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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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Banking And Digital Services Across The UK

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 20, 2026

A power outage at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted services across the UK on Tuesday, affecting banks, businesses and other digital platforms. Google said the incident was caused by a power event at its cloud operations, with full recovery expected by around 1300 GMT.

The disruption began at 0608 GMT and affected Google Cloud services in the europe-west2 region, which is hosted in London. In an initial update, the company reported elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple services as engineers worked to restore operations.

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Banking Services Hit By The Disruption

Revolut was among the most visibly affected companies, with customers reporting problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups. A source close to the matter linked the issues to the Google Cloud outage.

Traditional banks also reported disruptions. Lloyds said some customers were experiencing problems with its app and online banking, while HSBC confirmed difficulties accessing its services. HSBC added that it was monitoring the situation and noted that other organisations were affected as well.

Disruption Spreads Beyond Finance

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions, recorded hundreds of reports involving other businesses, including property website Rightmove and the Royal Mail postal service. The reports suggested that the outage was affecting multiple parts of the UK’s digital economy.

The incident highlights the risks facing businesses that depend on shared cloud infrastructure. Even a temporary failure at a single provider can disrupt services across several sectors, from banking and payments to logistics and consumer platforms.

Companies Reassure Customers

Revolut said it had been working to resolve the issue since it was identified and apologised to affected customers. The company also confirmed that customers’ money and data remained safe.

As cloud platforms underpin an increasing share of digital commerce, the outage illustrates how disruptions to critical infrastructure can spread far beyond the provider itself, affecting businesses and customers across the economy.

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