Startups across Africa and the Middle East raised a combined $41.95 million this week, based on disclosed funding rounds tracked by Techloy, with investor capital flowing primarily into AI and hospitality tech. One Series A led the pack, with seed and pre-seed rounds filling out the rest across Saudi Arabia, Oman, Eswatini, Israel, Egypt, and the UAE.
The Week's Largest Startup Funding Rounds
Here are the biggest disclosed startup funding rounds across Africa and the Middle East this week.
/1. Signit, $15 million, AI and Contract Management, Saudi Arabia
Most companies handling contracts still juggle separate tools for drafting, signing, and tracking agreements. Signit is building one platform that handles all of it and keeps every signature legally binding under Saudi law.
The Riyadh company, founded in 2021 by Mohamed El Abbouri, started as a digital signature platform and is now using this Series A to push into full contract lifecycle management, covering drafting, negotiation, compliance tracking, and renewal in one place. RAED Ventures led the round, with STV, Seedra Ventures, Takamol Ventures, and Suhail Ventures all joining.
/2. FASCANO, $10 million, Hospitality Tech, Oman
FASCANO builds cloud-based software for restaurants, hotels, and cafes that replaces scattered manual workflows with a single connected system, and this latest round is its third since its launch in 2021.
The funding came from His Highness Sayyid Dr. Kamel bin Fahd Al Said and Cyfr Capital, in partnership with the Future Fund Oman under the Oman Investment Authority. Co-founders Ahmed Al Kharusi and Murak Al Muairki said the money will go into geographic expansion, product development, and hiring specialist talent over the next 12 to 18 months.
/3. Swoop, $7.3 million, Food Delivery, Eswatini/Nigeria
Nineteen-year-old Aubrey Niederhoffer dropped out of UC Berkeley, moved to Lagos, and rebuilt his entire product from scratch before officially launching Swoop in Nigeria this week alongside a $7.3 million seed round. The company started in Eswatini in 2025, signed 6,000 users in its first two months there, and is now targeting Nigeria's food delivery market on the thesis that most potential customers still do not order food online at all.
The plan beyond food is payments and other financial services, building toward a broader super app. Long Journey, Variant, Version One, Dune Ventures, Soma Capital, Zero Knowledge Ventures, Walter Kortschak, and Base Capital backed the round. Niederhoffer was also named a Thiel Fellow this week.
/4. Copperhelm, $7 million, Cybersecurity, Israel
Copperhelm came out of stealth this week with a $7 million seed round and a platform that uses AI agents to monitor, investigate, and respond to threats inside enterprise cloud environments without waiting for a security team member to catch something manually.
The Tel Aviv company was founded in late 2025 by Shimon Tolts, Eyar Zilberman, and Roman Labunsky, who have backgrounds at Unity, McAfee, and RSA. The round was led by TLV Partners, with toDay Ventures, ICON, and SaaS Ventures Israel participating. The company said it already has paying Fortune 500 customers.
/5. Sinai.ai, $1.45 million, EdTech, Egypt
Traditional books have not changed in format for decades, and Cairo-founded Sinai.ai is making its early bet that they are about to. The startup built aiBook, a patented format that turns standard books into interactive experiences where readers can engage with content in real time, switch between reading and listening, and access material across languages, all through direct licensing deals with publishers.
The 2024-founded company was backed in this pre-seed by KAUST Innovation Ventures and DisrupTech Ventures, with Maza Ventures, YOUXEL Ventures, and angel investors also joining. Founders are Ahmed Kamel, Mohamed Elshamy, Mohamed Elshenawy, Hana Malhas, and Abdullah Moatasem.
/6. Ray, $1.2 million, Consumer Tech, UAE
Ray installs portable charging stations across restaurants, cafes, malls, and transport hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, letting people rent a powerbank by tapping their bank card or phone at the station in around 15 seconds, with no app or internet connection needed. Founded in 2025 by Igor Kosolap and Roman Averianov, the company says it is the only powerbank-sharing service in the GCC with Tap-to-Pay functionality and is targeting 2,000 station locations across the UAE by the end of 2026. The seed round came primarily from private investors, including Meirambek Abelkasov and Serik Uspanov, co-founders of the Kazakhstan-based kick-sharing company JET.
Other funding announced this week includes Trashcoin, although the amount was not disclosed. The Lagos-based startup lets users drop off recyclable waste at collection points in exchange for digital credits redeemable for utilities, health insurance, education fees, or mobile data, giving low-income communities a financial return for recycling. Jambaar Capital backed the company, saying it backs founders who see broken systems as an opportunity.
Conclusion
With $41.95 million in disclosed funding this week, Saudi Arabia and Oman drove the two largest individual rounds while Eswatini, Israel, Egypt, and the UAE each added to the total. Seed-stage deals made up most of the week's volume, and the spread of sectors getting funded, from contract tech to cloud security to interactive books, suggests investor attention across the region remains wide rather than concentrated right now.
Damilare Odedina
