MENA Start-Up Funding Falls 96% in October as Tabby Cash Passes 1 Million Accounts

The drop mostly reflects the absence of large deals. September's total of more than $1 billion was boosted by three Saudi fintech rounds worth $762.5 million combined. October had no later-stage rounds at all. The number of deals also fell, by 56% from 73 to 32, so the slowdown went beyond the missing megadeals. Start-ups in the region have raised about $3.4 billion in the first 10 months of 2026.

Fintech came second by value and first by number of deals, with five start-ups raising nearly $10 million. "The result suggests that investor interest in financial technology has not disappeared," Wamda said in its report.

Saudi Arabia was again the best-funded market, with nine start-ups raising $18.8 million, or 47% of the total. Autobia's $12 million Series A made up nearly 64% of the Saudi figure. In the UAE, 10 start-ups raised $12.9 million, so the two countries took close to 80% of the month's capital. Early-stage companies raised $33.7 million across 24 deals, more than 84% of all funding.

A Fee-Free Account Scales Quickly

Tabby, the buy-now-pay-later company based in Riyadh, said Tabby Cash passed 1 million UAE accounts two months after it opened to all residents on September 1. The account works as a fee-free alternative to a debit account and operates under Tabby's Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE. It charges no set-up, account or card fees and pays up to 3% cashback on selected categories and on all international spending. Since launch, Tabby has added fee-free transfers to bank accounts in more than 50 countries, as well as telecom, utility and transport bill payments that can be split into up to 12 monthly instalments.

Chief executive and co-founder Hosam Arab called Tabby Cash "the fastest growing product we've launched." The company says it serves more than 25 million customers and 70,000 brands across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. In September it raised $233 million at a $6.5 billion valuation in a round led by Blue Pool Capital.

The unaudited third-quarter statements of Tabby's Saudi lending arm, Tabby Financing Co., show both the growth and its cost in cash. The Saudi Central Bank issued a no-objection on October 27 for the unit to raise up to SR1.125 billion ($300 million) in foreign financing from a global financial institution. The approval is valid until the end of 2029. The filing does not name the lender or say whether the money has been drawn.

Net loans receivable rose to SR3.88 billion from SR3.18 billion at the end of 2025. Over the same period, cash fell to SR138 million from SR737 million. Operating activities used SR571 million in cash, which the company put down to new lending temporarily running ahead of collections. Nine-month profit at the unit was SR133 million, down from SR149 million a year earlier. Management listed the central bank approval among the factors supporting its going-concern assessment.

Elsewhere in fintech, UAE-based Wafr closed an undisclosed pre-seed round backed by Tyme Group co-founder Coen Jonker and former DBS Bank chief innovation officer Neal Cross. It has launched WafrChain, a private, permissioned blockchain for issuing, settling and paying profits on sukuk. The company says sukuk tokenisation is already live and plans to move into fund tokenisation, tokenised deposits and trade finance next.