable narrative explaining the reasoning used to navigate road challenges and choose the correct path
– The model tackles a critical safety gap in today’s autonomous driving systems: they cannot clearly explain the mechanisms behind their split-second decisions
– NVIDIA developed this model on its Cosmos Reason platform, initially released earlier this year (2025)
- Mahmoud Qandeel
UAE-based startup funch has secured a $500K pre-seed funding round led by angel investors including Angel Spark, 5inDubai, Mustafa Qandil and others.
More to Know:
– funch offers an AI-powered lunch service through its app, priced at AED 19, with a flexible confirmation system that reduces waste and minimizes daily decision fatigue
– The investment will be used to build a fully integrated lunch infrastructure across the region and to achieve its goal of one million meals by Q2 2026.
funch was founded in Dubai in 2025 by Ahmad Joehnny and Ghada Zanaty.
- Mahmoud Qandeel
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News
- Startup: CleanTech.
- Founding date: 2018.
- Country: UAE.
- Investors: Tau Capital.
Airwater Co., an air-to-water tech company, announced that it has secured funding from Abu Dhabi-based venture capital firm Tau Capital. The investment value was undisclosed.
Airwater said that the investment will enable it to scale manufacturing, infrastructure and distribution, with a focus on large commercial and industrial atmospheric water generation facilities.
Alex Guy, Airwater Co.’s founder and CEO, said Tau Capital’s investment is a testament to a shared vision for a more sustainable future. “Tau Capital and Airwater Co. align in many ways, from headquarters in Abu Dhabi to the spirit of innovation this region and our companies are known for. Tau Capital’s desire to support Airwater Co. as a valued platform business that can reshape industries allows us to innovate and scale more rapidly”
Emphasising Airwater Co.’s commitment to technological innovation in the UAE, and its notable client base including Hilton Hotel Group, Accor Group, NEOM and ADNOC, Andrea Mollica, Managing Director at Tau Capital, described Airwater Co. as an important catalyst for change. “Water impacts every company, employee and consumer in the world — the importance of Airwater Co.’s work and this investment goes beyond any one industry or generation. We are eager to witness the advancements the future holds”.
Established in 2018 in UAE, Airwater Co., developed an air-to-water technology and aims to help governments and companies address water security challenges.
Palestine-based MENA Analytics has secured an investment from Ibtikar Fund, a Palestinian-based VC Fund that invests in startups in Palestine and Jordan, and backs Palestinian founders worldwide.
More to Know:
- MENA Analytics was founded in 2023 by Yousef Srouji, Obada Shtaya, Zayne Abudaka and Mohammad Abu Qare.
- It is a market research and data analytics startup that provides customizable surveys powered by AI-driven analysis for real-time insights
- With the investment, the company is set to expand into Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
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- Startup: FinTech.
- Founding date: 2021.
- Country: UAE.
- Investors: MEVP, Wa’ed Ventures, Mubadala Investment Company, Al Jomaih Holding, Republic.
UAE-based real estate investment platform, Stake, announced that it has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by MEVP, with participation from Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures, Mubadala Investment Company, Al Jomaih Holding, and Republic.
Stake allows individuals to invest in real estate starting with 500 AED. The startup says it amassed more than 500,000 and sold over 200 properties worth AED 355M via its app. It plans to expand to Saudi Arabia after it obtained approval from the Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) FinTech Lab in 2023.
The funds will also be allocated to expanding its fast-growing investor pool, bringing new investment opportunities on the platform and scaling a world-class team to build out its product.
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Stake, Rami Tabbara, noted how the new funding will enable Stake to continue scaling its presence in the UAE while launching in Saudi Arabia: “We are grateful to have a top-tier group of investors backing this funding round and placing significant trust in Stake and the future we are building. Having them onboard fortifies our commitment to expanding our product offerings and providing our investors with prime investment opportunities. We believe that the Real Estate investment process needs to be fully digitized and we have only started scratching the surface in our vision of making real estate accessible, transparent, borderless, and liquid”.
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Stake, Manar Mahmassani, said: “KSA is forecast to grow by 6% in 2025 making it one of the fastest growing G20 economies in the world. We want to give both our local and international users the opportunity to invest early and participate in that growth. This raise marks a significant moment in our journey, as we expand into this dynamic new market and partner with amazing new shareholders, including some of the strongest institutional and sovereign investors in the region, to advance our mission of empowering everyone to own and build wealth through real estate”
Walid Mansour of MEVP, said: “We’re thrilled to be backing Stake in their Series A round. What they have achieved in the past 3 years is nothing short of incredible. Their approach to real estate investment is truly innovative and we believe that their talented team, combined with our strategic funding, will propel them to greater success in the region.”
Fahad Alidi, Managing Director at Wa’ed Ventures, commented: “We are excited to support Stake as it expands into the Saudi market, allowing a broader range of investors to diversify their portfolios with high-potential rental properties. The team, led by Rami, Manar and Ricardo, continues to reshape the real estate market, democratizing access to an asset class traditionally reserved for high-net-worth individuals”.
Stake was launched in 2021 by Rami Tabbara, Manar Mahmassani, and Ricardo Brizido. The startup confirmed that 50% of its investors are from outside the UAE and surpassed 100,000 transactions on the platform in May 2024.
Saudi-based, Beta Lab, has announced the launching of a $300 million fund during the participation in FII8 in Riyadh.
Why it Matters? The fund targets deep-tech startups.
More to Know:
- Beta Lab was founded in 2022 and focuses on venture building and deep tech.
- The fund is backed by Saudi Investment Ministry and Research, Development and Innovation Authority, MDI Ventures, Telkom Indonesia, and Hong Kong’s Tech Incubation & Acceleration in HK Science Park.
- The fund targets startups in the MENA region and Southeast Asia.
Saudi-based event planning and management platform, Mila Celebrations, has secured a $227,000 Pre-Seed investment from angel investors.
More to Know:
- Mila Celebrations was founded by Mohammed Ghourbal in 2024.
- The platform offers solutions for event organizing.
- It provides decor, catering products, and photography for events and connects people with event organizers.
- It plans to use the fund for GCC expansion.
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