Marhaba, fintech friends!

This week, the UAE completed its first official government transaction using the Digital Dirham - and it's a big step in its payments transformation strategy.

The Digital Dirham sits at the center of the UAE’s long-term plan to modernize its financial infrastructure. It’s the culmination of a multi-year rollout under the Central Bank’s FIT program.

⏳ The timeline in brief:

• March 2023: The Central Bank announces the Digital Dirham strategy as part of the Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) program.
• Mid-2024: Phase 1 begins, focusing on domestic issuance pilots (wholesale + retail), the soft launch of mBridge for cross-border settlement and CBDC corridors with India.
• April 2025: The UAE reveals the Digital Dirham symbol and wallet, confirming a 2025 retail launch and full integration in 2026.
• July 2025: Pilot results show strong performance in financial inclusion, programmable payments and secure instant settlement through an intermediated distribution model.
• Late 2025: Retail rollout begins with digital wallet integration and phased onboarding into banking apps and merchant systems.

Why this matters:
The first official transaction is a nod to the national CBDC's transition from experimentation to real deployment, moving closer to programmable, instant, low-cost settlement across retail, wholesale and cross-border use cases.

With that, let’s get into the rest of this week’s fintech news across MENA.

💸 Fundraises and Exits

🇸🇦 Takadao, a Saudi-based fintech providing decentralized, Sharia-compliant financial alternatives, raises $1.5 million in seed funding

🇸🇦 Ghanem, Saudi-based digital real estate investment platform, raises $7.1 million from Al-Romaih Group

🇸🇦 Builtop, Saudi-based embedded finance procurement platform, closes $11 million in funding, led by TAM Capital

🇸🇦 Rased, an AI-powered financial fraud detection and prevention platform, raises pre-seed funding from Wa'ed Ventures

🇦🇪 Klaim, a UAE healthcare-fintech platform, receives a strategic investment from Claritev Corporation

🇲🇦 Chari, Moroccan fintech and e-commerce platform, raises funding from DisrupTech Ventures in a Series A extension

🇸🇦 Shatib, Saudi-based proptech, receives $750 thousand in pre-seed funding

🇸🇦 SahmAlgo closes a $1 million seed round to further its financial intelligence AI solution across the region.

💰 Funds

🇸🇦 Vision Ventures launches Saqr Fund II, targeting Saudi start-ups in fintech, e-commerce, SaaS, cybersecurity and AI

🇶🇦 Qatar Insurance Company invests in Singapore-based wealth and asset management firm, Lighthouse Canton

🇸🇦 Binbar Investment and Joa Capital launch the Marhoon Fund, allowing companies to access financing solutions with operational assets as collateral

🇳🇬 Ventures Platform, a Pan-African seed-stage VC, completes a $64 million first close of its VP Pan-African Fund II, expanding its mandate to Francophone and North Africa with a focus on start-ups in fintech, healthtech, agritech, edtech and AI

🇧🇭 Bahrain's Ministry of Industry and Commerce introduces the SME Fund: a $185 million financing initiative

🇲🇦🇺🇬 First Circle Capital, Morocco and Uganda-based VC firm, receives $6 million from the IFC for its pan-African fintech fund

🇸🇦 Saudi's Tarmeez Capital introduces a government-backed billion-dollar financing initiative for SMEs in the Kingdom.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

🇪🇬 MNT Halan and Azimut launch Halan AZ Real Estate Fund: a multi-tranche, licensed fund giving digital access to real estate investment opportunities

🇪🇬 Egypt Post launches Felousy: a fully integrated digital platform dedicated to invetsing in funds

🇦🇪 Numou and Abhi partner on embedded finance and working capital solutions

🇦🇪 First Abu Dhabi Bank partners with Thunes to offer real-time cross-border and mobile wallet payout to over 130 countries

🇧🇭🇸🇬 In collaboration with Bahrain Fintech Bay, BENEFIT and MonetaGo are implementing Bahrain's National Digital Public Infrastructure initiative

🇦🇪 Paymentology launches PayCredit: a combination of credit ledger management and card issuance tailored to digital banks and financial institutions

🇰🇼 The National Bank of Kuwait launches its Fintech Services, including virtual IBANs with secure APIs, Bin sponsorship and QR Code cash withdrawal

🇧🇭 Bahrain's Tanami introduces SmartMatch: a private market robo-advisor that helps investors build tailored portfolios

🇦🇪 In partnership with Thunes, Mashreq Bank rolls out instant mobile wallet transfers to millions of customers across major remittance corridors

🇧🇭 Bahrain's Fawri+ links with India's UPI to connect cross-border payment links.

🏛 Licensing & Regulations

🇦🇪 The Central Bank of the UAE launches the UAE National Financial Inclusion Strategy (2026-2030)

🇸🇦 Fas Finance gets its SAMA license revoked

🇦🇪🇸🇦 Shory receives regulatory approval to launch its digital insurance solutions in Saudi Arabia

🇸🇦 Darb Pay gets licensed in Saudi to roll out its e-wallet solutions

🇪🇬 Flash receives a payment facilitator/ aggregator and card payment license from Egypt's FRA.

🎆 In other news...

The UAE ranks among global leaders in digital-asset regulation.

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 ✌🏼