Press release:

Propeller, the venture capital firm focused on AI infrastructure, announced the inaugural cohort of Kernel Camp, its annual deep-tech residency program based in Silicon Valley. Five startups from Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt have arrived in the Bay Area to begin an intensive eight-week residency, bringing MENA founders into the heart of the global AI and infrastructure ecosystem.

Despite the depth of technical talent emerging from the MENA region, founders have historically lacked structured pathways into Silicon Valley’s networks of engineers, operators, and capital. Kernel Camp is designed to close that gap, not just by placing founders in the Bay Area but by embedding them into the ecosystem through curated access to the communities and conversations shaping the global AI landscape.

The inaugural cohort brings together five companies operating at the frontier of AI infrastructure, developer tooling, and cybersecurity. These include OORB (Tunisia), a cloud robotics workspace for building and testing ROS projects in the browser; Eli by Techbible (Morocco), an AI Stack Manager that provides companies with full visibility into their SaaS and AI tool spend; Firstflow (Jordan), an onboarding and analytics layer for AI agents; Nexguards (Egypt), a personalised cyber attack simulation and security awareness platform; and Flowbrave (Morocco), an intelligent operations platform that transforms static processes into AI-guided workflows.

Zaid Farekh, Founder & Managing Partner at Propeller, said: “Kernel Camp is a statement of our belief in the extraordinary talent emerging from the MENA region. Seeing this cohort land in Silicon Valley is a milestone we’ve been building toward since the launch of Fund III. These founders are technically exceptional, and this environment will push them to build faster, think bigger, and connect with the networks that matter most at this stage of their journey.”

Hani Azzam, Partner at Propeller, added: “Founders don’t build alone. The Kernel Camp cohort aren't just here to learn; they’re here to become part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. We’ve curated an environment where community, technical depth, and cross-border networks converge. These are the kinds of founders who will define MENA’s contribution to global deep-tech over the next decade.”

Kernel Camp was first announced in December 2025 as a core pillar of Propeller’s cross-border strategy following the launch of Fund III. The residency targets technically strong, demo-ready founders working full-time on companies showing early signs of traction. The programme provides fully sponsored housing, curated workshops, weekly guest sessions, one-on-one office hours with world-class builders, and site visits to leading technology companies and venture firms across the Bay Area.

The startups will spend eight weeks embedded in Silicon Valley, culminating in a demo day for Propeller’s Bay Area community in May 2026.

Press release:

Saudi sports gaming startup ElGoat has announced the close of a $266,000 Seed funding round via Trigon, reaching a valuation of $2.66 million.

Founded in March 2026 by Mohammed Almunajem, ElGoat introduces a knowledge-based football prediction platform designed to transform how fans engage with the sport beyond passive viewing.

Positioned as a free-to-play alternative to betting platforms, ElGoat allows users to predict match outcomes, exact scores, and goal scorers, earning points based on accuracy and competing on global leaderboards or within private leagues.

The platform covers major football competitions, including the English Premier League and Saudi Roshn League, with a scoring system that rewards both basic and advanced football knowledge.

ElGoat enters the market at a time of growing demand for interactive sports experiences across the Middle East, driven by a young, mobile-first population and increasing appetite for digital engagement.

The newly raised funding will support product development, user acquisition, and expansion into new markets, as the company aims to establish itself within the evolving sports gaming ecosystem.

Press release:

Lucky, a leading financial technology company in Egypt and the Middle East, today announced the successful closing of a $23 million Series B funding round, including a mix of equity and debt. The round was led by existing & new investors, including Disruptech Ventures, DPI Venture Capital via Nclude fund and new strategic participation from Suez Canal Bank and OneStop, chaired by the visionary Tech Investor Mohamed Farouk, who has also been appointed as the Chairman of the Board for Lucky App.

This milestone follows a period of significant growth for the company. After achieving 3x annual growth in 2025 and marking profitability by the end of 2025, Lucky has solidified its position as a leader in consumer credit, aiming to play a significant role in Egypt’s transformation into a digital & financially inclusive economy inline with the Central Bank of Egypt’s vision.

The new capital will support Lucky’s next phase of growth, with a focus on scaling its credit offering, expanding into North Africa, and strengthening its infrastructure, licensing, and regulatory readiness as it moves toward becoming a neo-banking-ready platform.

Mohamed Farouk, who now chairs Lucky’s Board, emphasised the company’s strong growth and vision: “Lucky has demonstrated disciplined growth, strong product-market fit, and a clear vision for inclusive digital finance,” said Farouk. “This investment supports a platform that is well-positioned to be one of the leading players in the next phase of consumer credit and neo-banking in the region.”

“With Mohamed Farouk’s vision, Lucky is well positioned to advance inclusive digital finance,” commented Ayman Essawy, CEO of Lucky. “Financial access is the foundation of progress. This round allows us to scale responsibly, invest in infrastructure, and deepen our impact as regulators unlock digital onboarding and modern payment frameworks across Egypt and the region. Lucky removes complexity from credit and opens it up to more people, leveraging its advanced technology and AI capabilities. With a card that works anywhere and anytime, we help individuals move forward confidently.”

The investment also aligns with broader regulatory tailwinds shaping Egypt’s fintech landscape. Recent advances in digital onboarding, payments infrastructure, and the introduction of PSP licensing mark a turning point for fintech players with proven scale and compliance capabilities. Lucky has already begun work toward PSP licensing, positioning the company to expand its service stack and support more comprehensive digital financial services over time.

Since launch, Lucky has built partnerships across merchants and financial institutions, serving a rapidly growing user base across Egypt. The company plans to leverage this round to enter select North African markets while continuing to enhance its technology, risk infrastructure, and regulatory capabilities.

Press release:

Maison Safqa, a Saudi-based flash-sale platform for premium and luxury brands, has raised $620,000 in a pre-seed funding round with participation from 500 Global through the Sanabil MENA 500 Accelerator Fund, alongside Saudi and international business angels. Investors include retail and technology entrepreneurs and executives, among them the founder of Ventes Exclusives, one of Europe’s largest flash-sale platforms, now part of Veepee.

Founded in 2024 by Lea Mehaweg, Estelle Nasr, and Georgia Mehaweg, Maison Safqa is building a technology-enabled platform that helps premium and luxury brands monetise excess inventory while maintaining control over pricing, distribution, and brand positioning. Drawing inspiration from the most successful flash-sale companies abroad, the founders leveraged their professional experience and networks across Saudi Arabia and the GCC, along with knowledge in commercial development and e-commerce, to create a platform that connects high-intent, fashion-forward audiences with limited-time offers across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle categories. At the core of the platform is a partner-centric approach, through which Maison Safqa already offers the brands the flexibility to choose between regular flash sales or invitation-only online sales. 

Lea Mehaweg, Co-founder and CEO of Maison Safqa, commented: “The GCC luxury goods market generated $12.8 billion in revenue in 2025, yet brands still struggle to move excess inventory without diluting their image or compromising margins. Maison Safqa was built to address this challenge by providing a controlled environment where premium and luxury brands can unlock that value while reaching the right audience.”

Estelle Nasr, Co-founder and COO of Maison Safqa, said: “From the beginning, our focus has been to build a platform that delivers an effortless and intuitive experience for both brands and customers. For our brand partners, we manage everything end-to-end, from onboarding to delivery, so they can move inventory without the operational burden. At the same time, our technology allows brands to launch campaigns quickly while always offering a carefully selected assortment  for customers.”

Amal Dokhan, Managing Partner of Sanabil 500, commented: “We are pleased to support Maison Safqa as they bring an established e-commerce flash sale model to the region. The team has secured partnerships with leading retailers and brands and we look forward to supporting their next phase of growth.”

Since its launch in May 2025, Maison Safqa has built a portfolio of more than 50 premium fashion and lifestyle brands, spanning international and regional labels such as Aigner, Lanvin, Liu Jo, Chantelle, Flabelus, and Qormuz. In less than a year, the platform has grown gross sales by more than 20x and established corporate partnerships with leading Saudi institutions such as Red Sea Global, Diriyah, and Cenomi Real Estate.

Looking ahead, the company aims to become the leading flash sales platform in the region, surpassing $2.5 million in cumulative sales within the next 18 months while expanding its portfolio to more than 100 brands. Maison Safqa is also working to complement its online model with offline sales events across Riyadh and Jeddah and continues to invest in technology, including customer personalisation and automated seller onboarding tools.

Press release:

Via Separations, a leader in process solutions for industrial separations, today announced $36 million in new funding with significant participation from new investors, including Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, alongside participation from existing backers, including Embark Ventures, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), and Safar Partners.

The investment will accelerate deployment of Via’s modular filtration platform into the refining and chemical sectors, building on proven commercial performance in pulp and paper to help industrial operators reduce energy use, improve uptime, and strengthen operational resilience — with the added benefit of lower emissions.

Via electrifies heat-based separation with modular filtration systems that integrate directly with existing equipment, drastically reducing the energy required for chemical separations. These thermal separation steps account for roughly 12 percent of global energy use, driving significant fuel and steam demand across industrial separations. By replacing them with a mechanically driven membrane process, Via’s system can reduce energy use at the separation step by up to 90 percent, delivering lower operating costs, higher uptime, and a more flexible pathway to energy efficiency and electrification.

The company has proven the technology at commercial scale in the pulp and paper sector, approaching two years of continuous operation at a pulp mill in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Via is now expanding deployment into refining and chemicals, with hundreds of millions of dollars of capital projects in the commercial pipeline. The company also completed a pilot at a major Gulf Coast refinery last year.

“Thermal separations represent one of the largest and least-addressed sources of industrial energy consumption,” said Mike Bishop, Investment Director at Climate Investment. “Via’s innovative membrane platform introduces electrification to processes that have depended on heat for more than a century. By seamlessly integrating into existing industrial infrastructure, the company provides a practical solution for reducing energy consumption, enhancing reliability, and significantly lowering emissions.”

“At Aramco Ventures, we invest in differentiated technologies that can deliver clear operational value at scale,” said Tibor Toth, Senior Investment Director at Aramco Ventures. “Via Separations’ modular platform addresses a critical step in industrial processing and has strong potential to enhance efficiency and unlock additional capacity within existing refining and chemical assets.”

“By proving our technology commercially in one sector, we’ve built the foundation to scale into the much larger refining and chemicals markets,” said Shreya Dave, CEO of Via Separations. “This investment enables us to deliver more commercial projects across the product portfolio, expand manufacturing capacity, and accelerate global adoption of membrane‑based separations.”

Press release:

ZSystems has announced the successful close of its $1.65 million Seed funding round, led by Azur Innovation Management, with continued backing from existing investors MNF Ventures and Witamax and participation from Harambeans Prosperity Fund as its first international institutional investor.

The latest raise brings the company’s total funding to $2.7 million, following a $1.05 million pre-seed round supported by MNF Ventures, Witamax, CASHPLUS Ventures, and Kalys Ventures.

ZSystems is building a unified digital platform that connects brands, wholesalers, and retailers, addressing inefficiencies in a $40 billion market that remains largely undigitised. The platform aims to drive transparency, streamline operations, and unlock growth opportunities across the value chain.

Beyond capital, the company is supported by EBRD’s Star Venture programme and Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing access to infrastructure and scaling capabilities.

The new funding will support continued product development, platform expansion, and market penetration as ZSystems works to modernise B2B commerce across the region.

But the drop, while dramatic, is less about structural weakness and more about timing.

With escalating geopolitical tensions, driven by the US-Israeli war against Iran and retaliatory targeting of key oil and infrastructure assets across the GCC, capital has not disappeared. It has paused. Investors are holding back, reassessing exposure to sectors vulnerable to prolonged instability, while founders are increasingly delaying public announcements of closed rounds, waiting for greater clarity or a ceasefire.

The slowdown has been compounded by the disruption of the region’s key dealmaking platforms. Events such as LEAP, which typically anchor some of the year’s largest funding announcements, have either been postponed or lost momentum, removing a major catalyst for deal visibility.

Taken together, March does not signal a contraction of the ecosystem as much as a shift into a wait-and-see mode. The question is no longer whether capital will return but how long this pause will last and whether recovery will be gradual rather than immediate.

UAE leads a subdued market as Egypt disappears from the map

Even under pressure, the UAE retained its position as the region’s leading funding destination, with startups raising $36.8 million across eight deals—accounting for the majority of capital deployed during the month.

Saudi Arabia followed with $10.2 million across four transactions, maintaining activity but at significantly reduced ticket sizes.

What stands out, however, is Egypt’s complete absence from March’s funding landscape. The country recorded zero deals, relinquishing its typical position among the top three markets.

In its place, Morocco ranked third with $1.2 million across two deals, followed by Qatar with a single $500,000 round and Syria with one deal estimated at $100,000.

Fintech holds ground as capital clusters around defensive sectors

Fintech remained the leading sector, attracting $15.1 million across three deals, continuing to benefit from its infrastructure-like positioning within the digital economy.

Healthtech followed closely, with $15 million raised by two startups, while SaaS companies secured $6.7 million across three transactions.

With overall deal volume low, sector performance this month offers limited signals beyond continued interest in core, essential services.

Consumer-facing startups dominate as B2B activity softens

Interestingly, the bulk of funding flowed into consumer-focused startups, which secured $31.7 million across seven deals.

By contrast, B2B startups raised $16.5 million across nine transactions, indicating smaller average ticket sizes and more cautious deployment.

A single startup operating across both models captured the remaining share.

Gender gap widens as funding to female founders drops to zero

March also extended a concerning trend: zero funding was allocated to startups founded by women.

All disclosed capital during the month went to male-founded startups, mirroring February’s figures and underscoring the persistence of structural imbalances in access to capital across the region.

Strategic activity continues despite funding slowdown

While funding announcements slowed, selective expansion activity continued across the ecosystem.

In March, Converted acquired Egypt’s Mitcha to expand its AI-driven e-commerce offering. Yassir moved into adtech through its acquisition of Kawarizmi, while Qualiphi acquired Career Club to scale its AI-powered career services across the region.

Despite limited funding visibility, companies continue to execute on growth and expansion plans.

A pause in momentum, not a signal of decline

Whether this pause extends to the coming months will depend largely on how quickly conditions stabilise. Until then, March should be read cautiously: not as a signal of decline but as a temporary interruption in activity.

These monthly reports are a collaboration between Wamda and Digital Digest.

This influence extends not only to energy but also to capital and, increasingly, to talent.

GCC sovereign wealth funds today control more than $4.9 trillion in assets, with projections to exceed $7 trillion by 2030, positioning them among the world’s most powerful allocators of capital. At the same time, cities like Dubai, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha have evolved into hubs attracting global founders, engineers, and operators building companies that scale across regions.

This is no longer a region that simply fuels the global economy. It is one that finances it, builds within it, and increasingly shapes its direction.

And yet, it is also the region where a single month of conflict has managed to do what five years of war elsewhere could not: disrupt the global system at its core.

One month vs five years

The war in Europe has stretched over five years. It has reshaped energy flows, disrupted grain exports, and pushed inflation higher. Yet the global economy adapted. Supply chains rerouted. Energy imports diversified. Markets stabilised over time.

Now compare that to the past few weeks in the Middle East.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 million barrels of oil per day flow, nearly 20% of global consumption, saw shipping activity decline sharply as tensions escalated. Oil prices moved above $100 per barrel. Insurance costs surged. Governments responded by releasing hundreds of millions of barrels from strategic reserves to stabilise markets, according to the IEA.

What triggered this reaction was not an actual supply collapse.

It was the possibility of one.

A system built on narrow corridors

The global economy’s sensitivity to the region is not new.

In 2021, when the Suez Canal was blocked for just six days following the grounding of the Ever Given, an estimated 12% of global trade was disrupted, delaying nearly $9–10 billion worth of goods per day. Supply chains stalled across continents, and the aftershocks lasted for months. 

That incident was accidental, temporary, and resolved within a week.

Yet it exposed how much of global trade depends on a handful of chokepoints concentrated in and around the Middle East.

Capital, technology, and systemic exposure

What makes the current moment more consequential is how deeply the region is now embedded across multiple layers of the global economy.

Gulf sovereign wealth funds are among the most active global investors. According to Global SWF, Middle Eastern funds have accounted for a significant share of sovereign deal activity in recent years, particularly in technology, infrastructure, and energy transition sectors. Their decisions influence valuations, funding cycles, and the pace of innovation globally.

This influence is visible across the technology landscape.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has backed companies such as Uber and Lucid Motors while also deploying capital to global gaming and digital platforms. It is also a key backer of the SoftBank Vision Fund, which has invested in leading AI companies, including OpenAI, alongside global institutional investors.

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala has invested in GlobalFoundries, anchoring its position in the semiconductor value chain while expanding into AI, healthcare, and advanced technologies. G42, backed by Abu Dhabi capital, has emerged as a major AI player with partnerships spanning cloud infrastructure and machine learning ecosystems.

Across the region, Gulf capital has also found its way into platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) through broader investment vehicles and co-investment structures, reflecting its growing exposure to global digital infrastructure and information networks.

Meanwhile, Qatar Investment Authority continues to hold positions in global companies such as Volkswagen and Barclays, alongside technology-enabled businesses that shape industrial and financial ecosystems.

This is not passive capital.

It is capital that participates directly in building the technologies, platforms, and infrastructure that underpin the global economy.

At the same time, the region’s startup ecosystems are maturing. MENA has seen billions in venture funding over recent years, with increasing cross-border expansion and global investor participation. Governments are investing heavily in AI strategies, digital infrastructure, and talent development, positioning the region as both a market and a builder within the global tech economy.

The result is a layered exposure.

Instability in the region no longer affects a single sector. It touches energy flows, capital allocation, and technological development simultaneously.

The cost of a longer war

If the conflict continues, the risks shift from short-term volatility to structural strain.

Sustained pressure on energy markets would feed directly into global inflation, complicating monetary policy for major economies. Higher shipping and insurance costs would increase the price of goods, affecting supply chains that remain sensitive after years of disruption.

The World Bank has warned that major disruptions in energy supply corridors can contribute to material slowdowns in global growth, particularly for import-dependent economies.

Capital flows would also respond.

Periods of geopolitical instability tend to delay large-scale investments and reduce risk appetite. Venture funding cycles could slow. Infrastructure and cross-border expansion plans may be postponed. For a region positioning itself as a global investment and innovation hub, prolonged instability risks slowing momentum at a critical inflection point.

More broadly, the erosion of predictability becomes the underlying issue.

Modern economic systems are built on precision—on timing, cost efficiency, and planning. When uncertainty persists, those systems become less efficient, more expensive, and harder to manage.

What this moment makes clear

The past month has revealed a reality that often goes unnoticed: the Middle East is not interchangeable with other regions. Its role is structural.

The global economy can adapt to prolonged disruption in some areas. It struggles to function under even short-term instability in the Gulf.

A moment that calls for restraint

The Middle East today sits at the intersection of energy flows, global capital, and emerging innovation ecosystems.

Preserving its stability is not only a regional priority. It is a global one.

The past few weeks have shown how quickly disruption can spread across systems that are deeply interconnected. Extending this trajectory would not only deepen regional uncertainty but also place additional strain on an already fragile global economy.

There is still space for de-escalation.

And there is a shared interest in choosing it.

Because if one month can strain the system this much, the consequences of a prolonged conflict will not be linear.

They will compound.

Press release:

Round Includes Strong Participation from Regional Investors Including 2PointZero Group, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Mubadala Investment Company, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karen Wazen, Highlighting the GCC as a Key Strategic Growth Market 

WHOOP, the human performance company, today announced it has raised $575 million in Series G funding at a $10.1 billion valuation, advancing its global expansion and long-term vision for personalised health. The round was led by Collaborative Fund and includes strong participation from GCC-based investors, including 2PointZero Group, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and Mubadala Investment Company; alongside global investors Abbott, the Mayo Clinic, Macquarie Capital (entities administered by Macquarie Capital), Glade Brook, B-Flexion, IVP, Foundry, Accomplice, Affinity Partners and Bullhound Capital, as well as prominent global athletes and individual investors.

Individual investors in the round include notable figures with strong ties to the GCC, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Karen Wazen. Other individuals investing in the round include LeBron James, Rory McIlroy, Reggie Miller, Niall Horan, Virgil van Dijk, and Shane Lowry, underscoring the brand’s growing cultural relevance across the region and deep connection to elite performance, health and global culture.

This funding comes at a defining moment for WHOOP and the future of health. Chronic disease is rising globally, while many healthcare systems remain built for reactive care. At the same time, advances in AI and continuous biometric data are enabling a fundamentally new approach that predicts risk, guides behavior, and improves health in real time. WHOOP has spent over a decade building toward this moment. With this investment, the company will accelerate global expansion and scale its platform as a new standard for personalised, preventive health.

“We are building the personal health platform that people use to improve their health and livelihood,” said Will Ahmed, Founder and CEO of WHOOP. “The GCC is one of the most forward-looking regions in the world when it comes to health, performance and longevity. We’re building real momentum on the ground, expanding our local teams and growing our retail footprint in multiple markets. We’re also developing meaningful partnerships across the region to integrate WHOOP into broader health and performance ecosystems. We’re committed to investing here for the long term. We’re especially proud to be joined by so many investors from the region.” 

Accelerating International Growth

WHOOP is experiencing rapid global momentum amid an extraordinary period of growth:

• The company now has over 2.5 million members around the world 
• In 2025, bookings grew 103% year-over-year, exiting the year at a $1.1B run rate
• In 2025, WHOOP operated cash flow positive 
• WHOOP is hiring for over 600 new roles around the world this year to support research and development and international expansion

Proceeds from this Series G financing will fuel international expansion across the GCC, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. 

Building the Preeminent Global Health Platform

This financing will accelerate WHOOP in building the world’s leading personal health platform – an intelligent, unified system designed to extend healthspan, optimise performance, and prevent disease before it begins.

As part of its international expansion, WHOOP is scaling its presence across the GCC to deepen research and innovation capabilities while contributing to the region’s rapidly evolving performance science ecosystem. In the coming months, WHOOP will open WHOOP Labs Doha, the company’s first international performance research and development facility, marking a significant milestone in its global growth. Alongside this, WHOOP is advancing a series of initiatives across the UAE and Qatar designed to accelerate adoption and establish WHOOP as a leader in health and human performance across the region.

Powered by more than 24 billion hours of physiological data and purpose-built AI models, WHOOP delivers predictive, personalised health insights. Members open the app an average of over eight times per day – almost three times higher than other screenless wearables – to understand how they slept, whether they are recovered, how hard to push or pull back, and how daily behaviours like training, nutrition, and stress are impacting their performance and long-term health. These insights go beyond sleep and fitness, helping members identify early warning signs, reduce risk, and take action that can prevent serious health events. From world leaders and executives to elite athletes and artists, WHOOP has become an essential platform for those committed to performing and living at their highest level. 

“WHOOP has become one of the most important tools I use to support my long-term health,” said Cristiano Ronaldo, a WHOOP investor and global ambassador. “I am proud to participate in this round because I believe in the future we are building together. No other company has created a health platform this powerful that people are proud to wear.”

Press release:

estaie, the world’s first AI-native extended-stay platform, announced it has raised a 7-figure pre-seed funding round led by PlusVC and Orbit Ventures, with participation from Falak Angels, Value Makers Studio (VMS), Vasil Zdravkov.

estaie is supported by in5, Dubai’s leading start-up incubator, founded by TECOM Group PJSC. The funding will accelerate estaie’s expansion across the region, with a strategic scaling focus on Saudi Arabia as the company expands from Dubai to Riyadh.

Founded in 2025, estaie is led by Founder and CEO Osama Shawky, a six-time founder with three exits, who previously led commercial departments at global multinationals including Orange Business and Concentrix, alongside CTO and Co-founder Nimit Solanki, an AI, tech, and product leader formerly at Careem, Grab, and Deutsche Telekom, and COO and Co-founder Mark Reed, a travel and hospitality executive with experience at Finnair, Trailfinders, and The Walt Disney Company.

estaie was designed from day one to address one of the most structurally underserved segments in hospitality: long and extended stays, which sit between traditional hotels, residential leasing, and corporate travel. While short-stay travel is dominated by platforms built around nightly pricing logic, extended stay remains fragmented across disconnected operators, inconsistent pricing models, manual processes, and outdated distribution systems. The result is systemic inefficiency, including underutilized inventory, lost revenue for operators, and poor discovery and pricing transparency for guests. Built as a category-defining platform from the ground up, estaie’s core technology is designed in-house and supported by three pending patents.

Osama Shawky, Founder and CEO of estaie, commented: “Extended stay is a massive, fast-growing category that has been operating without the infrastructure it deserves. estaie is being built as an AI-native operating layer for long-term stays, bringing together demand, pricing intelligence, and ecosystem connectivity into a single platform. We’re grateful for the support of our investors as we accelerate our expansion across the region and build the category-defining platform for extended stay.”

Hasan Haider, Founder and Managing Partner of Plus VC, said: “estaie is building the category-defining platform for long-term stays, addressing a fast-growing yet underserved segment of the hospitality market. Operating at the intersection of real estate, travel, and technology, estaie’s platform has the potential to transform how extended stays are discovered, booked, and managed. This aligns strongly with Plus VC’s commitment to backing disruptive, tech-enabled startups that are redefining traditional industries and creating new market categories. We are pleased to support Osama, Mark, Nimit, and the team as they scale and establish themselves as leaders in the extended-stay sector.” 

William Bao Bean, Managing General Partner of Orbit Ventures, said: “The MENA region is experiencing a dynamic transformation, attracting the best talent from around the world. estaie is enabling workers to book stays of a month or longer at significantly lower rates, reducing the historical barriers to living and working in the region. At the same time, they are unlocking new revenue opportunities for their hotel partners, digitizing a very traditional business with manual execution.”

Moataz Abuonq, CEO, Value Makers Studio (VMS), said: “At VMS, we participated in this round through a direct cash investment in estaie, reflecting our commitment to backing founders who build new market categories and transform traditional sectors. Operating at the intersection of hospitality, real estate, and technology, estaie is well-positioned to capture growing demand for tech-enabled extended stays in Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030. Beyond capital, we are supporting the team on market entry, partnerships, and institutional access to ensure sustainable expansion in the Kingdom. We are proud to back Osama and the estaie team as they scale across the region, with Saudi Arabia as a strategic growth market.”

The startup has already demonstrated strong early traction since its launch in April 2025 across both supply acquisition and demand growth. To date, the company has signed 400+ hotels and 1,000+ holiday homes, including three major regional agreements, establishing a meaningful foundation of extended-stay inventory. On the demand side, guests have booked 3,000+ room nights through estaie.com, with consistent momentum and 17–18% month-over-month growth, positioning estaie among the fastest-growing hospitality technology startups in the region.

Press release:

Mezza, a new hospitality platform, has officially launched, offering restaurants a unique way to access upfront capital while increasing customer footfall and repeat visits.

The launch comes at an opportune time in the UAE, as restaurants are currently seeking new ways to attract diners and maintain steady footfall during the current political climate. Mezza addresses this by combining financial support with best-in-class marketing technology to help partner venues increase customer visits.

Designed for independent restaurants and hospitality groups, Mezza tackles two of the biggest challenges operators face today: access to debt free growth capital and attracting new diners consistently. Through its innovative model, Mezza provides restaurants with upfront funding in exchange for future food and beverage credit, enabling venues to unlock immediate cash flow without loans, interest payments, or giving up ownership. Restaurants can receive between AED 20,000 and AED 10,000,000 in capital, supporting operations, investing in growth, or maintaining steady revenue.

Unlike traditional financing, the model is structured around a straightforward value exchange. Mezza purchases food and beverage credit from partner restaurants at wholesale value and distributes this credit to app members over time. The credit is redeemed gradually, typically over a 12-month period, allowing costs to be spread across the year while guaranteeing consistent customer traffic.

“Restaurants often face two major challenges: access to capital and the ability to consistently attract new customers,” said Kevin Boubil, Founder of Mezza. “Mezza was built to solve both. We provide funding without debt or dilution while helping restaurants bring more diners through their doors, not just on weekends but throughout the year.”

Since launching, Mezza has already partnered with notable hospitality groups and restaurants, including Gates Hospitality, Rosy Hospitality, Chic Nonna, Fab Food Co., with additional concepts and partners joining as the platform expands. Partner restaurants are carefully selected based on quality, reputation, and guest experience, with a focus on casual to fine dining concepts.

To support its mission and expansion, Mezza has successfully closed a major Seed round, backed by a roster of high-profile investors including the founders of PropertyFinder and Jellysmack, as well as the chairman of Deel.

“Our goal is to empower restaurants to grow on their own terms,” added Kevin. “Independent operators often face challenges securing financing without giving up ownership. Mezza provides an alternative that supports both financial stability and consistent customer footfall, helping restaurants thrive in a competitive market.”

Press release:

The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), in partnership with Plug and Play, has successfully concluded the Aswan Bootcamp Series, supporting 61 startups across Upper Egypt and enabling participating companies to secure a combined $3.7 million in investments.

Launched in November 2024 in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development, the programme was designed to foster entrepreneurship beyond Cairo by equipping early-stage startups with technical training, mentorship, and access to industry networks. Despite the suspension of external funding, ITIDA ensured the programme’s continuity by stepping in as the sole funder.

The bootcamp followed an intensive model combining hands-on training with expert guidance, helping startups refine their business models, strengthen product-market fit, and prepare for fundraising. The results are already evident, with participating companies securing $3.7 million in investments, signalling growing momentum in Upper Egypt’s startup ecosystem.

Looking ahead, ITIDA plans to expand similar initiatives to the Nile Delta as part of a broader strategy to decentralise innovation and create a more geographically inclusive technology ecosystem. The initiative aligns with Egypt’s long-term vision of enabling startups to emerge and scale from across the country, rather than being concentrated in major urban centres.

Arabic.AI and Qistas announced today a strategic partnership to offer secure and sovereign artificial intelligence solutions tailored to the Arabic legal sector.

The collaboration combines Arabic.AI's Arabic-first large language models, LLM-X and LLM-S, and its on-premise enterprise AI infrastructure with Qistas's legal technologies and AI solutions designed for Arabic legal systems and professional legal practice. Together, the companies will serve the Arabic legal sector across its different segments, including law firms, corporate legal departments, corporations, and government institutions, providing robust, research-grounded and domain-aware solutions for critical areas of legal practice, including legal research, litigation, transactions, and policy and legislative studies.

Across the Arab world, legal institutions are increasingly interested in adopting artificial intelligence, yet most available solutions are built for English legal frameworks and cloud-based environments. These systems often lack the linguistic accuracy, jurisdictional awareness, and confidentiality required for legal work. The partnership addresses this gap by pairing deep legal expertise with Arabic-native AI that can be deployed securely within institutional environments.

Arabic.AI’s models have been independently evaluated in international benchmarks and are recognised among the top-performing systems for Arabic language understanding, enabling practical deployment in regulated sectors that require both precision and data sovereignty.

“Reliable legal AI requires both language intelligence and legal expertise,” said Nour Al Hassan, CEO and Founder of Arabic.AI. “By combining our Arabic-first AI infrastructure with Qistas’s legal specialisation, we are enabling institutions to work with legal information more efficiently and with greater confidence.”

"We are excited to offer, through this partnership, responsive AI solutions that legal professionals across the Arab world will genuinely adopt," said Nissreen Haram, CEO of Qistas. "Together, we bring trusted legal knowledge and Arabic-first AI to deliver secure, sovereign solutions designed for real legal workflows across the region."

The partnership agreement was formalised during an official signing ceremony held in Amman, Jordan, supporting the responsible adoption of trusted, jurisdiction-aware AI solutions tailored to Arabic legal environments.

Lebanon is not entering this crisis from a position of stability. Since the 2019 financial collapse, the country has faced currency devaluation, shrinking purchasing power, and a hollowed-out private sector. The latest war compounds that fragility. As movement slows and uncertainty rises, one of the country’s most sensitive sectors—hospitality—is once again under pressure.

“People are going out less, supply chains are becoming unpredictable, and employers are weighing whether to lay off staff, cut hours or shut down entirely,” said Aline Kamakian, owner of Mayrig restaurant. The last war alone forced more than 600 restaurants to close or scale back, with 80 percent of food-service businesses reporting sharp declines in sales. Another shock of that scale risks triggering a deeper economic contraction.

This is where Sofra enters—not simply as a relief initiative, but as a coordination system operating at the intersection of humanitarian need and economic survival. Launched through a partnership between the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, Siren, CME, and Beirut Digital District, the platform brings together public institutions, private sector capacity, and global diaspora funding into a single operational model.

A platform built at the speed of crisis

Sofra connects three actors who rarely operate in sync during emergencies: donors, restaurants, and shelters. What began as a small effort delivering a few hundred meals in Beirut and Saida has, within days, scaled into a system providing thousands of meals daily.

The platform was built in real time by a network of Lebanese engineers using AI-assisted development tools—what some describe as “vibe coding”. The approach prioritises speed: build, deploy, iterate. In a crisis environment, that speed is crucial; it distinguishes between response and failure.

“We didn’t have time to overthink it,” said Lea Ghanem from Siren, one of the teams behind the platform. “We just built what was needed and kept adjusting.”

But speed alone is not enough—especially in humanitarian contexts where accountability, coordination, and trust are critical. From the outset, Sofra embedded operational safeguards: limited data collection, traceable transactions, and simple workflows that can be verified in real time. This balance between rapid deployment and structured governance is what differentiates it from many ad hoc crisis responses.

Turning aid into economic stimulus

At its core, Sofra functions as a real-time allocation engine.

Each transaction does two things simultaneously:

• it feeds displaced families
• it generates income for restaurants and preserves jobs

Meals are prepared by local restaurants and routed to nearby shelters, minimising transport time and cost. Demand is matched dynamically to avoid duplication or shortages. Funding is tracked from donor to delivery, while shelters provide feedback on quality and service.

This transforms what is typically a one-directional aid flow into a circular economic system.

In practical terms, Sofra is not just distributing food—it is injecting liquidity into a collapsing sector. Restaurants remain operational. Employees retain income. Supply chains continue moving, even under strain.

A week into operations, the platform has already raised over $169,000, delivered more than 24,000 meals, and activated around 80 restaurants.

Coordinating what was once fragmented

Lebanon’s past crises have often been defined by fragmentation—multiple initiatives operating in parallel, with limited coordination and uneven impact.

“In previous crises, we saw a large number of initiatives operating without coordination,” said Tourism Minister Laura Lahoud. “That can lead to duplication, gaps in coverage, and resources not being used where they’re most needed.”

Sofra attempts to address this structural weakness by positioning itself as connective infrastructure. The state plays a coordinating role, while the private sector delivers services and the diaspora provides funding. Instead of bypassing public institutions, the model reinforces them—an important step in rebuilding trust.

The pressure of a collapsing operating environment

The urgency behind Sofra’s rapid scale becomes clearer when viewed against Lebanon’s broader economic pressures.

In mid-March alone, gasoline prices rose by nearly 20 percent while diesel jumped close to 30 percent, driven by regional tensions affecting oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. In a country heavily dependent on imports, such increases ripple quickly through food production, transport, and energy costs.

For restaurants already operating on thin margins, these shocks can be existential.

At the same time, Lebanon’s long-standing reliance on diaspora remittances—often an informal safety net—is being restructured through platforms like Sofra. Instead of fragmented, individual transfers, funding is now channelled into coordinated, measurable impact.

A prototype for crisis economies

While Sofra is deeply rooted in Lebanon’s immediate reality, its implications extend beyond it.

The platform demonstrates three broader dynamics shaping crisis response in emerging markets:

• First, AI is increasingly being used not just for efficiency but for coordination—matching supply, demand, and funding in real time.
• Second, speed of execution is becoming a competitive advantage, but only when paired with governance and accountability.
• Third, diaspora capital—historically diffuse—is becoming more organised and outcome-driven through digital platforms.

Beyond relief: rebuilding through coordination

For now, Sofra’s impact is immediate and tangible: meals delivered, kitchens kept open, jobs preserved. But its longer-term significance lies in how it reframes crisis response—not as isolated acts of aid but as coordinated systems that sustain both people and markets.

If the war subsides, the need for emergency food distribution may fade. But the underlying model—real-time coordination between state, private sector, and global communities—could outlast the crisis itself.

In a region increasingly defined by volatility, platforms like Sofra offer a glimpse of what resilient infrastructure might look like: fast, adaptive, and built not in spite of crisis, but because of it.

Press release:

Emirates Growth Fund (EGF), the UAE’s flagship growth equity investor, has announced a landmark AED 45 million strategic minority investment in CarniStore, the nation’s leading premium protein business, bringing together sourcing expertise, proprietary production, and digital retail to elevate food standards across the UAE. This marks EGF’s first investment in the food sector, representing a definitive step in the UAE’s mission to foster "National Champions" and signalling a powerful vote of confidence in the scalability of the country’s premium, locally-rooted F&B sector.

Since launching in 2018, CarniStore has emerged as a defining force in the UAE’s premium protein market, uniting heritage butchery expertise with a digital-first, consumer-driven approach.

EGF’s capital injection is designed to supercharge CarniStore’s industrial scaling and expansion into new verticals and products, driving the brand towards institutional readiness and broader regional penetration as a flagship of UAE premium food sector excellence.

Khalifa Al Hajeri, CEO of Emirates Growth Fund (EGF), commented:

“EGF’s investment in CarniStore reflects our mandate to support high-potential UAE businesses within the ‘missing middle’ through strategic capital and active partnership. We remain actively deploying, consistent with our long-term mandate to back strong UAE businesses, by working alongside them as they execute on their growth ambitions. Beyond just investing growth equity, we work with founders to strengthen go-to-market, governance and institutional capability. CarniStore exemplifies the entrepreneurial grit and quality standards we seek in homegrown companies with the potential to evolve into enduring national champions in their industries.” 

Fikry “Fix” Boutros, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of CarniStore, noted:

"This partnership with EGF feels like a natural next step in our journey. We share a belief in building strong, homegrown businesses with a long-term vision and real foundations. From day one, our focus has been on raising the standard for quality proteins while supporting the UAE’s growing food community. Together, we’re excited to keep building, to reach more people, and to shape how meat is sourced and experienced, starting here at home."

Daniel “ Dan” Wanies, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of CarniStore, added:

 "EGF’s strategic backing allows us to scale CarniStore with real intention, growing our operations and developing new products while protecting the premium quality and service our customers rely on. It’s an important step forward and a reminder that a UAE-born brand can lead internationally, not simply participate."

As a strategic minority investor, EGF will accelerate CarniStore’s institutional scale and expansion, partnering with its visionary founders to strengthen governance, enhance institutional capability, and drive long-term value creation, while preserving the company’s distinct identity and entrepreneurial spirit. This partnership reinforces EGF’s mandate to back high traction, UAE-based businesses with the potential to become enduring national champions that strengthen and diversify the UAE’s economic landscape.

Press release:

Lean Technologies, the MENA region's leading financial infrastructure provider, has been granted the first major payment institution licence by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to provide open banking services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The issuance of this inaugural licence represents a significant inflection point for Saudi Arabia's financial sector, confirmation that open banking has moved from the testing phase under the regulatory sandbox to a licensed activity.

Lean’s journey to this milestone began when it was admitted into SAMA’s Regulatory Sandbox as one of the first participants. Operating under strict governance standards, Lean connected over 1 million bank accounts and analysed more than 1 billion transactions, establishing itself as the most widely adopted and deeply integrated Open Banking provider in the Kingdom.

Hisham Al-Falih, CEO and co-founder of Lean Technologies, said: "When we founded Lean over six years ago, we held a conviction: that open, regulated access to financial data would become the foundation upon which the next generation of Saudi financial services would be built. Every partnership, every integration, every use case we developed within the Sandbox was a step toward validating that thesis. Receiving this license from SAMA is the moment that validation becomes official, and it is one I am genuinely proud of. With this license, we have the platform, the partnerships, and the regulatory standing to extend the reach of our infrastructure to thousands of merchants, tens of thousands of SMEs, and millions of end users across the Kingdom. The vision we started with has not changed; we are simply now in a position to realise it at the scale it always deserved."

Lean’s adoption has been driven by partnerships with leading Saudi institutions, including Tabby, Tamara, Abdul Latif Jameel, Sukuk, and Tasheel, spanning BNPL, consumer finance, automotive, investment, and government services. The breadth of this portfolio reflects a central conviction: Open Banking is essential national financial infrastructure.

One of the clearest demonstrations of this impact comes from Tamara, which deployed Lean’s infrastructure to transform the use of data to support better assessment of the financial solvency of individuals and businesses.

Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, CEO and Co-Founder of Tamara, said, "Lean has unlocked the full potential of cash-flow data in our underwriting. With access to rich, verified financial information, we can now responsibly serve customers that were previously difficult to underwrite, including freelancers, gig workers, and individuals with multiple income streams. This has expanded our access to credit, increased approval rates by more than 32% in our new consumer financing product, and driven strong, risk-adjusted growth. Lean's infrastructure has been instrumental in helping us scale these capabilities with confidence."

Across its partner base, Lean’s infrastructure has enabled enhanced KYC and onboarding, improved risk assessment models, and the development of data-driven financial products that were previously not viable. The consistent outcome is clear: better data enables better decisions and broader access to financial services.

Among the most consequential dimensions of open banking is its role in broadening access to financial services. Saudi Arabia's workforce encompasses a growing population of individuals with non-traditional income segments that legacy credit infrastructure is poorly equipped to assess. With Lean’s verified, real-time data, lenders get a materially more complete picture of customer affordability, expanding access to responsibly underwritten credit without compromising risk standards.

Lean's development would not have been possible without SAMA's considered approach to financial innovation. The Regulatory Sandbox established a structured and supervised pathway for companies to test, validate, and scale solutions under genuine governance conditions, balancing the imperative for innovation with robust consumer protection and systemic integrity.

As the kingdom continues to advance its Vision 2030 objectives, a licensed and proven open banking layer represents a core component of its infrastructure. Lean remains committed to developing that infrastructure with the discipline, accountability, and long-term orientation that the Kingdom's financial sector demands.

The question is no longer whether global firms should enter the Gulf. It’s how.

With hundreds of billions in assets managed onshore and sovereign capital actively shaping global markets, the UAE has become a strategic base for financial services, digital assets, and emerging technologies. Yet despite this momentum, many well-resourced firms still fail to establish a foothold.

The issue is rarely capital or ambition. It’s strategy.

Most firms approach market entry as a binary decision: buy a local player, secure a licence, or build from scratch. In practice, this is where the first misstep happens. These are not interchangeable options, and treating them as such often leads to delays, regulatory friction, and wasted capital.

What matters more is how these choices align with the UAE’s regulatory architecture and the realities of operating on the ground.

Buy, license, or build is not a checklist

Each entry route comes with a distinct trade-off.

Acquiring a local company offers speed. It provides immediate access to licences, teams, and clients. But integration risk is often underestimated. Legacy systems, cultural misalignment, and regulatory constraints can slow down execution and dilute the intended advantage.

Licensing independently offers control. Firms can build around their own brand, operating model, and governance structure. But the process is resource-intensive. Navigating regulatory requirements, hiring locally, and establishing banking relationships can take longer than expected without deep market understanding.

Building from scratch provides full flexibility. It allows firms to design a business tailored to regional demand. However, this is the slowest path and requires long-term capital commitment before meaningful revenue is generated.

The most effective strategies are rarely limited to one path. Some firms combine approaches, for example, taking a minority stake in a local entity while pursuing their own licence. This allows them to build local insight while maintaining strategic control over time.

The real decision is regulatory alignment

The more critical question is not how to enter, but where.

The UAE operates through multiple financial and regulatory jurisdictions, each designed for a different type of business model. Misalignment at this stage can stall operations before they begin.

• Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is the most established ecosystem, built on English common law and designed for global financial institutions. It offers scale, international connectivity, and a mature regulatory framework, making it the natural choice for asset managers, banks, and large financial services firms.
• Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has positioned itself as a hub for private capital, family offices, and institutional investors. Its ecosystem is closely linked to sovereign wealth and large pools of capital, making it particularly relevant for private equity, hedge funds, and wealth management platforms.
• Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), by contrast, is purpose-built for digital assets. It provides a regulatory environment tailored to crypto, tokenisation, and Web3 models, attracting firms that require flexibility and innovation-friendly oversight.
• Treating these regulators as interchangeable is a common mistake. A crypto-native company operating under a traditional financial framework, or an institutional asset manager navigating a digital-first regulator, will face unnecessary friction from the outset.

Why global playbooks fail in the Gulf

One of the most consistent patterns across failed market entries is overreliance on global playbooks.

Strategies that work in London or New York often assume regulatory uniformity, predictable market behaviour, and centralised decision-making. The UAE operates differently.

Regulation is fragmented by design, competition is shaped by sovereign capital, and relationships on the ground matter more than remote decision-making. Firms that attempt to manage regional operations from headquarters, without empowered local leadership, typically struggle to adapt.

Another common issue is underestimating execution timelines. Licensing, hiring, and operational setup often take longer than anticipated, particularly for firms without prior regional experience.

What this means for startups and scaleups

While much of the conversation focuses on large institutions, the same principles apply to venture-backed companies entering the UAE.

For startups, the regulatory choice can directly shape product development, fundraising potential, and partnership opportunities. A fintech operating in ADGM, for example, may have better access to institutional capital, while a Web3 startup under VARA can move faster within a purpose-built framework.

Hybrid entry strategies are also becoming more common among scaleups, particularly those expanding from other MENA markets. Partnering locally while gradually building independent operations allows for faster market validation with lower upfront risk.

The firms that succeed

Success in the UAE is less about scale and more about alignment.

The firms that establish themselves successfully tend to:

• Choose their regulatory base early and deliberately
• Invest in local leadership with decision-making authority
• Adapt their operating model to the region, rather than replicating global structures
• Take a phased approach to market entry instead of committing to a single strategy

The UAE is not just another market to enter. It is a system with its logic, incentives, and competitive dynamics.

Firms that recognise these factors and build accordingly are more likely to turn market entry into long-term growth. Those that don’t often find themselves stuck between regulatory frameworks, operational delays, and missed opportunities.

Established in 2008, the prize honours those driving innovation across six categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water, Climate Action, and Global High Schools.

We believe that game-changing solutions deserve global recognition and the resources to scale. As such, this cycle offers:

• Winners: $1 million awarded to the top entry in each category.
• Finalists: $100,000 in funding to support continued growth.
• Market Access: Exclusive access to a high-impact networking platform connecting them with potential investors, buyers, and partners.

The prize focuses on established solutions with demonstrated impact, rather than early-stage prototypes.

Organisations can apply directly through our application portal.

The deadline for submissions is 15 June 2026.

For enquiries:

Information – info@zayedsustainabilityprize.com (General Information)

Angelea Godinez – angelea@stratecis.com (Application Support)

Press release:

Blackstone (NYSE: BX), the world’s largest alternative asset manager, today announced that funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) have invested $250 million in Advanced Digital Gaming Technology (“ADGT”), a newly established payments and data intelligence technology platform launched from the United Arab Emirates to support regulated digital markets globally.

ADGT has been established through a strategic partnership between Blackstone, Raya Holding, the Abu Dhabi-based investment company, and leading technology partners NRT Technology and Sightline Payments.

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, ADGT is positioned at the crossroads of global finance, high-growth markets, and next-generation digital infrastructure. The company plans to initially focus on deployments across the UAE, the Middle East, Africa, and select international corridors. In the UAE, ADGT is the premier payments and compliance technology provider to the commercial gaming market, which is projected to become one of the fastest-growing regulated markets globally: ADGT is currently the only licensed platform able to contract directly with both land-based venues and online digital platforms, enabling a unified experience for both consumers and operators.

Michael Dominelli, CEO of ADGT, said: “ADGT was created in the UAE from the ground up to serve as a new global standard for financial payments technology. Built upon modern infrastructure, and with a strong institutional and regulatory framework, we have created a platform that is designed, built, governed and experienced with resilience and scalability in mind. With the backing of Blackstone, Raya Holding and the leading payments technology partnerships, we have the scale, resources and credibility to create a global success story engineered and headquartered in the UAE.”

Jon Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer, Blackstone, said: “We see significant opportunity to deploy capital at scale in the UAE to build companies that can grow both domestically and internationally, despite near term headwinds. The UAE is a global leader in travel and leisure, with emerging strength in technology, and we are excited to support ADGT to capitalise on these powerful trends.”

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said: “ADGT reflects the UAE’s long-term vision to lead in the development of next-generation financial technology and regulated digital infrastructure. With a progressive regulatory framework and strong institutional support, the UAE continues to create an environment where global technology platforms can be built and scaled. Through this partnership with Blackstone, and the integration of proven technology capabilities from NRT Technology and Sightline, ADGT is positioned to establish a new benchmark for regulated payments infrastructure. From Abu Dhabi, we are developing a platform designed not only to serve the UAE, but to support the evolution of regulated digital markets globally.”

The platform is designed to support national-scale deployments, cross-border interoperability, and evolving regulatory frameworks. ADGT integrates digital wallets, real-time funding and payout rails, identity and access management, compliance monitoring, and both closed-loop and open-loop ecosystem controls within a single interoperable infrastructure supporting both on-property transactions and digital engagement.

Blackstone has had a presence in the UAE since 2010. The firm’s investments in the country include GLIDE, a pan-GCC logistics platform developed in partnership with Lunate, and Property Finder, the leading UAE real estate marketplace.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP and Alaeddini & Co acted as legal advisors to Blackstone, whilst Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP’s Abu Dhabi office acted as legal advisors to ADGT.

Press release:

Moroccan electric mobility startup GoSwap has secured its first seed funding round from Azur Innovation Fund, marking a key milestone as the company prepares to scale its battery-swapping infrastructure across urban centres.

Founded in Casablanca, GoSwap is building a battery-as-a-service model for electric scooters, addressing key barriers to EV adoption, including high upfront costs and range limitations. The company is targeting a broader capital raise exceeding $2 million (MAD 20 million+) to support regional expansion.

At the core of GoSwap’s model is the separation of the battery from the vehicle. Users can purchase electric scooters without batteries and access energy through a network of smart swap stations. Depleted batteries can be exchanged for fully charged ones in under 10 seconds, eliminating charging downtime.

The company has already deployed 20 connected battery swap stations across Casablanca, located at high-traffic points including CashPlus, Petrom, and Shell outlets. The platform offers a cost of approximately MAD 25 to 29.4 per 100 km, positioning it as a cost-effective alternative to fuel-powered vehicles.

With the new funding, GoSwap plans to expand its infrastructure within Casablanca and into new cities such as Marrakech, enhance compatibility across multiple electric vehicle models, and strengthen fleet management capabilities for logistics and last-mile delivery companies.

By localising battery-swapping models successfully deployed in Asian markets, GoSwap aims to build a scalable infrastructure layer that accelerates EV adoption across Morocco and the wider African region.