Funding Trends in African and Middle Eastern Startups - Week 30, 2025 (Infographic)
Booming Fintech and AI Sectors in the Middle East and Africa
In the first half of 2025, startups in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) secured a record-breaking $2.1 billion through 334 deals, marking a 134% year-on-year increase. This growth was driven mainly by fintech, which secured the highest capital volume, especially in Q2 2025 with $170 million invested across 38 startups.
Egypt is emerging as a key market for fintech startups, with notable funding rounds taking place in the country. Lime Consumer Finance, a fintech platform backed by First Abu Dhabi Bank Group, raised $9.4 million to expand its education financing offerings, targeting Egypt’s growing fintech ecosystem. Another Egyptian fintech startup, Flend, secured $3 million in a mixed equity and debt seed round, led by Egypt Ventures and supported by multiple venture capital firms and banking institutions, to expand SME lending in underserved markets. PALM, an Egyptian fintech startup offering incentivized saving through gamification, closed a seven-figure pre-seed round led by 4DX Ventures with participation from Plus VC and international angel investors.
Israel, known for its technological prowess, is also making strides in the funding landscape, particularly in deep tech and infrastructure innovation. While specific recent funding rounds in fintech, logistics, or health tech there were not detailed in the sources, Oman-based startups such as ZabonEx (predictive analytics for food supply chain) and SafaQat (AI-driven digital procurement platform) received early-stage funding to scale AI applications in logistics and procurement, indicating regional AI sector growth.
Africa is also seeing a rise in fintech companies gaining global recognition, despite a slowdown in worldwide fintech funding. Ten African fintech startups made CNBC and Statista’s 2025 list of the top 300 global fintech firms, including Nigeria’s OPay, valued near $3 billion with over 60 million users, noted for a broad services range including payments and loans.
Key Funding Rounds (H1 2025 / Recent Weeks):
| Sector | Region/Country | Company/Startup | Funding Amount | Notes | |------------|----------------|-------------------------|-------------------|--------------------------------------------------| | Fintech | Egypt | Lime Consumer Finance | $9.4 million | Education finance platform backed by FAB Group | | Fintech | Egypt | Flend | $3 million | Seed round, equity + debt, led by Egypt Ventures| | Fintech | Egypt | PALM | 7-figure pre-seed | Gamified saving platform | | AI/Logistics | Oman | ZabonEx | $100,000 | Predictive analytics for food supply chain | | AI/Logistics | Oman | SafaQat | Not specified | AI-driven procurement platform | | Fintech | Nigeria | OPay | - | Globally recognized, nearly $3B valued |
In Israel, logistics AI space startup Octup closed a $12 million seed round, co-led by Shine Capital and JAL Ventures. Tel Aviv's underground mapping technology startup, Exodigo, raised $96 million in a Series B round, co-led by Zeev Ventures and Greenfield Partners.
UAE fintech platform Qlub secured $30 million in a new funding round, backed by Shorooq Partners, Cherry Ventures, Mubadala Investments, e&, and Legend Capital. Qlub's capital injection is aimed at fueling global expansion and growing its one-click payment solution.
Octup aims to build a "real-time OS" for logistics, bringing smarter coordination and automation into the 3PL workflow. Exodigo's funding will be used for aggressive scale and product refinement. Lime Consumer Finance is positioned as Egypt's largest dedicated education financing platform, aiming to fill a gap in student lending and expand its reach within Egypt's growing fintech ecosystem. The debt financing for Flend came from MSMEDA and local banks.
- Following the growth in fintech investments in the Middle East and Africa, a gamified saving platform named PALM, based in Egypt, recently closed a seven-figure pre-seed round, aiming to expand within the nation's growing fintech ecosystem.
- In the realm of technology, Israel's Octup, a startup specializing in logistics AI, recently secured a $12 million seed round, signifying a significant advancement in the AI sector and the logistics industry within Israel.
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