JULY 2026: THE MONTH IN NUMBERS Wamda’s July report landed this week and the headline tells a mixed story. MENA startups raised <head>72.6 million across 45 deals in July 2026, a 16% increase from June, though the figure still sits 78% below July 2025’s totals. The composition matters more than the number. Debt financing accounted for 56% of the total, compared to just 11.5% the previous month and 2% a year prior. Equity investment continued to lag. Saudi Arabia led the month. Startups in the Kingdom secured <head>06.6 million across 16 deals, accounting for nearly 62% of all capital raised. The UAE followed with the same number of transactions but attracted $46.6 million. No mega deals or late-stage rounds were announced in July, leaving early-stage startups to dominate both deal value and volume. That’s actually the cleaner read on the market right now: selective, early-stage heavy, and increasingly debt-reliant for anything above seed. DEALS THIS WEEK 🇦🇪 Epic Markets | <head>0M Pre-Seed | Fintech UAE-based fintech Epic Markets raised <head>0 million in a pre-seed round from Karatage, the round’s sole investor, to develop a multi-asset brokerage platform for retail investors. Founded in 2026 by Kevin Kimmel and Brian Seegers, the startup is building a platform intended to provide individual investors with institutional-grade trade execution and professional trading infrastructure across multiple asset classes. <head>0M pre-seed from a single investor is a notable bet. The pitch is essentially democratizing institutional trading infrastructure for retail. The UAE is a natural market for this given the density of high-net-worth retail investors and the region’s growing appetite for diversified asset access beyond property. 🇸🇦 Ash Games | <head>.5M Seed | Gaming Saudi Arabia-based game development studio Ash Games raised <head>.5 million in seed funding, co-led by Merak Capital and Impact46 through the Merak Gaming Fund. Founded in 2022 by Anas Bakhsh, Yaser Al-Ahmadi and Saud Bakolka, Ash Games develops PC and console action-adventure titles inspired by Saudi culture, history and mythology. Its flagship title, Nomad, is scheduled for release on PC, PlayStation and Xbox in 2027. Saudi gaming is no longer just investment in international studios. Culturally rooted IP, built domestically, targeting global audiences. Nomad is one to watch. 🇪🇬 Fincart | $2.8M Seed | E-commerce Ops Egypt-based e-commerce operations platform Fincart raised an oversubscribed $2.8 million seed round co-led by Launch Africa and Antler MENAP, with participation from Yango Ventures, Five35 Ventures, Bluestream Capital, Hi2 Global and Kalahari Venture Labs. Founded in 2023 by Mostafa Masry and Nihal Ali, Fincart provides an AI-powered platform that allows merchants to manage shipping, customer engagement and cash advances through a single interface. The company integrates with more than 40 courier companies across Africa and has facilitated nearly 1 billion Egyptian pounds (<head>9.5 million) in gross merchandise value. Oversubscribed round, real GMV, 40+ courier integrations. This is one of the more traction-backed early-stage deals to come out of Egypt this quarter. 🇶🇦 SkipCash | Undisclosed | Fintech Qatar-based fintech SkipCash secured a strategic investment from Qatar International Islamic Bank to support its growth and regional expansion. Founded in 2019 by Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Delaimi, SkipCash provides digital payment solutions including online payment gateways, merchant acquiring, QR payments, payment links, Tap to Phone services and integrated payment technologies. Terms were not disclosed. The QIIB backing matters more as a distribution signal than a capital event, giving SkipCash a direct route into the bank’s merchant and corporate base. 🇸🇦 Growth Catalyst Fund I | $200M Target | PE for Saudi Mid-Market Jada Fund of Funds, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, committed as an early institutional backer to Growth Catalyst Fund I, a Saudi private equity fund targeting SR750 million ($200 million) to invest in mid-market companies across the Kingdom. Led by Turki Al-Dayel, the fund will target founder-led upper-middle-market companies, with flexibility to invest in growth-stage and pre-IPO businesses that have outgrown venture capital funding. Growth Catalyst Fund I aims to help address Saudi Arabia’s estimated SR300 billion to SR500 billion SME financing gap. This is one of the more structurally important announcements of the week. The gap between VC and IPO has been a persistent problem for Saudi startups that scale past Series B. A dedicated PE fund targeting that middle lane is exactly the kind of capital infrastructure the ecosystem needs. 🇸🇾 DoctorBook | <head>6K Pre-Seed | Healthtech Syria-based health tech startup DoctorBook raised <head>6,000 in pre-seed funding to accelerate the digitization of medical appointment
