{"id":48339,"date":"2025-06-30T17:16:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/?p=48339"},"modified":"2025-07-01T12:57:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T09:57:03","slug":"a-strong-week-for-mena-startups-76m-raised-between-june-22-25-led-by-saudi-and-egyptian-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/2025\/06\/a-strong-week-for-mena-startups-76m-raised-between-june-22-25-led-by-saudi-and-egyptian-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"A Strong Week for MENA Startups: $76M+ Raised Between June 22\u201325 Led by Saudi and Egyptian Ventures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The MENA startup ecosystem witnessed a vibrant week of venture activity from June 22 to 25, 2025, with at least eight funding deals announced across sectors including gaming, fintech, AI, deep tech, and logistics.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The total disclosed funding exceeded $76.1 million, underscoring investor confidence in the region\u2019s tech-driven innovation, even amid global economic uncertainties.<\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Saudi Arabia Leads in Capital; Egypt Dominates by Deal Count<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Saudi Arabia topped the charts in terms of largest disclosed ticket size, with Impact46 participating in a $5 million seed round for the US-based Spekter Games, in addition to announcing a SAR 150 million (~$40 million) fund dedicated to gaming and future tech.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, Egypt stood out with the highest number of announced initiatives, leading three deals focused on agritech (AgriCash), deep tech (Aria Ventures), and AI-driven logistics (Nowlun).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Top Announced Deals (June 22\u201325)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<table class=\" alignleft\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Company<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Country<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Sector<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Deal Size<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>AppliedAI<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>UAE<\/td>\n<td>Artificial Intelligence<\/td>\n<td><strong>$55M (Series A)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>PoliCloud<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>France (with Arab backers)<\/td>\n<td>Sovereign Cloud\/HPC<\/td>\n<td><strong>\u20ac7.5M<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Spekter Games<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>USA (Saudi-backed)<\/td>\n<td>Web3 Gaming<\/td>\n<td><strong>$5M<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>AgriCash<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Egypt<\/td>\n<td>Agrifintech<\/td>\n<td><em>Undisclosed<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Aria Ventures<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Egypt<\/td>\n<td>Deep Tech<\/td>\n<td><strong>EGP 50M (~$1.6M)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Nowlun<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Egypt<\/td>\n<td>AI Logistics<\/td>\n<td><strong>$2.3M<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Nascent Materials<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>US\/Morocco<\/td>\n<td>Battery Tech<\/td>\n<td><strong>$2.3M<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Idea-L\u00ae<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Global<\/td>\n<td>AI\/Web3<\/td>\n<td><strong>$1M<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Related<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>UAE<\/td>\n<td>Loyalty\/Fintech<\/td>\n<td><strong>SAR 30M (~$8M)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Total funding disclosed: $76M+<\/strong>, excluding undisclosed AgriCash deal.<\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Egypt: A Hotbed for Agritech, Deep Tech, and AI Innovation<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Three of the week\u2019s most noteworthy deals originated from Egypt:<\/h2>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>AgriCash closed a pre-seed round (amount undisclosed) led by Alex Angels to scale its &#8220;BNPL for farmers&#8221; model, with expansion plans across Egypt and neighboring markets. The company aims to reach EGP 500 million in transactions by end-2025.<\/li>\n<li>Nowlun, a logistics AI startup, secured $2.3M to build an intelligent freight assistant and expand across Egypt and Saudi Arabia.<\/li>\n<li>Aria Ventures committed EGP 50 million (~$1.6M) toward deep tech startups, with ambitions to grow the fund to EGP 200 million by 2029. Focus areas include AI, robotics, biotech, and IoT.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Egypt\u2019s funding landscape is clearly shifting toward advanced technology, transitioning from traditional SaaS to research-based deep tech.<\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>UAE Delivers the Week\u2019s Largest Round via AppliedAI<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Abu Dhabi-based AppliedAI raised $55 million in Series A funding, led by MEVP and G42, to expand globally and enhance its AI platform Opus, designed to automate back-office functions for regulated industries like healthcare and finance.<\/li>\n<li>The deal marks one of the largest AI rounds in MENA for 2025, reinforcing the UAE\u2019s standing as a regional hub for frontier innovation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Saudi Arabia\u2019s Strategic Bet on Gaming and Web3<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Impact46 co-led a $5 million round for Spekter Games, a next-gen Web3 gaming studio building on Telegram\u2019s mini-app infrastructure. Global co-investors included a16z Speedrun, LVP, and BRV Capital.<\/li>\n<li>This comes in the wake of Impact46\u2019s launch of a SAR 150 million gaming-focused fund, highlighting Saudi Arabia\u2019s ambition to lead globally in gaming, metaverse, and immersive technologies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Emerging Investment Themes: AI and Web3 Take Center Stage<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">A closer look at the week\u2019s deals reveals a clear tilt toward:<\/h2>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Artificial Intelligence (AI): Startups like AppliedAI, Nowlun, Idea-L\u00ae, and Nascent Materials are leveraging AI in diverse applications\u2014from freight automation to energy storage and digital entrepreneurship.<\/li>\n<li>Web3 and Decentralized Tools: Deals like Spekter Games and Idea-L\u00ae emphasize investor appetite for next-gen gaming and decentralized venture building.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">This signals a growing preference among VCs for deep-tech solutions with global potential, rather than conventional consumer SaaS models.<\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Week in Review: Saudi Drives Capital; Egypt Pushes Innovation; UAE Delivers Scale<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li>Saudi Arabia demonstrated its growing impact as a global investor in emerging sectors like Web3 gaming and immersive tech.<\/li>\n<li>Egypt emerged as a breeding ground for diversified innovation, particularly in AI, agriculture, and logistics.<\/li>\n<li>The UAE maintained its reputation for scaling tech, with the largest single-ticket round of the week via AppliedAI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Looking ahead, MENA\u2019s venture ecosystem appears primed for a high-impact Q3, with expected growth in green tech, AI healthcare, and education solutions\u2014anchored by increasing cross-border investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The MENA startup ecosystem witnessed a vibrant week of venture activity from June 22 to 25, 2025, with at least eight funding deals announced across sectors including gaming, fintech, AI, deep tech, and logistics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":48337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8850,1772],"tags":[8836,8858,8806,8814,6365,8845],"class_list":["post-48339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-venture","category-startups","tag-agricash","tag-alex-angels-en","tag-aria-ventures","tag-idea-l","tag-nowlun","tag-spekter-games-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}