Updated July 2026. By Remy Beaumont.
Total raised in MENA this week: $20.4m across 6 disclosed rounds.
Key takeaways
MENA startup funding rounds totalled roughly $20.4m across 6 disclosed deals this week, a thin tape on the surface, but the institutional activity underneath tells a different story.
The headline deal was Epic Markets' $10m pre-seed, one of the largest pre-seeds MENA has seen, from a single London investor into ex-Citadel founders in Dubai.
Sovereign capital kept moving: PIF-owned Jada made its first commitment to the $200m Growth Catalyst Fund I, and Oman's OIA bought into Cambridge and Oxford deeptech.
The UAE led on disclosed dollars (about $15.5m); Saudi led on ecosystem building.
What did the MENA funding week look like?
MENA startup funding rounds came to roughly $20.4m across 6 disclosed deals in the week ending 31st July, spanning the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, remarkably, Syria. That headline undersells the region. The same week, PIF-owned Jada Fund of Funds anchored a new $200m growth vehicle, Morocco's T2S Group pulled off a 44x oversubscribed $120m IPO in Casablanca, and a Syrian startup's $16,000 round made regional headlines because frontier ecosystems get tracked deal by deal.
This is why MENA remains underrated: weekly VC tallies miss where the region's real capital formation happens, in sovereign commitments, bank-fintech tie-ups and IPO exits. We track the longer arc in our MENA funding roundup.
Which was the biggest round this week?
Epic Markets, a Dubai multi-asset retail brokerage founded by former Citadel Securities executives Kevin Kimmel and Bryan Seegers, raised a $10m pre-seed from a single investor, London-based Karatage. The company will bring institutional-grade trade execution to retail investors, launching later this year pending licences. Sources: Wamda, Finance Magnates.
The announcement rollout was a two-stage play worth studying. Trade outlet FX News Group broke the story as an exclusive on 21st July, sourced from industry channels before any press release existed. The official release then landed a week later, on 29th July via Wamda and 30th July via Enterprise AM. The founders ran a finance-trade-press-first strategy, FX and CFD industry outlets rather than regional startup media, matching where their future customers and regulators look. No founder LinkedIn victory lap surfaced at all, consistent with the low-profile institutional style. And the anomaly everyone noted: a $10m pre-seed from one investor is almost unheard of anywhere, let alone MENA, and it happened because the founders' Wall Street pedigree did the diligence for them. One caveat for the purist: since the scoop broke on 21st July, only the official announcement falls inside this week.
The other big rounds this week
Bundle, $5.5m pre-seed. Ethereal Ventures and Further co-led, with Nascent, GSR, Anchorage Digital and Nuwa Capital. The Dubai Web3 platform lets brands pool incentive budgets into shared stablecoin reward pools, and is expanding to Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. Announced via wire and picked up by Wamda and TNGlobal.
Fincart, $2.8m oversubscribed seed. Launch Africa Ventures and Antler co-led, with Yango Ventures and others. The Cairo company runs AI-powered e-commerce operations, shipping, cash-on-delivery reconciliation and cash advances, with over 40 courier integrations. Cross-regional coverage from Wamda and TechCabal reflected its Africa-plus-MENA positioning.
Ash Games, $1.5m seed. Merak Capital's gaming fund and Impact46 co-led. The Saudi studio is building PC and console action-adventure titles from Saudi folklore, with flagship Nomad due in 2027. Covered by Wamda and gaming trade outlet PocketGamer.biz, the right two-audience split.
GRO Solutions, reported $600k pre-seed. GrowthX Capital backed the Doha AI personal-finance companion tuned to Gulf spending behaviour. Single-source via ArabFounders, treat the amount as low confidence.
Where is MENA capital flowing?
The sovereign layer did the heavy lifting this week. Jada Fund of Funds, wholly owned by PIF, made its first commitment to Growth Catalyst Fund I, a private equity vehicle targeting $200m for founder-led Saudi SMEs heading toward IPO (Arab News). Oman Investment Authority announced positions via Cambridge Innovation Capital and Oxford Science Enterprises, buying exposure to CMR Surgical, Pragmatic Semiconductor and Oxford Quantum Circuits (ArabFounders). Qatar Development Bank opened its 2026 pre-accelerator, up to $75,000 for 6% equity (ArabFounders), and QIIB's strategic investment in payments platform SkipCash continued the Gulf trend of banks buying homegrown fintech (Gulf Times).
Market by market, the UAE led disclosed MENA startup funding rounds with about $15.5m of the week's $20.4m via Epic Markets and Bundle, both Dubai. Saudi led on institutional activity. That mirrors H1 2026, when the UAE took $1.2bn of the region's $1.7bn (Arab News). Founders weighing the region should read our playbook on raising capital in MENA, and for contrast, this week's European funding picture.
Notable MENA launches this week
DESAISIV's AI insurance agent. The Saudi insurtech unveiled an AI platform for corporate insurance with a fair-market pricing engine, announcing alongside that it is seeking $8m, an unusual raise-in-public move. Source: Wamda.
Simplex's second CNC factory. The Egyptian machine manufacturer opened a $50m, 40,000 sqm facility in 10th of Ramadan City and signed distribution deals in Jordan and Kuwait. Source: Wamda.
Emirates went live with Crypto.com Pay for flight bookings in AED, the first phase of its crypto partnership. Source: ArabFounders.
What should founders raising soon do this week?
Announce where your industry reads, not where startups read. Epic Markets went FX trade press first and let regional startup media follow. The coverage found its way home anyway.
Let a credible scoop precede the release. The FX News Group exclusive a week before the official announcement doubled Epic Markets' news cycle. Two beats from one round.
Split your press by audience. Ash Games hit regional startup press and global gaming trade press simultaneously. If you sell to two worlds, brief both.
Track sovereign programmes as seriously as VC funds. Jada, OIA and QDB all deployed or opened doors this week. In MENA, the sovereign layer is often the bigger cheque.
The rest of the week's top rounds
Epic Markets, $10m pre-seed, Karatage, Dubai (Wamda)
Bundle, $5.5m pre-seed, Ethereal Ventures and Further, Dubai (Wamda)
Fincart, $2.8m seed, Launch Africa and Antler, Cairo (TechCabal)
Ash Games, $1.5m seed, Merak Capital and Impact46, Saudi Arabia (Wamda)
GRO Solutions, reported $600k pre-seed, GrowthX Capital, Doha (ArabFounders, single source)
DoctorBook, $16k pre-seed, Syrian healthtech (Wamda)
SkipCash, undisclosed strategic investment from QIIB, Doha, first announced 23rd July and recirculated this week (Wamda, excluded from the total)
FAQ
How much did MENA startups raise this week? Roughly $20.4m across 6 disclosed rounds in the week ending 31st July 2026. A conservative floor excluding the Epic Markets timing caveat and the low-confidence GRO figure is $9.8m across 4 rounds.
What was the biggest MENA funding round this week? Epic Markets' $10m pre-seed from Karatage, one of the region's largest ever pre-seed rounds, for a Dubai brokerage founded by ex-Citadel Securities executives.
Which MENA market led startup funding this week? The UAE on disclosed dollars, with about $15.5m of the $20.4m total; Saudi Arabia led institutional activity via PIF-owned Jada's fund commitment.
Were sovereign funds active in MENA this week? Yes. Jada (PIF) anchored the $200m Growth Catalyst Fund I, Oman Investment Authority invested via Cambridge and Oxford deeptech vehicles, and Qatar Development Bank opened its 2026 pre-accelerator.
Why do MENA startup funding rounds look small compared to other regions? Weekly VC tallies capture only disclosed equity rounds. Much of MENA's capital formation flows through sovereign commitments, bank investments and IPOs, such as T2S Group's 44x oversubscribed Casablanca listing this week.
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