INFOGRAPHIC: Startup Funding in Africa and the Middle East — Week 24, 2025
Here are the venture funding activities we tracked in the Middle East and African region this week – including Nile, Zero Carbon Charge, KERA Health Platforms, Colugo, Hirundo, Qanooni, Vastpoint, and SANTECHTURE.
As the second quarter winds down, startup funding is still trickling in across Africa and the Middle East, with disclosed deals this week totaling $45 million, a slight dip from last week’s $60 million. Still, the rounds that did land were far from boring. From off-grid EV charging to machine unlearning platforms, this week’s deal flow leaned toward founders building for real-world, often overlooked problems.
In South Africa, agri-tech startup Nile raised ZAR200 million (~$11.3 million) in a round led by Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, with co-investment from FMO and existing backers. The marketplace helps farmers and buyers trade directly, skipping the fragmented supply chains across Southern Africa. They’re now doubling down on growth logistics in the region.
Also out of South Africa, Zero Carbon Charge, which is building off-grid, solar-powered ultra-fast EV charging stations, secured ZAR100 million (~$5.6 million) from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). The plan is one charging station every 150 km on major national roads—an answer to energy instability that sidesteps the grid altogether.
Vastpoint, a land and geospatial tech company also based in South Africa, got strategic backing from Vital Capital. The startup works on digitizing land ownership and improving management systems in vulnerable regions where land rights are often undocumented or mismanaged.
In Senegal, KERA Health Platforms raised $10 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Dakar-based e-health startup is rolling out digital tools to improve healthcare delivery, especially in areas where medical infrastructure is weak or fragmented. It's one of the rare healthtech bets from IFC this year.
This week, Israel had two strong bets in deep tech. Colugo Systems, which makes electric drones used by the military and in civil operations, raised $8.5 million in its first round. The deal was led by Ayalon Insurance and Finance, with a pre-money valuation of $65 million.
Then there’s Hirundo, which closed an $8 million seed round led by Maverick Ventures Israel, with participation from SuperSeed, Alpha Intelligence Capital, and Plug and Play. The company is building a machine unlearning platform, the opposite of training. Its tech helps enterprise AI systems "forget" sensitive or outdated data, a big deal for compliance-heavy industries trying to clean up their models without retraining from scratch.
In the UAE, legaltech startup Qanooni raised $2 million in pre-seed funding from Village Global, Salica Investments (Oryx Fund), TA Ventures, and a network of angels. They’re building an AI-powered legal automation engine and plan to expand across the UAE and UK. Qanooni’s pitch leans into streamlining back-office legal tasks—contracts, filings, dispute resolution—via a smart layer.
Another UAE-based startup, SANTECHTURE, landed a strategic investment from US-based CorroHealth. The two companies had already been collaborating for two years, piloting AI-powered revenue cycle management tools for healthcare providers in the region and co-hosting industry events like Arab Health 2025. This deal just formalizes that alignment.
No major moves from Nigeria or Saudi this week, and nothing large enough to shift the overall trend. But the week’s rounds of charging infrastructure, food supply, health delivery, land rights, and applied AI felt quietly productive. Foundational stuff, with long-haul value.
