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Welcome to another edition of 🔍 Startup Researcher - Asia, your essential digest delivering the latest news and premium insights on startups and venture capital across the region 🌏️
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📰 Important News
- NEO PAY and PayPal partnered to enhance digital payments in the UAE, empowering SMEs and streamlining cross-border transactions.
- Arabic.AI and Stanford University launched an Arabic LLM benchmark, standardizing evaluation for AI serving over 400 million Arabic speakers.
- Wio Bank partnered with Pine Labs to upgrade UAE merchant acquiring using the Credit+ cloud platform.
- Notion launched full Arabic support across its platforms to serve Middle East users, improving collaboration and accessibility across the region.
- MoneyHash partnered with Tap Payments to integrate its gateway, expanding seamless payment acceptance for merchants across MENA.
💸 Top Funding Rounds
- Property Finder secured a $170 million investment led by Mubadala to boost its growth and AI-driven innovation across the MENA real estate market.
- PayLater landed a $10 million seed round from LuLu Alternative Investments and QDB, fueling expansion into new verticals.
- Vennre raised $9.6 million in pre-Series A funding to expand private market access for high-earning professionals in MENA.
- UAE-based insurtech Mantas attracted $1.77 million seed funding to launch parametric insurance for cloud service outages.
- Yozo.ai raised a $1.7 million pre-seed round from Access Bridge Ventures and Disruptech VC to enhance its AI-powered e-commerce marketing platform.
💰️ IPO and M&A Watch
- Merit, a global engagement and incentives technology company, acquired Australian specialist Synchro Marketing to expand its global reach.
- Glamera Holding acquired Bookr Group to consolidate the beauty tech market across the Middle East, aiming to create a unified AI-powered platform.
- Jordanian edtech Abwaab acquired Apex Education to expand into elite global university admissions guidance for MENA students.
🏦 About Investors
- Mubadala Capital raised $554 million for its first co-investment fund, beating its target and drawing global investors to Abu Dhabi SWF deal flow.
- Investcorp Saudi Arabia partnered with Stake to give individual investors digital access to institutional-grade global real estate under Saudi regulations.
- Savvy Games Group and NEOM partnered to create an incubation-to-acceleration pipeline for Saudi gaming startups.
- ShaikhTech launched AmanaVest to open Saudi real estate to global investors, offering Sharia-compliant, tech-driven property investments.
- Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi was appointed Executive Chairman and Managing Partner at Lunate to lead its global expansion.
🚀 Startup of the Week
Introducing our Startup of the Week 🏆
PayLater
Founded in 2023 in Doha by Mohammed Al-Delaimi and Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon, PayLater is Qatar’s first Qatar Central Bank–licensed Buy Now, Pay Later platform, offering Shari’a-compliant, interest-free installment payments. The company enables consumers to split purchases transparently while helping merchants, both online and offline, increase conversion rates and average order value. In a major milestone, PayLater closed a $10 million seed round, one of Qatar’s largest, led by LuLu Alternative Investments with backing from Qatar Development Bank and KBN Holding. In its first year, PayLater processed over $82 million in transactions for more than 80,000 customers and is now expanding into travel, education, and healthcare, positioning itself as a core player in Qatar’s fintech ecosystem.
💼 Investor of the Week
Introducing our Investor of the Week 🏆
Mubadala Capital
Founded in 2011 and backed by Mubadala Investment Company, Mubadala Capital is the alternative asset management arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, investing across private equity, venture capital, and special opportunities globally. Headquartered in Abu Dhabi with offices in New York, London, San Francisco, and Rio de Janeiro, the firm manages around $30 billion in assets, including significant third-party capital. Its latest milestone came with the close of a $554 million first co-investment fund, surpassing its initial target and drawing investors from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Led by executives including Fatima Al Noaimi and Maxime Franzetti, Mubadala Capital differentiates itself by opening Abu Dhabi’s deep sovereign deal flow to global investors, acting as a bridge between regional capital and international private markets.
🤑 Opportunities Expiring Soon
AWS/CTIB Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator
- 📢 Organizer: Vestbee
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Pre-Series A, Series A
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 3, 2026
Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge 2026
- 📢 Organizer: University of San Diego
- 🗂️ Category: Funding, Competition/Challenge, Award/Prize
- 🪜 Target Stages: Seed, Revenue-generating
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 6, 2026
Fast-track To Impact Programme
- 📢 Organizer: ProVeg International
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Agriculture & Food
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 8, 2026
Entrepreneur First (EF) Spring 2026 - The Global Talent Investor
- 📢 Organizer: Entrepreneur First
- 🗂️ Category: Accelerator, Funding
- 🪜 Target Stages: Ideation, Pre-seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Sector Agnostic
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 8, 2026
xG-Incubator
- 📢 Organizer: xG-Incubator
- 🗂️ Category: Incubator, Funding
- 🪜 Target Stages: Pre-seed, Seed
- 🏭 Focus Sectors: Connectivity & Networks, DeepTech
- 📅 Application Deadline: February 9, 2026
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