RIYADH: Startup investment across the Middle East and North Africa accelerated sharply in July, with total funding reaching $783 million across 57 deals.

The rise marks a 1,411 percent increase from June and more than double the amount raised in July 2024, positioning the third quarter of 2025 for robust regional growth, according to Wamda’s monthly report. 

The increase was driven primarily by two megadeals, highlighting sustained investor appetite for later-stage, high-growth opportunities. 

Saudi Arabia led regional funding activity, securing $396.5 million across 16 deals, while the UAE followed with $359 million raised in 22 startups.  

The Kingdom’s performance was boosted by three major rounds, including Q-commerce platform Ninja’s $250 million raise led by Riyad Capital, propelling it to unicorn status, foodtech startup Calo’s $39 million series B extension, and SaaS provider Lucidya’s $30 million series B.   

The funding landscape saw notable shifts among emerging ecosystems. Iraq claimed third place with a single $15 million transaction for InstaBank, moving ahead of the traditional heavyweight Egypt.  

Morocco followed in fourth, propelled by Ora Technologies’ $7.5 million round.  

Egypt, once consistently in the top three, dropped to fifth place, recording just $4 million in funding across seven startups. Analysts cite macroeconomic headwinds, including currency instability, as contributing factors to Egypt’s diminished share. 

By sector, deeptech overtook fintech for the first time in several months, drawing $250.3 million from four deals.  

E-commerce matched deeptech in total funding, also raising $250 million, driven by Ninja’s record-setting round.  

Software-as-a-service startups came third, attracting $89 million across 12 deals, while fintech dropped to fourth, with $61 million raised in 11 transactions.  

“The shift reflects a growing appetite for IP-heavy, innovation-led ventures and scalable consumer platforms, even as fintech funding cools,” the report stated. 

Two megadeals — Ninja and XPANCEO — accounted for 56 percent of total funding in July, skewing the overall numbers toward large-scale capital deployments.   Series A rounds were notably strong, raising $267 million across three startups.  

Later-stage deals accounted for $158 million, while 26 early-stage companies raised a combined $36 million.   Debt financing represented only 2 percent of the total, reaffirming the continued dominance of equity-based funding in the region.

Our vision is to make high-impact technology radically accessible for agents everywhere.

Fouad Bekkar, founder and CEO of Coraly.ai

The investment landscape also saw renewed interest in consumer-focused business models. Business-to-consumer startups captured $534 million in funding, reversing a trend from earlier this year when enterprise solutions and B2B ventures attracted more capital.  

Business-to-business startups raised $202.4 million across 32 deals, with the remainder distributed among direct-to-consumer and hybrid models. 

However, the gender gap in venture funding persisted. Startups led exclusively by male founders raised $774.5 million across 43 deals. Mixed-gender founding teams secured $5.8 million, while female-led ventures attracted just $3 million from eight deals.  

Despite increased visibility of women in entrepreneurship, funding distributions remain uneven, suggesting that systemic barriers continue to limit capital access for women-led startups. 

With seven months remaining in the calendar year, MENA startup funding has already surpassed the full-year total for 2024.  

The momentum reflects the region’s ongoing transition from nascent to mature innovation ecosystems, with capital flows expanding beyond traditional markets into emerging hubs. 

The sustained activity signals confidence from global and regional investors alike.  

“With Saudi Arabia and the UAE drawing record-breaking rounds, and emerging markets like Iraq and Morocco making surprise appearances in the top rankings, investor interest is diversifying beyond traditional hubs,” the report added.

Coraly.ai raises $2m pre-seed round 

A proptech company focused on streamlining lead generation and conversion for real estate professionals, Coraly.ai has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round.

The investment was led by Salica Oryx Fund, managed by Salica Investments and based in Abu Dhabi Global Market, with participation from EQ2 Ventures and strategic angel investors. 

Founded as Coralytics and recently rebranded to Coraly.ai, the company uses artificial intelligence to simplify real estate sales workflows.  

“Real estate agents globally are underserved by fragmented, outdated sales tools. Through Coraly.ai, our mission is to simplify growth with AI that just works,” said Fouad Bekkar, founder and CEO of Coraly.ai.  

“This funding gives us the firepower to further accelerate product innovation and expand into key growth markets,” Bekkar added. 

The capital will support the company’s product development roadmap, including engineering hires and advanced AI features. 

Coraly.ai will also consolidate its position in the UAE, establish new operations in Saudi Arabia, and launch pilot programs in France and the US.   

“Salica Oryx Fund is delighted to be an early supporter and investor in Coraly.ai. It represents a significant advancement in real estate marketing technology, offering an AI-powered platform that fundamentally transforms how properties are marketed and presented online,” said Ivo Detelinov, general partner at Salica Oryx Fund. 

Patrick Thiriet, CEO of EQ2 Ventures, added, “AI is about to leapfrog productivity across many industries where professionals still use ill-adapted legacy software products to run their business. The property market is one of those verticals, with real estate agents spending too much time on non-productive tasks.” 

Coraly.ai’s international growth strategy is reinforced by a go-to-market partnership with SNPI, France’s largest real estate union, representing over 14,800 agencies.  

In North America, the company has secured its first US-based multiple listing service partner, with pilots expected to launch shortly.

Breadfast secures $10m to expand operations

Egypt’s quick-commerce grocery delivery platform Breadfast has raised $10 million as part of its Series B2 round.

The investment was led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with participation from Novastar Ventures. 

Founded in 2017, Breadfast has evolved from a bakery delivery service into a full-scale on-demand grocery and household goods provider. The new funding places its valuation between $382 million and $400 million. 

The company will use the capital to expand fulfilment centres in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and Mansoura, with plans to enter additional Egyptian cities. It is also investing in Breadfast Pay, a fintech extension offering digital savings, withdrawals, and branded payment cards. 

The fintech unit supports the company’s ambition to develop a broader super-app experience, integrating commerce and financial services to boost customer engagement and retention.

Impact46 invests $6.66m in five MENA gaming studios 

Saudi Arabia-based venture capital firm Impact46 has invested more than SR25 million ($6.66m) in five gaming studios — Fahy, NJD Games, Game Cooks, Starvania, and Alpaka — as part of its SR150 million Gaming Fund launched in March 2024. 

The studios span mobile, PC, console, and hybrid-casual gaming, reflecting the growing creative and technical capabilities of the MENA region’s gaming ecosystem. 

“We see gaming as more than a sector; it’s a language of youth, culture, and creation,” said Basmah Al-Sinaidi, managing partner at Impact46.  

“Through these investments, we’re backing builders who aren’t just launching games but creating the infrastructure, stories, and platforms that define the next era of content in the region.” 

Fahy and NJD Games are focused on mobile titles developed in Saudi Arabia. Game Cooks, now headquartered in Riyadh, has produced over 22 titles across VR, PC, and mobile platforms and has won multiple international awards.  

Starvania specialises in fantasy PC and console games, while Alpaka develops hybrid-casual mobile games in the action genre. 

These investments follow earlier backing of Spoilz, which develops culturally inspired mobile games, and Spekter Games, a publisher building games for chat-based platforms with Web3 layers.  

Together, the portfolio illustrates Impact46’s commitment to fostering a homegrown gaming ecosystem. 

The initiative aligns with Vision 2030 and Saudi Arabia’s National Gaming and Esports Strategy, which aims to position the Kingdom as a global gaming leader.  

Key enablers include the Saudi Esports Federation, CODE, and the Esports World Cup Foundation. 

Perle raises $9m seed round 

UAE-based startup Perle, which is building a decentralized AI training data platform, has closed a $9 million seed funding round led by Framework Ventures.

The funding will support the launch of Perle Labs, a crypto-native ecosystem aimed at enhancing how humans contribute to AI model training. 

Perle uses blockchain infrastructure to provide transparent payments, on-chain attribution, and verifiable work histories for contributors.  

“As AI models grow more sophisticated, their success hinges on how well they handle the long tail of data inputs — those rare, ambiguous, or context-specific scenarios,” said Ahmed Rashad, CEO of Perle.  

“By decentralizing this process, we can unlock global participation, reduce bias, and dramatically improve model performance.” 

The company’s platform supports the full AI development lifecycle, including multimodal data collection, reinforcement learning from human feedback, and assistant fine-tuning.  

It combines human expertise with adaptive workflows to accelerate the accuracy and scale of training data. 

Perle is targeting developers and companies seeking more robust, transparent, and scalable AI data pipelines, with a long-term vision to decentralize the AI supply chain and empower global contributors.

SINGAPORE: Stocks in Asia made an uneven recovery as traders assessed the policy options facing the world’s central banks, after an unexpected spike in producer price data in the US renewed inflation concerns.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2 percent after a report on Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which showed the Producer Price Index increased 0.9 percent in July on a month-on-month basis, well above economists’ expectations.

The report prompted traders to rein in expectations of how quickly the Federal Reserve would be able to cut rates at its September meeting without stoking further inflation.

“What it did was to get rid of all the chat about a 50 basis point cut,” said Mike Houlahan, director at Electus Financial Ltd in Auckland.

The market is currently pricing in a 92.1 percent probability of a 25 basis point rate cut at its meeting next month, compared with a 100 percent likelihood of a cut on Thursday, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. The chance of a jumbo 50 basis point cut fell to zero from an earlier expectation of 5.7 percent a day ago.

US stock futures were up 0.2 percent in Asian trading and on track for a fourth day of gains after a choppy trading session on Wall Street on Thursday. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond was down 2 basis points at 4.2732 percent.

The two-year yield, which is sensitive to traders’ expectations of Fed fund rates, slipped to 3.7233 percent compared with a US close of 3.739 percent.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, retraced some gains after the PPI data release, last trading down 0.2 percent at 98.026.

The Nikkei rebounded 1.6 percent to near a new record high, following a sell-off on Thursday that marked the index’s biggest decline since April 11 and snapped a six-day winning streak. Japanese GDP data released on Friday showed the economy expanding by an annualised 1.0 percent in the April-June quarter, beating analyst estimates. The dollar weakened 0.5 percent against the yen to 147.09.

Australian shares were last up 0.7 percent, while stocks in Hong Kong were down 1.1 percent.

The CSI 300 rose 0.8 percent after the release of weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data for July, including retail sales and industrial production, stoked speculation of fresh stimulus. Markets in India and South Korea are closed for public holidays.

Cryptocurrency markets stabilised after a new record for bitcoin of $124,480.82 on Thursday proved fragile and promptly crumbled after falling short of its next key milestone. The digital currency was last up 0.8 percent, recovering some ground, while ether gained 1.7 percent.

“Bitcoin's failure to conquer the $125,000 resistance signals another consolidation phase,” said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG in Sydney.

In commodities markets, Brent crude was down 0.3 percent at $66.63 per barrel ahead of a meeting in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“The first meeting doesn’t seem like a major market-moving event - it’s more to set up a second meeting, which will likely be more important,” said Marc Velan, head of investments at Lucerne Asset Management in Singapore. “If a ceasefire is reached, expect a positive reaction in the euro and a weaker dollar; the opposite if a ceasefire fails.”

Gold was slightly lower as the markets digested the path of inflation-adjusted interest rates, which typically move in the opposite direction from bullion prices. Spot gold was trading up 0.3 percent at $3,343.94 per ounce. 

In early European trades, the pan-region futures were up 0.5 percent, German DAX futures were up 0.5 percent, and FTSE futures gained 0.5 percent.