The Middle East’s venture story has entered a new phase. The old question was whether startups in the region could attract funding at all. That question has been settled. Early stage capital is abundant, deal flow is strong, and founders across MENA have shown they can build companies that win investor backing. The challenge now is bigger: can the region create the liquidity and late stage capital needed to turn momentum into permanence?
That is the missing layer in MENA venture today: deep secondary markets and dedicated late stage summit-malta-to-help-affiliates-unlock-new-growth-in-a-changing-landscape/”>growth funds.
The numbers make the shift unmistakable. In 2025, startups in MENA raised about 3.8 billion dollars across nearly 700 deals, a roughly 74 percent increase on the previous year and the strongest funding year on record for the region. Saudi Arabia accounted for more than half of total venture funding and, for the first time, led in both capital deployed and deal count, with more than 250 transactions. The UAE and Egypt followed as the next most funded markets. Mid and late stage activity also came back strongly, and in the third quarter alone startups raised roughly 1.2 billion dollars, with close to 90 percent concentrated in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This is no longer a frontier market story. It is the story of a venture ecosystem that is growing faster than the financial infrastructure around it.
That gap is precisely why secondaries have become urgent
Across fintech, logistics, and digital infrastructure, the region has quietly built a cohort of mature private companies that are years away from an IPO but whose early investors, founding teams, and employees have been sitting on illiquid equity for the better part of a decade. A secondary market gives those stakeholders a way to realise partial value without forcing a premature exit or disrupting the company. The capital that is freed up does not disappear. It flows back into the ecosystem, backing the next generation of founders. In more developed markets, this recycling mechanism is what keeps venture capital self sustaining. In MENA, it is still being built.
The growth equity gap is equally pressing. The region is now producing genuine scale ups, businesses raising 50 to 100 million dollar rounds in capital intensive sectors, expanding across borders, and managing the governance complexity that comes with real size. Consider the trajectory of companies like Tabby, Tamara, or Lean Technologies in fintech, or the logistics and infrastructure businesses quietly crossing 100 million dollars in annual revenue. These companies have outgrown their early stage investors but have not yet reached the profile that attracts global buyout or pre-IPO funds. That is the window where dedicated regional late stage funds should be stepping in. Too often, they are not there, and founders are left choosing between raising from a global fund that does not understand the market or accepting terms that undervalue what they have built.
The policy direction is already aligned. Dubai’s D33 Economic Agenda calls for a pipeline of globally competitive, unicorn scale companies and targets a near doubling of foreign direct investment by 2033. Saudi Vision 2030 is channelling capital into economic diversification at a scale that requires anchor companies, not just startups. Ambitions of that magnitude need more than formation capital. They need the growth equity layer that takes promising companies across the finish line.
The encouraging reality is that the raw ingredients exist. Gulf family offices and sovereign wealth funds collectively manage capital at a scale that dwarfs the entire MENA venture market several times over. Regional institutions are increasingly comfortable with private market risk, and several have already made meaningful moves into venture through fund of funds programmes and direct commitments. What is missing is not the capital. It is the specialised vehicles and the institutional will to deploy that capital into structured, repeatable late stage strategies with the patience and expertise the category demands.
When those vehicles exist at scale, the benefits are not confined to late stage investors. Early backers gain more credible routes to liquidity, which makes it easier to raise new funds and back more ambitious ideas from day one. Founders gain the option to grow on their own terms rather than being pushed toward a sale before the business has reached its ceiling. And global investors, who are watching the region’s funding numbers with growing interest, will see something more compelling than a single record year. They will see a market with the architecture to sustain compounding growth.
MENA has already proved it can generate startups. The harder and more important proof is whether it can keep backing them through every stage of growth, creating the conditions where the best companies do not have to leave the region to find the capital they need to become world class.
The founders are already building. The companies are already scaling. The capital is already here. The only thing left to construct is the layer that connects them all.