The CTO Show Brief: Issue 146

Author

Mehmet Gonullu
November 23, 2025

Welcome to Issue 146 of The CTO Show Brief!

This week’s funding wave shows Saudi and UAE doubling down on proptech, fintech, healthtech, and AI security, while Africa pushes climate-tech deeper into the global conversation. KAUST startups passed the billion-dollar mark, Saudi announced a fresh SAR1B push into US tech, and a new African liquidity index is finally shining light on exits. All of this is unfolding as global VC braces for an AI industrial era defined by compute shortages, megadeals, and an IPO freeze that’s reshaping liquidity. The MEA region isn’t just catching up to the world’s tech momentum, it’s syncing with it.

Whether you’re one of our 2,839 subscribers or a first-time reader—grab your coffee, and let’s dive into what’s shaping tech and venture this week!

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MEA Tech & VC Roundup

Funding Rounds

  • Saudi proptech Ghanem raises $7.1 million from Al-Romaih Group: Saudi proptech startup Ghanem, founded in 2025, has raised $7.1 million from Al-Romaih Group to expand its digital platform for fractional real estate ownership, democratizing investments with transparent, low-entry solutions. The funding supports innovation, product development, and market growth in Saudi Arabia, aligning with Vision 2030's real estate diversification efforts. This deal underscores rising VC activity in MEA's proptech sector.

  • Nabta Health closes $2 million pre-Series A to expand hybrid women’s health model: UAE-based Nabta Health has closed a $2 million Pre-Series A round, totaling $4.5 million raised, to scale its AI-powered hybrid model for women's health across the Middle East and Africa. The investment will enhance diagnostic testing, employer partnerships, and clinical infrastructure, addressing key health gaps. It reflects growing VC interest in healthtech for MEA emerging markets.

  • Takadao secures $1.5 million seed, total funding hits $3.1 million: Saudi fintech Takadao raised $1.5 million in seed funding from investors including Hasan VC and Draper Associates, bringing its total to $3.1 million for Shariah-compliant blockchain services like savings and loans. The company recently launched a prepaid VISA card for stablecoins and plans expansion into Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US. This bolsters fintech innovation in Saudi's emerging VC landscape.

  • Secure.com finalises $4.5 million funding to expand AI security agents: UAE-based Secure.com secured $4.5 million led by Disrupt.com to grow its AI security agents, tackling the 4.8-million-role cybersecurity talent gap amid $10.5 trillion in global cybercrime damages. The platform automates incident response for lean MENA teams, integrating with existing security stacks. The funding highlights AI-driven security as a priority in the region's tech ecosystem.

  • Kingpin concludes $3.5 million seed to build global AI-native distribution platform: UAE-based Kingpin raised $3.5 million in seed funding from Infinity Ventures and others to scale its AI SaaS platform for B2B retail distribution, streamlining global trade operations. Founded in 2021 and part of Abu Dhabi's Hub71, the company will expand into Europe and North America while growing its team. This investment signals strong VC support for AI solutions addressing trade inefficiencies in MENA.

  • Saudi B2B marketplace Shatib secures $750,000 pre-seed: Riyadh-based Shatib raised $750,000 in pre-seed funding from an angel investor to enhance its group-buying platform for construction materials, delivering 20-35% cost savings for developers and contractors. Founded in 2024, the marketplace improves procurement efficiency in Saudi's construction sector. This early-stage deal supports supply chain startups in the kingdom's growing ecosystem.

  • SahmAlgo raises $1 million to advance financial intelligence in Saudi Arabia: Saudi fintech SahmAlgo secured $1 million in seed funding led by Gharesah Investment to enhance its AI-powered financial analytics platform for traders and enterprises. The investment will expand AI algorithms, data assets, and institutional products, promoting real-time market intelligence. It underscores VC momentum in Saudi's fintech advancements for compliance and growth.

  • bluworks lands $1 million seed investment to accelerate MENA expansion: Egypt-based HRtech bluworks raised $1 million in seed funding from A15 and others, following a prior pre-seed round, to expand workforce management tools for blue-collar workers across MENA. The platform handles scheduling, payroll, and compliance tailored to Egyptian SMEs, with funds targeting market penetration and partnerships. This positions bluworks as a key player in digitalizing underserved labor sectors in emerging markets.

  • South African AI Platform Reaches Nearly $15M in Funding: South African climate-tech Plentify raised nearly $15 million in an oversubscribed round led by E3 Capital to scale its AI platform optimizing household energy for cost savings and sustainability. The startup has aggregated 100 MWh of capacity, saving 9.9 GWh of electricity and over R40 million for users via partnerships. This funding drives expansion in Africa and emerging markets, boosting VC in energy tech.

Ecosystem Reports

  • KAUST startups raise over $1 billion as Saudi deep-tech ecosystem gains global momentum: KAUST startups in Saudi Arabia have secured over $1 billion in funding, including $150 million in 2024, generating $925 million in revenue and 6,661 jobs while valuing the portfolio at $2 billion. This growth integrates with global VC through co-investments and events like Spectrum 2025, supporting international expansion of deep-tech firms. It advances Vision 2030 by fostering innovation, job creation, and capital inflow in MEA's tech landscape.

  • Africa's Startup Exit Activity Rises with 37 Exits in 2025, but Liquidity Remains Constrained: Africa's 2025 startup exits reached 37, with 22 trade sales and 40.5% involving international buyers, led by Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt in consumer sectors. Despite the uptick, liquidity is limited by narrow routes, under-reported transactions, and economic challenges, with only 16.2% of values disclosed. A new African liquidity index from 2015-2025 aims to boost transparency and attract more local/global participation.

  • Saudi Venture Capital Company Unveils SAR1 Billion in U.S. Joint Investments: The Saudi Venture Capital Company announced SAR1 billion ($266 million) in joint investments with 11 U.S. fund managers across 17 funds targeting late-stage tech and innovative firms. The initiative focuses on AI, advanced technologies, supply chains, and digital economy sectors to strengthen U.S.-Saudi ties. It supports Vision 2030's diversification through private sector opportunities in emerging markets.

 

Global Tech & VC Pulse

The week of November 17 crystallized what everyone suspected but few wanted to admit: we're in the industrial phase of AI now, and it's absurdly capital-intensive. Nvidia just posted $57B in quarterly revenue (up 62% YoY), Lambda raised $1.5B to build "gigawatt-scale" AI factories, and the terminology has shifted from petaflops to power grids. Meanwhile, the 43-day U.S. government shutdown created an IPO backlog that's pushing every late-2025 debut into 2026, forcing VCs to confront a brutal liquidity reality.

Oh, and Warren Buffett just bought $5B of Google stock. Make of that what you will.

The Nvidia Reality Check

Nvidia's fiscal Q3 numbers are borderline ridiculous. $57B in revenue, $31.9B in net income, and 73% gross margins. To put this in perspective: the company is generating more quarterly profit than most Fortune 500 companies make in annual revenue.

The real story isn't the numbers—it's what CEO Jensen Huang said about demand "compounding" across training and inference. The bear case for Nvidia was always that once models were trained, GPU demand would crater. Huang's commentary nukes that thesis. As AI moves from chatbots to agents that actually do things (book travel, write code, analyze data), compute intensity per interaction is exploding.

Stock dropped 1.8% anyway. The market priced for perfection, and when you're this big, even crushing estimates isn't enough.

Key metrics:

·       Data Center revenue: $51.2B (66% YoY growth)

·       GAAP gross margin: 73.4%

·       Share buyback authorization: $62B

·       Market reaction: Down despite the beat

Lambda's $1.5B Bet on Sovereign Compute

Lambda Labs closed a massive $1.5B Series E led by TWG Global, with backing from the US Innovative Technology Fund. This isn't just another cloud raise—it's a bet on "AI utilities" and sovereign infrastructure.

The company is building "Superclusters" with up to 165,000 GPUs specifically optimized for AI workloads, using InfiniBand interconnects for lower latency than general-purpose clouds. The involvement of Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology Fund signals this is partly a national security play—domestic compute that ensures data residency and protection from geopolitical supply shocks.

The shift in language is telling: Lambda talks about "gigawatt-scale" power, not processing speed. Energy availability is now the primary bottleneck, not silicon.

The Product Wars: Google Goes Nuclear

Google launched a full-court press this week with Gemini 3 and what they're calling "Nano Banana Pro" (yes, really). The Gemini 3 release includes a one-million-token context window embedded directly into Search and a new "Antigravity" IDE that's a direct shot at Microsoft's VS Code.

Gemini 3 implications:

·       Transforms Google Search from pointer to answer engine (bad news for publishers)

·       Deep Think mode embedded in the IDE targets developer workflows

·       Native integration across the entire Google ecosystem

Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) solves the text-rendering problem that plagued earlier image models. It can generate 4K images with accurate text for $0.24 per image—a strategic price point that's low enough for enterprise but high enough to deter spam. The SynthID watermarking gives corporate legal teams a "safe harbor" that open-source models can't provide.

Meanwhile, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei went on 60 Minutes comparing AI companies to "cigarette companies" if they don't disclose risks. It's regulatory capture theater—by advocating for strict rules that Anthropic already follows, they're raising barriers to entry for smaller competitors. Smart, if cynical.

OpenAI countered with a paper showing GPT-5 independently rediscovering mathematical theorems and generating new proofs in convex optimization and immunology research. The "compressed 21st century" thesis is looking less theoretical by the day.

The IPO Freeze and What It Means

The 43-day government shutdown ended November 12, but the damage is lasting. The SEC can't process the backlog of registration statements, effectively slamming shut the Q4 2025 IPO window. Companies like Chime, Databricks, and Medline are being forced into 2026.

The ones that did make it out aren't exactly thriving. Figma tripled on debut but has retraced to near its $33 IPO price. Klarna is trading at $29, well below its $40 issue price. When even successful exits underperform, the math for late-stage companies gets ugly fast.

Implications for VCs:

·       DPI pressure intensifies (can't return capital without exits)

·       Secondary markets will boom as employees/early investors seek liquidity

·       Expect discounts to last preferred round valuations

·       Fundraising for new funds gets exponentially harder

The government is running on a continuing resolution until January 30, 2026, which means this uncertainty isn't going away soon.

Buffett's $5B Google Vote

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a $5.06B stake in Alphabet (17.8M shares), making it the tenth-largest position in the portfolio. This is huge for two reasons:

First, Buffett historically avoided tech except for Apple. Buying Google now signals he views Search and YouTube as digital utilities—toll roads that generate predictable cash flow regardless of cycles.

Second, Berkshire simultaneously cut its Apple stake by nearly 15% ($10.6B). That's a rotation from consumer hardware to AI infrastructure and services. Buffett is betting that value capture in the AI era shifts to the cloud layer, not devices.

It's also implicit validation that Google's massive AI capex will generate returns—that owning the full stack (TPUs, cloud, models, search) constitutes a defensible moat.

VC Activity: The Quality Flight Continues

Venture capital in late November is a tale of extreme bifurcation. Capital flows freely to top-tier assets; the "middle class" of startups is effectively frozen out.

Ramp: The Agentic Finance Winner

Ramp closed a $300M Series E at a $32B valuation (up 42% from $22.5B in July), led by Lightspeed with participation from Founders Fund, Khosla, and Iconiq. The company is no longer just selling corporate cards—it's building an "operating system for finance" using AI agents that automate procurement, travel booking, receipt reconciliation, and contract negotiation.

This is the rebundling thesis in action. The CFO stack is collapsing into a single AI-driven platform that displaces multiple legacy SaaS vendors. The $300M isn't to fund growth—it's to fuel the AI agent buildout.

The Missing Middle

While mega-rounds grab headlines, smaller deals tell the real story:

·       GoTu (dental staffing): $45M

·       Reimagine Care (home health): $2.4M

·       Xenia (facility management): $12M Series A

·       Siftwell Analytics: $3.5M Seed

The proliferation of NC IDEA grant recipients highlights the importance of non-dilutive funding as seed VCs turn risk-averse.

Regional Dynamics

India: Tech hiring dropped 3% month-over-month in November due to sluggish festive season spending and cautious global IT clients. Nifty IT index is up 3.37% on hope for 2026 U.S. recovery, but the disconnect between stock performance (forward-looking) and hiring (current reality) suggests volatility ahead.

Southeast Asia: The mantra has shifted to "DPI is the new IRR." Without IPOs, investors are demanding cash distributions from mature funds, creating intense pressure on founders to show profitability or sell. IPO proceeds are up 53% YTD to $5.6B, but that's regional exchanges—not the same liquidity as Nasdaq.

China: Continues tech-military fusion under "Made in China 2025." Toyota's push for solid-state battery mass production by 2027 is a direct response to China's EV battery dominance. The energy density race is the new front in the US-China tech war.

M&A: The New Exit Path

With IPOs frozen, M&A is the only game in town. Major consolidations this week:

·       HPE/Juniper Networks ($13.4B): Completed. HPE positioning to compete in AI data center interconnects.

·       Synopsys/ANSYS: Uniting chip design (EDA) with physical simulation. Critical as chips go 3D and move to chiplets.

·       Telecom consolidation: Swisscom/Vodafone Italia and T-Mobile/US Cellular funding capex for 6G and AI-ready networks.

The "reverse acqui-hire" trend is accelerating (see: Amazon/Covariant). Instead of buying companies outright and triggering antitrust review, Big Tech hires founders and licenses IP. Expect this model to proliferate in 2026 as FTC and EU scrutiny remains intense.

What It All Means

The velocity of technology has visibly outpaced institutional capacity. On one side: Nvidia growing 62%, Lambda building gigawatt factories, Google embedding PhD-level reasoning into IDEs, OpenAI discovering new math. On the other: government shutdowns freezing IPOs, SEC backlogs, market volatility from "perfection fatigue," and the EU forced to delay its own laws because tech moves too fast to regulate.

For investors: The middle is dead. Barbell into infrastructure (Lambda, Nvidia, energy) with guaranteed demand, or application-layer monopolies (Ramp, Google) that own workflows. Generic SaaS is a value trap.

For founders: Prep for 2026 liquidity crunch. Extend runways, explore secondary sales for employee liquidity, consider "reverse acqui-hire" structures if M&A faces antitrust blocks.

For everyone: The winners of the next cycle will be those who can build the infrastructure of the future while surviving the institutional paralysis of the present.

 🎙️Episodes Recap:

 

In this powerful conversation, Wesley Eugene , SVP North America at HIT Global, joins Mehmet to explore a new framework for technology leadership. They go deep into human centered design, why digital transformations fail, how AI forces us to rethink what it means to work, and why empathy is now a competitive advantage.

In this episode, Mehmet sits down with VC and author Ben Wiener to unpack one of the most practical, founder-friendly pitching frameworks in the startup world today. Ben is the creator of the HEART Framework and the author of the bestselling business fable Fever Pitch. He breaks down why most pitches fail, how investors actually think, and how founders can use storytelling to turn curiosity into conviction.

In this episode, Mehmet sits down with Harish Chandramowli , Head of AI at Good Day Software, to explore how AI is reshaping the future of fashion, retail, and e-commerce operations. Harish shares his journey from cybersecurity engineering at Bloomberg and cloud security at MongoDB to building fashion-specific AI tools that solve real operational pain points around data chaos, messy workflows, and inventory waste.

 

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

 — Mehmet