Week 22's Biggest Startup Funding Rounds in Africa and the Middle East, Led by NALA and Airis Lab

Startups across Africa and the Middle East raised a combined $105.93 million in disclosed funding this week, based on rounds tracked by Techloy, with investor capital flowing into payments infrastructure, defense AI, food biotech, and dental health. NALA, the Tanzanian stablecoin payments infrastructure company, secured up to $50 million in credit financing, the largest single deal reported from the region this week.

The Week's Largest Startup Funding Rounds

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

1. NALA, $50 million, Payments Infrastructure, Tanzania 

NALA started as a remittance app serving the African diaspora in 2017 and has since grown into a stablecoin-powered payments infrastructure company, connecting businesses to payment corridors across emerging markets, Europe, and the United States through its enterprise platform, Rafiki. Its network covers more than 249 banks and 26 mobile money services across 16 countries.

The facility was provided by Liquidity through Mars Growth Capital, a joint venture between Liquidity and MUFG Bank as a credit financing arrangement, starting with an initial $25 million tranche that can scale to $50 million or more. The money goes toward pre-funding transfers, expanding payment corridors, and onboarding larger enterprise clients, with several contracts expected to go live later in 2026. 

2. Airis Labs, $31 million, Defense AI, Israel

Airis Labs came out of stealth this week and revealed it has raised $60 million in total since 2023, with this $31 million Series B being the latest and largest round. The Tel Aviv company was started by three Israeli defense veterans,Noam Friedman, Rotem Abeles, and Amos Lahav, and builds a platform that takes visual data from drones, body cameras, smartphones, social media, and security footage and turns it into organised, searchable intelligence that government teams can act on in real time.

PSG Equity led the round, with TLV Partners, Stepstone Group, Redseed Ventures, and angel investors including former Mellanox Technologies founder Eyal Waldman joining. The money goes toward expanding US operations, growing the team, and accelerating product development.

3. Phytolon, $23.6 million, Food Biotech, Israel

Phytolon uses fermentation to produce natural food colours across the yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple spectrum, giving food and drink brands a natural swap for synthetic dyes at a time when regulators and consumers are increasingly pushing back against artificial ingredients. The Yokne'am company, led by co-founder and CEO Halim Jubran, received FDA approval for its first product, Beetroot Red, earlier this year.

The round was secured across three stages and led by an undisclosed strategic investor, with existing backers Millennium Foodtech, NextGen Nutrition Investment Partners, Colorcon Ventures, and Yossi Ackerman joining in the final stage. The money goes toward sales, supply to food and drink brands, and expanding distribution partnerships in the US and beyond.

4. Mia Healthcare Technologies, $920K, Dental Health, South Africa

Mia Healthcare Technologies is a Cape Town-based healthtech founded in 2021 by Dr. Zane Stennings and Dr. Karishma Soni, operating a network of mobile and fixed dental practices and producing locally manufactured clear aligners at lower prices than most imported alternatives. The company targets patients locked out of dental care by high treatment costs, geographic distance, and limited access to specialists.

The ZAR15 million round came from the Vumela Fund, managed by Edge Growth and backed by FNB. The funding will support clinic expansion across South Africa, increased manufacturing capacity, and broader access to orthodontic services.

5. 01Gov, AED 1.5 million ($408K), GovTech, UAE

01Gov is an Emirati startup that builds AI tools for government teams, helping public sector employees track global trends, access international best practices, and run benchmarking studies through one platform. The company's AI system, called One, is designed to improve how government teams work and make decisions.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund issued this as a credit guarantee, not a direct equity investment, to support 01Gov's operations and the continued development of its platform.

Other deals announced this week include Core42, the Abu Dhabi AI infrastructure company owned by G42, secured $550 million in structured trade finance from HSBC to fund AI cloud and compute deployments across the US and Europe. This is a debt financing arrangement.

Conclusion

With $105.93 million in disclosed funding this week, NALA's $50 million credit facility drove the headline number, while Israel accounted for the two largest equity rounds. South Africa added a healthcare deal that reflects growing investor interest in underserved consumer health categories, and the week's spread across five deals and four sectors points to activity across multiple areas rather than a single dominant sector.