Middle East & North Africa

Funding into MENA startups has grown nearly tenfold over the past five years, reaching $5.7B in 2025. With $3.4B raised in the first 9 months of 2026, the full year is on track to land at $4.5B, a -21% change versus 2025. The chart below shows annual funding totals; the latest year is annualised from observed-to-date data and represents the renderer's projection, not a closed quarter.

Yearly totals mask the quarter-by-quarter rhythm. The chart below shows MENA startups funding raised in each of the last 21 complete quarters through Q3 2026. All bars are actual closed-quarter sums, no projections, no in-progress quarters.

MENA's share of global venture capital tracks how much of the world's startup capital lands in this market. In 2016, MENA startups accounted for 0.6% of global VC funding; by 2026 the share had reached 0.5%. The chart below splits each year's total global VC funding into MENA on the bottom and the rest of the market on top.

How capital deployed into MENA startups is split across round sizes. In the trailing four quarters, 52% of capital landed in scaleup ($100M+) rounds, 30% in breakout ($15–100M), and 19% across startups (under $15M). Each panel below stacks the canonical sub-bands across Q3 2022 → Q3 2026.

The most active investors in MENA startups ranked by the number of disclosed VC rounds they've participated in. 500 Global leads with 268 rounds, followed by F6 Ventures at 256. The table shows the top ten with their firm type, the rounds they've joined and the companies they've backed here (follow-on rounds make the first larger), and headquarters.

Two views of leadership in MENA startups: the most-funded companies all-time on the left, and the hottest companies right now by Dealroom Signal on the right. Total-funding figures include all capital sources tracked by Dealroom (VC plus grants, project finance, and other instruments). Signal is Dealroom's live growth ranking, these are the firms with the strongest recent momentum across team, timing, growth, and completeness.

How Middle East & North Africa stacks up against its global VC peers, with Middle East & North Africa highlighted. The chart ranks the top countries; alongside it, the leading Dubai metro region leads the city ranking with $1.1B in 2026 Q1-3 (year to date). Use the metric pills, and the dropdown, to switch view.

Where MENA startups are based, each region shaded by its number of VC-backed startups. Darker means denser; hover a region for its count.

In 2026 Q1-3 (year to date), the largest VC rounds in MENA startups reveal where capital is consolidating. The table below lists the 15 biggest rounds by amount, with date, company, round type, and lead investors; rounds without a public amount sit at the bottom with the amount left blank. Exits sit in the Unicorns & Exits section.

Which industries pull in the most venture capital across MENA startups, and where does the MENA punch above its weight versus the rest of the world? Use the toggle to switch between absolute VC funding and each industry's over/under-index, and to change the time window. In 2026 Q1-3 (year to date), Fintech leads at $2.1B, and the MENA over-indexes only in Fintech (61% of MENA venture capital versus 5% across the rest of the world, 12.49×), and under-indexes most in Energy, Space, Security relative to the rest of the world. Industries are tracked through Dealroom's industry tags, which overlap, a company spanning, say, AI and fintech is counted in both, so these show where capital concentrates, not a mutually exclusive split of the total.

MENA startups have minted 34 unicorns to date. Dealroom defines a unicorn as a company that has reached a $1B+ valuation or exit (verified and manually reviewed; other lists use different criteria, this is ours). Of those, 1 is a decacorn at a $10B+ valuation: noon. The ecosystem also counts 31 thoroughbreds: companies generating $100M+ in revenue (a separate lens from unicorns, with some overlap). The chart below shows the cumulative count climbing each year, with the line tracking new unicorns minted in that year, peaking at 9 in 2025. On exits, the sector has produced 169 tracked exits since 2019 representing $41.4B in disclosed value. Notable exits in the data include Talabat ($10.2B, 2024), followed by Deribit ($4.3B, 2025), Careem ($3.1B, 2020).

Entrepreneurship is a power law. Of every MENA startup founded, only a fraction attract venture capital, and far fewer climb each successive funding level. This funnel traces VC-backed MENA startups from first cheque through to the rarest valuation outcomes. Mouth figures are annual means (2010–2024); pool stages count VC-backed companies founded since 1990 by total funding.