Debt financing, grants, and non-equity funding
Startup Tunisia selected 22 companies for AIR Session 8, each getting TND 30,000 to build a technology Proof of Concept. The Flywheel grant is aimed at firms under one year old. The published roster of names was not attached.
Rise secured SAR 187.5 million in asset-backed Murabaha financing from Jadwa Investment to fund its rent-now-pay-later book. Equity is meant to stay on product and expansion. Drawdown and terms were not disclosed.
Egyptian-founded, UAE-based fintech Remi has won a 135,000 dollar grant from the Stellar Community Fund to build confidential blockchain settlement for banks, tackling the tension between public-ledger transparency and financial privacy.
Saudi Arabia's Cultural Development Fund has launched AI incentives offering non-repayable grants of up to 500,000 riyals per project to help small cultural enterprises adopt or develop artificial intelligence, supporting up to 20 projects.
The Social Development Bank has launched a 10 million riyal social investment portfolio to back entrepreneurs and emerging businesses. The sum is modest, but its model of pairing capital with hands-on support and corporate partnership is proven.
Edita Food Industries could be about to lean on development finance to push deeper into Iraq, with the International Finance Corporation weighing a loan of up to 25 million dollars to fund the Egyptian snack maker's next phase of regional growth, more than doubling Iraqi capacity.
Amazon has gone back to the bond market for at least 25 billion dollars, the latest sign of just how much borrowed money is now flowing into the artificial intelligence buildout. The eight-part offering will help fund the data centres and chips its AWS cloud arm is racing to install.
Whiteshield has secured 15 million dollars in fresh financing from Ruya Partners, an Abu Dhabi-based private credit firm, in a senior secured facility that will fund technology development, platform rollout and a wider international push.
Saudi Arabia's financing landscape is being quietly rewired, and one of the clearest signals comes from a corner of fintech that usually flies under the radar. Debt crowdfunding platforms in the kingdom have now provided a cumulative SAR 11 billion, or about $2.93 billion, in financing since the activity was first introduced in 2016, according to SAMA.
Oman's startup scene runs at a quieter tempo than the Gulf's larger markets, which is why a single deal between a local freelance platform and a state backed SME development body deserves a closer look. Sharakah has extended a Sharia compliant working capital facility to Zameeli, the digital platform connecting Omani freelancers with SMEs.