In February 2025, the startup ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) experienced a surge in investment, with startups raising $494 million across 58 deals.
This represents a nearly 5x increase compared to the same period in 2024, highlighting the growing investor confidence in the region which BitKE already analyzed here.
🇪🇬🇱🇾🇲🇦🇹🇳🇩🇿NORTH AFRICA | MENA Startups – From Underdogs to Leading Innovators in the Global Fintech Arena
Recent data indicates that #MENA valuations are either holding steady or increasing.
For instance, in 2023, the average EV/revenue multiple for SME lending fintechs in… pic.twitter.com/s5tH6D9Lqz
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) August 30, 2024
The nature of funding also shifted significantly. In January 2025, debt financing dominated, accounting for 90% of total investments. By February 2025, however, its share had dropped sharply to just 15%, signaling a move toward more equity-based funding.
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Web3, which received the highest value of investments in December 2024 ($106 million) underperformed with just $100K raised from one startup.https://t.co/SVft9UcelX pic.twitter.com/YU9Lgz8nnv
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) February 18, 2025
When excluding debt financing from both months, February 2025’s investment activity saw an extraordinary 371% month-on-month (MoM) growth, underscoring the region’s accelerating momentum in startup funding.
- Saudi Arabian startups dominated fundraising in the region last month, securing $250.3 million across 25 deals.
- The UAE followed closely behind, with 15 startups collectively raising $203.5 million.
- Egypt trailed in third place, with eight startups securing a total of $27.5 million. Meanwhile,
- Oman made a comeback to the top four, with two startups attracting $6 million in funding.
- Fintech dominated the investment landscape last month, securing $274 million across 15 deals, making it the top-performing sector.
- Insurtech followed, raising $55 million through just two deals, while
- Logistics ranked third, attracting $28.5 million across four deals.
Web3 sector saw 2 startups raising a combined $5 millionFebruary 2025 saw a notable increase in later-stage funding, with several startups securing significant investments in Series B and Series E rounds. This shift indicates growing investor confidence in scaling businesses across the region.
However,
- The majority of deals were still concentrated in early-stage funding.
- The pre-seed stage attracted the highest number of investments, with 15 startups securing $22 million.
- Series A startups collectively raised $158 million across seven rounds, while
- 10 seed-stage startups secured a total of $27.8 million.
- Startups following the business-to-business (B2B) model dominated funding in February2025, securing $191.6 million across 33 deals.
- Business-to-consumer (B2C) startups followed, raising $138.5 million through 18 transactions, while
- Six startups operating in both models attracted $164 million.
As in previous months,
- Male-founded startups received the vast majority of funding, securing $429 million – 87% of the total investment. In contrast,
- Female-founded startups raised just $200,000, with
- The remaining capital going to startups co-founded by both genders.
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