Startups across the Middle East and North Africa maintained strong momentum in early-stage funding, with August recording a 74 percent year-on-year increase, reaching $337.5 million across 47 deals.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia led the region for the second consecutive month, attracting $166 million across 19 transactions, followed by the UAE with $154 million raised by 11 startups.<\/p>\n
Key highlights included Riyadh-based Spare, an open banking infrastructure provider, which secured $5 million in a pre-Series A round led by anb Seed Fund. Meanwhile, Saudi fintech HALA raised an impressive $157 million in its Series B round, backed by major global and regional investors. The funds will be directed toward expanding embedded financial services, supporting small and medium-sized businesses, and scaling operations across the Kingdom and beyond.<\/p>\n
This surge in activity underscores continued investor confidence in the region\u2019s entrepreneurial ecosystem despite global economic headwinds, solidifying Saudi Arabia\u2019s position as a leading hub for venture capital and startup growth in MENA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Startups across the Middle East and North Africa maintained strong momentum in early-stage funding, with August recording a 74 percent year-on-year increase, reaching $337.5 million across 47 deals. Saudi Arabia led the region for the second consecutive month, attracting $166 million across 19 transactions, followed by the UAE with $154 million raised by 11 startups. Key highlights included Riyadh-based Spare, an open banking infrastructure provider, which secured $5 million in a pre-Series A round led by anb Seed Fund. Meanwhile, Saudi fintech HALA raised an impressive $157 million in its Series B round, backed by major global and regional investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startups"],"yoast_head":"\n