{"id":56747,"date":"2026-01-25T15:50:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/?p=56747"},"modified":"2026-01-25T15:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:53:17","slug":"56747","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/2026\/01\/56747\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Investments and Acquisitions Rise to $74.23M as Healthcare and Fintech Sectors Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Middle East and Africa witnessed a clear expansion in startup investment and acquisition activity during the fourth week of January, specifically from 18 to 25 January 2026, with a strong focus on fintech, health, and artificial intelligence sectors.<\/p>\n

According to the investment and acquisition report issued by \u201centArabi<\/strong>\u201d for the period, which focused on funding aimed at supporting regional and international expansion\u2014whether through strategic local partnerships like \u201cNowAccess\u201d in Saudi Arabia, or expansions into large markets like India via \u201cEat App\u201d\u2014total investments reached $73.934 million.<\/p>\n

Top Investments<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Mubadala\u2019s $36.5 million investment in L-Nutra reflects a rapidly growing focus on the longevity sector within its vast portfolio, marking a clear step toward building a preventive healthcare industry in Abu Dhabi and the wider region.<\/p>\n

In the AI sector, startups continue to attract funding for infrastructure solutions that support the broad deployment of AI technologies, such as Breez AI, which works on unifying voice layers to overcome reliability and scalability challenges.<\/p>\n

In Saudi Arabia, there was a strong push to support local technology and vital sectors through GBT\u2019s funding in geospatial data, Grove\u2019s financing to boost local agricultural production, and NowPay\u2019s strategic entry through a partnership to enhance payroll and financial wellness services in the Kingdom<\/p>\n

Investments by Country<\/h2>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country<\/th>\nNumber of Companies<\/th>\nCompanies<\/th>\nTotal Investments<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
United States \/ Jordan<\/td>\n2<\/td>\nBreez AI, NowPay<\/td>\n$21.3 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UAE<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nEat App<\/td>\n$10 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UAE\/Abu Dhabi (Foreign Investment)<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nL-Nutra<\/td>\n$36.5 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saudi Arabia<\/td>\n2<\/td>\nGBT, Grove<\/td>\n$5 million + SAR 5 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saudi Arabia (Partnership)<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nNowPay\/NowAccess (with Tas\u2019heel)<\/td>\n$20 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n6<\/strong><\/td>\nAll listed companies<\/strong><\/td>\n$74.23 million<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Investments by Sector<\/h2>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Sector<\/th>\nNumber of Companies<\/th>\nCompanies<\/th>\nTotal Investments<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Health \/ Longevity<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nL-Nutra<\/td>\n$36.5 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Voice AI<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nBreez AI<\/td>\n$1.3 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Restaurant Tech \/ Reservations<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nEat App<\/td>\n$10 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fintech \/ Payroll<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nNowPay\/NowAccess<\/td>\n$20 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Geospatial Data \/ GeoAI<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nGBT<\/td>\nSAR 5 million (~$1.33 million)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AI Ticketing<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nKnot Technologies<\/td>\n$1 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Agriculture \/ AgriTech<\/td>\n1<\/td>\nGrove<\/td>\n$5 million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n7<\/strong><\/td>\nAll listed companies<\/strong><\/td>\n$74.23 million<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Middle East and Africa witnessed a clear expansion in startup investment and acquisition activity during the fourth week of January, specifically from 18 to 25 January 2026, with a strong focus on fintech, health, and artificial intelligence sectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":56752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8850],"tags":[11178,11193,11183,11167],"class_list":["post-56747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-venture","tag-breez-ai","tag-geoai","tag-l-nutra","tag-nowpay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56747","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=56747"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56754,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56747\/revisions\/56754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}