A Saudi fund and a Seoul venture firm are building a two-way channel for deep tech
Ula Capital and Korea's FuturePlay announced a $100m vehicle on LEAP's third day. What makes it worth reading is the direction of travel, which is not the usual one.
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Ula Capital and Korea's FuturePlay announced a $100m vehicle on LEAP's third day. What makes it worth reading is the direction of travel, which is not the usual one.
Egypt's February 2026 charter aims to mobilise $1bn over five years for an ecosystem of 706 startups. Company formation is not the constraint it addresses.
LEAP has grown every year. MENA venture funding fell 22% in H1 2026 and deal count fell 41%. The two facts are less contradictory than they look.
Six countries, six strategies, and far less overlap than the competitive framing suggests. What looks like a race between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi is closer to a set of complementary bets.
The two figures differ by roughly seventy times. They are not in conflict — they describe two separate pools of capital that reach Saudi technology through different mechanisms.
Egypt has 706 active startups, 64% of North Africa's tracked total. The UAE took $895m of MENA's H1 funding. The region's founders and its capital are in different countries.
Male-founded startups raised $1.6bn across 213 deals in the first half of 2026. Female-founded startups raised $2.5m across 14.
Concentration at that level means regional totals describe a handful of companies rather than an ecosystem — and deal count, down 41%, is the number that survives it.
Longer private holds are a global trend. In the Gulf they also reflect an exit route that is still being built.
706 startups and 64% of North Africa's tracked companies, against a Gulf that deployed $895m into one country in six months. The mismatch is the region's clearest opening.