MENA startup funding holds at $1.7bn in H1 2026, down 18% year on year

MENA startups raised $1.7 billion across 242 funding rounds in the first half of 2026, an 18 percent decline from $2.1 billion a year earlier, as investors grew more selective under regional geopolitical uncertainty rather than retreating outright, according to Wamda's H1 2026 report. The UAE dominated, taking $1.2 billion across 83 deals, with Saudi Arabia ($259 million, 80 deals) and Egypt ($158.9 million, 29 deals) well behind. Fintech was the region's largest sector by capital ($708 million across 51 rounds), followed by logistics and property tech, and early-stage companies accounted for most activity: 172 early-stage startups raised a combined $444 million, against just 11 later-stage rounds. The report also flagged a stark funding gap by founder gender: male-founded startups captured roughly 95 percent of capital deployed ($1.6 billion across 213 deals), while female-founded startups raised just $2.5 million across 14 deals. Individual raises this cycle included Saudi AI-infrastructure startup Think ($8 million pre-seed, the largest deeptech pre-seed round in MENA to date), Egyptian logistics firm Mylerz ($2 million), Moroccan super-app ORA Technologies (extending its Series A to $10 million, fully financed by Moroccan investors), and Damascus-based AlMkhtar ($100,000 seed). A region's startup ecosystem is tested less by its best year than by how selective its investors get in a hard one; MENA's capital concentrated toward proven sectors and fundamentals rather than disappearing.

This is a QeRN summary by Ahmed Qerni. Read the original at Arab News: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2651443/amp.