Marhaba, fintech friends!

If the sudden congestion of Dubai's roads is any measure, September is most definitely here - not just in time, but in mindset.

In this part of the world, summer life tends to be horizontal: slower pace, lighter routines, days stretched wide. Then September arrives, and everything suddenly turns vertical: lanes fill, schedules pile up and the Q4 push kicks in.

That same verticality showed up in MENA fintech this week, with significant rounds closed for start-ups at the intersection of financial services, agriculture, property and education:

• Maalexi, an agri-fintech, raised a $20 million Shariah-compliant facility to finance agricultural supply chains, embedding credit into one of the region’s most fragmented and underserved sectors
• Holo secured $22 million to digitize the mortgage journey, tackling inefficiencies at the intersection of property and finance
• Cointel closed a $7.4 million round to expand its crypto education platform across North America.

As the roads fill up again, so does the fintech news cycle. Here are the week’s highlights.

💸 Fundraises and Exits

🇪🇬 Munify, Egypt-based fintech, raises $3 million in a seed funding round led by YCombinator, BYLD and DCG

🇦🇪 Maalexi, UAE-based agri-fintech, receives a $20 million shariah-compliant credit facility from Amal Capital Partners, to scale across the UAE and KSA

🇸🇦 Blomal Capital, Saudi-based fintech, raises a pre-seed funding round from Falak Investment Hub, at an undisclosed value

🇦🇪 Holo, UAE-based prop tech digitizing the mortgage journey, raises $22 million in series A funding led by Impact46

🇮🇳 With a fresh $25 million in Series B funding, India’s TransBnk plans its expansion in the Middle East and Southeast Asia

🇦🇪 Cointel, UAE-based edtech platform dedicated to crypto education, receives $7.4 million in funding to expand across North America.

💰 Funds

Saudi’s PIF exits its position in Meta Platforms, PayPal, Alibaba and Spotify

ASB Capital, a Dubai-based asset and wealth management firms with $5.5 billion AUM, launches the ASB Global Technology Fund to invest in listed equity securities of tech-driven companies across developed and emerging markets.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

RAK Properties partners with Hubpay to allow buyers to purchase property using digital assets such as USDT, Bitcoin and Ethereal

The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre signs an MoU with Sweden’s Vermiculus to deploy tech systems for exchanges, clearing houses and central securities depositories

PALM, Egypt-based investment platform, officially launches, offering customers a solution for saving, growing and accessing their funds

Mastercard and Circle expand their partnership to allow institutions to receive settlements in USDC and EURC

Orange Egypt gets exclusive with Saudi’s Enjaz Payment Services to offer free money transfers from Saudi to Egypt

Whish Money and Mastercard collaborate to facilitate inbound and outbound remittance flows for customers in Lebanon

Egypt’s ValU launches its Shop’IT marketplace, allowing customers to browse and shop a broad range of products locally and globally and earn cash back

O Gold, the UAE’s first local app for fractional gold and silver ownership, partners with botim to offer gold investments within the botim ecosystem, making the latter the first fintech in the UAE to offer gold investment solutions

Bahrain’s Khaleeji Bank partners with UAE-based eTijwaal App, a digital platform providing eSIM services for travelers, to give the bank’s clients easier access to mobile connectivity abroad while linking credit card usage with cashback rewards.

🏛 Licensing & Regulations

Fuze is penalized by Dubai’s VARA for gaps in its Anti-Money Laundering program

🎙️ This Week in: 🔥 Fintech Content

Episode 49 of the VC React Podcast, discussing Holo's fundraise and the aggregation-first model of proptech in MENA

Bahaa Abdulhadi, Chair of the MENA Fintech Association's Iraq chapter, sits with CNBC Arabia to explain how the country's financial inclusion rate went from 10% to 40% in one year

Head of Open and API banking at CBD, Saurabh Jain, shares his view on how scale could happen for MENA's fintechs

The Realistic Optimist's interview with founder of Syrian start-up, BeeOrder, Abdel Malek Al-Mouzayen, about pivoting from delivery to fintech, and building in wartime Syria.

📈 Number of the Week

Thank you for tuning in!

If you have feedback on this edition of This Week in Fintech MENA, please reach out on LinkedIn.

Until next week,

Salam ✌🏼