Week 43: Africa and Middle East Startup Funding Led by Mave

Startups across Africa, the Middle East and Israel raised a combined $59.7 million this week, based on disclosed funding rounds tracked by Techloy, with investor capital flowing mostly into AI security. Mave's $34 million and Modelyo's $17 million made up about 85% of the total, while eight smaller rounds across the Gulf and Egypt shared the rest.

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. Mave, $34M, AI Cybersecurity, Israel 

Tel Aviv startup Mave builds AI agents that check through a company's security alerts, rule out the false alarms, and act only once a person signs off. Its $34 million combines a new $28 million Series A led by Red Dot Capital Partners with an earlier $6 million seed led by Dell Technologies Capital and Emerge Ventures. The money goes towards AI research, its enterprise products, and international expansion.

/2. Modelyo, $17M, Cloud Security, Israel 

Modelyo, an Israeli cloud security startup, is building what it calls a sovereign confidential cloud, where companies can run cloud services and AI while keeping control of their data and encryption keys. US firm OlivTree led the roughly $17 million round, with Seth Merrin and David Phelps also investing. The money goes towards research and development and growing its sales abroad.

/3. Vrtx, $3.6M, Fintech, Saudi Arabia 

Vrtx is a Riyadh fintech that lets businesses add digital wallets, payouts, card issuing, and transfers to their own apps without building the financial systems behind them. SC Ventures by Standard Chartered backed its $3.6 million pre-seed round alongside six other investors, including Sadu Capital and BYLD. The money goes towards expanding operations and development before its commercial launch.

/4. Vitalls, $1.5M, Healthtech, UAE 

Founded in 2023, Vitalls is a UAE startup building an AI-powered digital health passport, where people and families keep their medical records and share them with doctors across countries. Singapore-based EST Growmore has committed $1.5 million as the anchor investor in its seed round, with an option to add another $1 million later. That money will go into building the passport and rolling it out.

/5. CapQuest, $1M, Fintech, UAE 

Dubai-based CapQuest helps companies keep track of who owns them, from the cap table, the list of shareholders and their stakes, to employee share plans and investor updates. Oraseya Capital and AMKM Family Office led its $1 million pre-seed round. The money goes towards product work, more automation, and winning customers outside the UAE.

/6. Popcorn AI Studio, $1M, AI Filmmaking, UAE 

Popcorn AI Studio, started this year by Egyptian founders Shady Essam and Mohamed Hedar, is building a Dubai platform that puts scripts, characters, scenes, voice, and Arabic lip-sync for AI-made films in one place. Emirati investor Mohammed Bin Bouta Alharsoosi led its $1 million pre-seed round. The money goes towards its AI technology and growing across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

/7. Ayan, $599K, AI Marketing, UAE 

Ayan is a UAE startup that tracks what AI assistants like ChatGPT tell shoppers about a brand, then turns that into briefs for the brand's sales teams. It raised Dh2.2 million (about $599,000) in pre-seed funding from global angel investors it hasn't named. The plan for the money is to take Ayan beyond the Middle East and North Africa.

/8. theQA, $550K, AI Market Research, Kuwait 

Kuwait's theQA runs a survey platform where businesses use AI to turn a research brief into a questionnaire, then send it to a panel of more than 20,000 verified people. A Kuwaiti family office and angel investors put more than $550,000 into its pre-seed round. The money goes towards growing in Kuwait and adding more AI research and data analysis tools.

/9. INVE, $300K, Event Tech, Saudi Arabia 

INVE started out handling invitations for weddings and other personal occasions, and the Riyadh startup now runs digital invites, RSVPs, and entry passes for business events too. Outliers VC, which was INVE's first paying business design partner, has now put in $300,000 as a pre-seed round. The money goes towards its team, its brand, and finding customers in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf.