The CTO Show Brief: Issue 126

Author

Mehmet Gonullu
July 06, 2025

Welcome to the 126th  edition of The CTO Show Brief!

This week’s roundup captures the accelerating tempo across MENA’s tech corridors and beyond. From Wave’s $137M debt round to Iraq’s InstaBank securing $15M to reimagine digital banking, fintech remains a magnet for capital. Saudi Arabia added a new unicorn as Ninja’s $250M round puts Q-commerce in IPO mode, while Dubai’s Prop-AI and Ghana’s Liquify prove that data-driven innovation is no longer optional—it’s foundational. Globally, AI dominance is splitting into two strategies: Meta’s AGI moonshot and Apple’s scramble to catch up. Meanwhile, investors are doubling down on physical-AI convergence, and regulatory pressure is reshaping go-to-market playbooks. Whether you’re a founder, investor, or operator, one thing’s clear—adaptation is not optional in Q3.

Whether you’re one of our 2,668 subscribers or a first-time reader—grab your coffee, and let’s dive into what’s shaping tech and venture this week!

 

MEA Tech Momentum

🏦 FINTECH

Wave Raises $137M Debt Funding

African fintech unicorn Wave secured $137 million in debt financing led by Rand Merchant Bank to expand its mobile money operations across West Africa. The Senegalese company, which achieved unicorn status in 2021 with a $1.7 billion valuation, serves over 20 million monthly users and offers mobile money services with just 1% transfer fees.

Saudi Fuel Platform PetroApp Secures $50M

Jadwa Investment led a $50 million investment in PetroApp, Saudi Arabia's leading digital fuel and fleet management platform. Founded in 2018, PetroApp manages over 500,000 vehicles for 10,000+ corporate clients through 5,000+ fuel stations across Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Thailand, and Nigeria.

Dubai's Prop-AI Raises $1.5M Pre-Seed

Dubai-based proptech startup Prop-AI closed a $1.5 million pre-seed round led by Plus VC to expand its AI-powered real estate platform across MENA. The platform has integrated over 2 billion real estate data points and analyzes 188,000+ weekly active property listings, helping buyers and investors make data-driven decisions.

Egypt's AgriCash Raises Seed Round

Egyptian agri-fintech AgriCash secured an undisclosed seed funding round led by Alex Angels to scale its digital financing platform for farmers. The company offers AI-powered agronomic insights, crop insurance, and BNPL financing with credit ceilings of EGP 3M, targeting EGP 500 million in business volume by 2025.

Ghana's Liquify Secures $1.5M for Trade Finance

Ghanaian fintech Liquify raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Future Africa to address Africa's $120 billion trade finance gap. Founded by Nadya Yaremenko and Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, the platform helps African SME exporters convert unpaid invoices into same-day cash, having facilitated over 150 transactions worth $4 million since beta launch.

Iraq's InstaBank Raises $15M

EQIQ anchored a $15 million funding round for InstaBank (Al-Fawr Digital Bank), Iraq's next-generation digital bank founded by Iraqi-American banker Hussain Qaragholi. The bank aims to transform Iraq's underserved financial sector through AI-powered solutions and customer-first design, targeting the fourth-largest economy in the MENA region.

🦄 UNICORNS & BIG ROUNDS

Saudi Q-Commerce Ninja Hits Unicorn Status

Saudi Arabia's quick-commerce platform Ninja raised $250 million led by Riyad Capital, achieving a $1.5 billion valuation and unicorn status. Founded by Saud Al Qahtani and Canberk Donmez, Ninja delivers groceries and daily essentials across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait, with plans for a Tadawul IPO by 2027.

🤖 AI & TECH PLATFORMS

France's PoliCloud Raises $8.8M

French sovereign cloud infrastructure company PoliCloud secured $8.8 million in seed funding led by MENA VC Global Ventures. The company offers eco-friendly, secure HPC cloud solutions tailored to public sector and enterprise sovereignty needs, positioning itself as a European alternative to US cloud giants.

UAE's idea-L Secures $1M for AI Venture Platform

Dubai-based idea-L raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to launch its AI and Web3-powered venture creation platform. Founded by Peter Goodwin, Daniel Muller, and Mark Hill, the platform uses AI to turn ideas into investor-ready ventures, with plans to launch a governance token and deVC Fund by year-end.

Saudi's Flawless Raises $1.5M for Career Platform

Saudi Arabia-based career mentorship platform Flawless secured $1.5 million in pre-seed funding from angel investors. Founded by Shaimaa Alghamdi, the platform uses generative AI and social psychology to offer personalized career guidance, evolving from a blog in 2023 to a full-fledged digital startup.

🔗 BLOCKCHAIN & WEB3

Dubai-based RWA tokenization platform Byzanlink raised $1 million backed by Outlier Ventures, NTDP Saudi Arabia, and other investors. Founded by Anbu Kannappan and operating from DMCC, the platform builds infrastructure to tokenize traditional financial assets, offering enhanced transparency and operational efficiency through blockchain.

Morocco Climbs to 6th in African Startup Funding

Morocco's startup ecosystem raised $94.96 million across 40 deals in 2024, jumping from $33.26 million in 2023 and placing the country 6th in Africa for startup funding. However, just three startups accounted for nearly 65% of all capital raised, with TravelTech firm Nuitée securing a record $48 million Series A round.

Saudi Arabia's PIF Gets Investment Boost

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund PIF saw income from investment activities rise 38% to $34.5 billion in 2024, driven by dividends and asset sales for the second consecutive year. The fund, which manages $925 billion in assets, has been focusing more on domestic investments while maintaining its position as one of the world's most active sovereign wealth funds.

Global Private Equity Firms Rush to UAE

Private equity firms managing over $700 billion in assets, including Sweden's EQT, France's Eurazeo, and UK's Pollen Street Capital, are expanding into the UAE. The firms are attracted by the region's deep capital pools, favorable business environment, and growing opportunities despite regional geopolitical tensions.

🌍 Global Tech & VC Pulse

The week ending July 4, 2025, marked a critical inflection point in the global technology landscape, defined by an acceleration of the AI arms race, unprecedented venture capital concentration, and intensifying regulatory scrutiny. 

The AI Arena: A Tale of Two Strategies

Meta: The All-In AGI Gambit

🔹 Strategy: Centralized "Superintelligence Labs" approach 🔹 Investment: $14.8B stake in Scale AI (49%) 🔹 Leadership: External hires - Alexandr Wang (Scale AI CEO) & Nat Friedman (GitHub CEO) 🔹 Talent Acquisition: 4 researchers poached from OpenAI 🔹 Target Acquisitions: Perplexity.ai, Runway, Play.ai

Apple: The Make vs. Buy Dilemma

🔸 Challenge: Internal AI development delays 🔸 Solution: Considering external partnerships (Anthropic/OpenAI) 🔸 Cost: Multi-billion annual licensing fees demanded 🔸 Risk: Internal team demoralization and talent flight 🔸 Timeline: Advanced Siri features delayed to 2026

🎯 Strategic Analysis

Meta's Gambit: The creation of Superintelligence Labs represents the most aggressive corporate AI strategy to date, consolidating talent, capital, and research under a single AGI-focused mission.

Apple's Dilemma: For the first time, Apple's vertical integration philosophy faces a genuine challenge as the company considers outsourcing core AI capabilities to remain competitive.

 

Venture Capital: The Mega-Round Era

🏆 TOP FUNDING ROUNDS THIS WEEK

🥇 Anduril - $2.5B Series G

·       Valuation: $30.5B

·       Sector: AI Defense Technology

·       Significance: Validates VC-backed defense model

🥈 Thinking Machines Lab - $2.0B Seed

·       Founded by: Mira Murati (ex-OpenAI CTO)

·       Lead Investor: Andreessen Horowitz

·       Significance: Redefines seed-stage funding

🥉 Neuralink - $650M Series E

·       Valuation: $9.0B

·       Sector: Brain-Computer Interface

·       Focus: Human trials acceleration

Other Major Rounds:

·       TerraPower: $650M (Nuclear Energy)

·       Applied Intuition: $600M (Automotive AI)

·       Cyera: $540M (AI Cybersecurity)

🌍 Regional Hotspots

New York City: $2.45B across 101 deals (+32.3% vs May) Europe: Strong in HealthTech, Climate Tech, Deep Tech India: Active IPO pipeline with multiple filings

 

M&A ACTIVITY & MARKET MOVEMENTS

HPE ↔ Juniper Networks - $14B ✅ Cleared

·       Settlement with DOJ

·       Focus: AI-native networking capabilities

·       Strategic rationale: Defensive consolidation

IonQ ↔ Oxford Ionics - $1.1B

·       Sector: Quantum computing consolidation

·       Impact: IP and talent combination

⚠️ Nvidia Insider Sales: $1B+

·       CEO Jensen Huang participates for first time since 2023

·       Timing: During record stock highs

·       Signal: Potential near-term valuation peak

⚖️ REGULATORY & GEOPOLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

US Rejects AI Moratorium

In a stunning 99-1 vote, the US Senate rejected a federal moratorium on state-level AI regulation. This is a major blow to Big Tech's hopes for a single, light-touch framework and guarantees a complex, costly "patchwork" of 50 different state laws on AI safety, bias, and privacy.

Transatlantic Squeeze on Big Tech

In the US: The DOJ's landmark antitrust lawsuit against Apple cleared a major hurdle, as a judge denied Apple's motion to dismiss. The case now proceeds, posing an existential threat to Apple's "walled garden" business model. In the EU: Tech lobbyists are pushing to delay the EU AI Act, citing a lack of technical guidance. EU regulators are pushing back, moving the world's first comprehensive AI law from debate to high-stakes implementation.

National Security & Cyber Threats

The DOJ dismantled a scheme where North Korean IT workers infiltrated hundreds of US companies as remote employees, stealing IP and funneling funds to Pyongyang. Separately, researchers found a massive breach of 16 billion passwords circulating online, highlighting the fragile state of digital security.

 

🔮 Q3 2025 Outlook & Strategic Recommendations

For Venture Capitalists & Investors 💼

✅ Focus Areas:

·       AI application layer vs foundational models

·       "Picks and shovels" supporting AI boom

·       Physical-world AI intersections (robotics, defense, health)

·       Regulatory compliance technology market

For Corporate Strategists 🏢

✅ Action Items:

·       Conduct honest "make vs buy" AI capability assessment

·       Consider acquisition-led strategy (following HPE playbook)

·       Model for increased regulatory friction and compliance costs

·       Prepare for fragmented global regulatory landscape

For Founders 🚀

✅ Strategic Paths:

·       Foundational Models: Secure mega-capital from day one

·       Application Layer: Identify defensible niches

·       Regional Advantage: Leverage regulatory environment (EU data sovereignty)

·       Enterprise Focus: Address specific compliance needs

🎙️Episodes Recap:

 

In this episode of The CTO Show, Mehmet welcomes Keith Cassar, CTO at Game Lounge, who shares his journey from SQL developer to tech leader, and what it takes to evolve from a data specialist into a cross-functional CTO.

In this episode, Mehmet Gonullu sits down with Mary Moore-Simmons, VP of Engineering at Keebo AI, to unpack what it really takes to scale high-performing engineering teams in today’s AI-powered environment. From DevOps and ML Ops to building team culture that lasts, Mary shares hard-won insights from over a decade in engineering leadership across startups and high-growth tech companies.

In this episode of The CTO Show with Mehmet, we sit down with Eric Müller, Product Engineering Associate Director at Work & Co, to unpack the evolving intersection of AI adoption, digital security, and empathetic leadership.

Let’s Stay Connected

🎙️ Have a unique POV on tech or venture? I’m always looking to feature sharp minds on The CTO Show — founders, operators, investors, or ecosystem builders.

 

🤝 Exploring new markets or strategies? I’m open to conversations around go-to-market, venture insights, and cross-border growth — especially between MEA and global hubs.

 

📩 Enjoyed this brief? Forward it to someone thinking deeply about where innovation, capital, and technology intersect.

 

Thanks for reading — and for being part of this growing, global-minded network.

 

— Mehmet