Explosive Growth In MENA’s Startup Ecosystem

by News Editor

March 5, 2025

February marked a groundbreaking month for MENA’s startup landscape, with an impressive $494 million raised across 58 deals—almost five times more than last year’s total for the same month. While Saudi Arabia dominated with $250.3 million accrued over 25 deals, the UAE and Egypt followed suit with $203.5 million and $27.5 million respectively.

Debt Financing Dips In February

Unlike January, where debt financing took the bulk of investments, February saw it drop to just 15% of total funding. The exclusion of debt reveals a staggering 371% increase in investment activity, highlighting a promising shift in financial dynamics.

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Industry Leaders And Rising Sectors

Fintech emerged as the leading sector, delivering $274 million over 15 deals. Insurtech and logistics took the next spots, with $55 million and $28.5 million respectively. This upswing showcases both sustained interest and escalating financial backing for key tech industries.

Regional Contributions and Gender Disparities

B2B models attracted the most attention in February, garnering $191.6 million through 33 transactions. However, gender disparities remain, as startups led by male founders bagged 87% of the total investment. Despite the progress, this underlines the need for more equitable funding allocations.

For further insights into startup ecosystems, explore how Cyprus is setting new records in global startup growth.

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Mirendil Signs $100 Million Google Cloud Deal To Advance Self-Improving AI

by News Editor

August 6, 2026

AI startup Mirendil has signed a multi-year agreement worth more than $100 million with Google Cloud to secure computing infrastructure for its self-improving AI research.

The partnership reflects growing competition among AI companies to lock in access to high-performance computing, while cloud providers race to attract promising startups developing next-generation AI models.

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Backing The Next Stage Of AI Research

Mirendil plans to use Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), Nvidia GPUs and managed training infrastructure to develop AI systems capable of improving their own performance over time.

Known as recursive self-improvement, the concept focuses on building AI that can refine its knowledge and capabilities with minimal human intervention. The technology is attracting growing interest across the industry, with several startups and leading AI labs exploring similar approaches.

According to co-founder and Chief Executive Behnam Neyshabur, the long-term goal is to develop AI that can automate scientific research and accelerate discoveries in fields such as medicine, biology and materials science.

Compute Capacity Becomes A Strategic Asset

Training increasingly advanced AI models requires enormous computing resources, making long-term infrastructure agreements a critical competitive advantage.

Mirendil said Google’s combination of TPUs and GPUs allows workloads to be matched with the most suitable hardware, improving efficiency while reducing costs for customers.

For Google Cloud, the agreement strengthens its position in the race to provide infrastructure for frontier AI developers, while giving the company exposure to one of the industry’s emerging approaches to next-generation artificial intelligence.

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