MENA has plenty of seed money and almost no Series C

The Middle East and North Africa venture industry has plenty of seed and Series A activity and comparatively few acquisitions or initial public offerings. That description, from analysis of the region's exit environment, identifies the structural feature more precisely than any funding total does. It is not a shortage of capital. It is a shortage of capital at one stage. Early-stage money in the region is abundant. Government accelerators, sovereign-backed seed funds, corporate venture arms and a growing angel base mean a credible founder in Riyadh, Dubai or Cairo can generally raise a first round. Growth capital is where it narrows. MAGNiTT recorded the top ten transactions taking 58% of all regional funding in the first half of 2026, and two UAE rounds — CargoX and Mal — accounting for $480m between them. Large cheques exist; they go to very few companies. Between a $2m seed and a $100m growth round sits the range where most companies are most vulnerable, and it is the thinnest part of the regional market. The reason the middle is thin is that growth investors underwrite exits. A Series C investor is buying a position they intend to sell within a defined period, at a price set by an acquirer or a public market. With UAE venture exit value at $402 per capita against Singapore's $8,000-plus, that underwriting is difficult to complete. The investor can model the company's growth and has less to model the sale against. Early-stage investors are less exposed to this. Their cheques are smaller, their portfolios are broader, and their returns can come from a later secondary sale to a strategic buyer. Growth investors, writing larger cheques into fewer companies, need the exit to be nearer. Founders have three routes, all imperfect. The first is to relocate — establish in a market with a deeper growth stage and raise there, which is why a meaningful share of Gulf-headquartered companies were founded elsewhere in the region. The second is strategic money — raising from a sovereign fund or a corporate investor whose return does not depend on a conventional exit. It is available, patient, and it changes the company's ownership logic. The third is to grow into profitability and stop raising, which is underrated and increasingly common. A company that does not need a Series C is not exposed to how few of them there are. Manara Ventures ' Jordanian programme — 20-plus growth-stage cheques at $750,000 to $3m — is one of the few vehicles explicitly aimed at the gap, and its size relative to the problem indicates the scale of what is still to be built.