Gulf shoppers now expect same-day, and logistics is the product
In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, delivery expectations have compressed to one or two days and sometimes hours — which turns fulfilment from a cost line into the thing customers are buying.
Comprehensive coverage and updates on CargoX across the MENA tech ecosystem.
In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, delivery expectations have compressed to one or two days and sometimes hours — which turns fulfilment from a cost line into the thing customers are buying.
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.
CargoX and Mal raised $480m between them — more than a third of all MENA venture funding in the first half of 2026. Strip them out and the half looks very different.
$895m of $1.35bn went to the UAE in the first half of 2026, on MAGNiTT's count — even as the country's own deal count fell 37%.