Week 35: Africa and Middle East Startup Funding Led by Alice

Startups across Africa and the Middle East raised a combined $239.63 million this week, based on disclosed funding rounds tracked by Techloy, with investor capital flowing primarily into AI security and fintech. Two deals accounted for most of the week's funding activity.

The Week's Largest Startup Funding Rounds

Here are the biggest disclosed startup funding rounds across Africa, the Middle East and Israel this week.

1. Alice, $140 million, AI security, Israel 

Alice, which rebranded from ActiveFence in January, helps test clients' AI models for vulnerabilities and offers guardrails to protect against them during production. Apax Digital led the round with Samsung, SentinelOne, Norwest, and CRV joining, bringing Alice's funding total to $280 million and giving the company a valuation of $700 million to $800 million. This capital will be used to grow and expand.

2. Fasset, $68 million, Fintech, UAE 

Fasset runs a Sharia-compliant digital bank that operates on stablecoins and provides accounts, cards and cross-border payments in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Japan's SBI Group led the Series C round, with Fasset reaching a valuation of $1 billion, just four months after its $51 million Series B. It will use this capital to scale its stablecoin banking platform, with plans to set up a joint digital bank in Malaysia with the Japanese company.