EXCLUSIVE Sustainability Bank al Etihad partners with Visa for carbon insights tool Jordan’s Bank al Etihad has partnered with Visa to offer a carbon insights tool within its app. The bank says the tool, developed by German fintech ecolytiq, gives customers information about their carbon footprint based on debit and credit card transactions. Ecolytic’s product is intended to increase consumer spending while encouraging them to make “greener […] June 13, 2025
Analysis Tech Humanoid robots: coming soon to a workplace near you Nursing, tourism and leisure, even performing arts, and anything dull, dangerous and dirty: the technology world is increasingly bullish on what humanoid robots can do. Humanoid robots are already greeting visitors at Dubai’s Museum of the Future and patrolling the emirate’s beaches, handing out fines and monitoring the use of scooters and bicycles. Jensen Huang, […] June 12, 2025
Finance Gulf fintechs take notice of surging stock markets Growing demand from international investors trading in stocks on Gulf exchanges is creating opportunities for established and newer financial technology (fintech) companies alike to grow their Middle East business. “We have seen the interest in trading on Gulf exchanges increase steadily over time, but demand has skyrocketed in the past year,” Damian Hitchen, regional head […] June 12, 2025
Energy Rolls-Royce nuclear offshoot wins $3bn UK contract A Qatar-backed subsidiary of Rolls-Royce has won a contract to build three small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) in the UK worth £2.5 billion ($2.86 billion). The UK government announced that Rolls-Royce SMR had won the contract on Tuesday, sending Rolls-Royce’s share price to its highest ever level. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, […] June 11, 2025
Analysis Tech Why founders and fintechs are the X factor for VCs Personalities, teamwork, market size and originality. Technology founders seeking cash or incubation may be better served looking in a mirror rather than analysing code, according to investors. “The founder is always the main driver as to whether we invest,” Lucy Chow, senior advisor at angel investors 2022 Female Angels, tells AGBI. The inverse also holds […] June 11, 2025
Analysis Tech UAE investment in data centres may be overly optimistic Billions of dollars of planned Gulf investment in data centres, announced with fanfare during President Donald Trump’s regional May visit, may be at more risk than immediately meets the eye, according to US financial services company Moody’s Corp. After the headlines, projects like the 10 square-mile artificial intelligence Stargate campus planned for Abu Dhabi are […] June 8, 2025
Banking and Finance How MNT-Halan became one of Egypt’s biggest lenders Egypt’s population is well over 100 million and, while famously entrepreneurial, is often unbanked or financially excluded. For investors, the loans market has long been seen as the Middle East’s financial holy grail – alluring, but ultimately unattainable. App-based lender MNT-Halan, though, may be the first to be able to say it has cracked the […] June 2, 2025
Real Estate Dubai issues Middle East’s first tokenised property certificate Dubai has issued its first tokenised property certificate, moving tokenisation of real estate from the realm of theory to practice. Tokenisation is the process of creating and trading digital tokens that are backed by real-world assets on a blockchain. It enables direct and verifiable peer-to-peer transactions. The certificate’s launch follows the successful sale of the […] May 30, 2025
Analysis Agriculture African and local sheep on the menu as livestock trade shifts As Eid al Adha approaches, consumers in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region can expect imports of animals and meat of varying provenance from their traditional suppliers, analysts say. African exporters and Gulf self-sufficiency projects are stepping in to fill gaps in the Middle East’s livestock supply as Australian and other providers step back. […] May 29, 2025
Retail Kuwaiti rapid-delivery app raises £6m for expansion Kuwaiti quick-commerce platform Circle has raised $6 million to fund local and regional expansion, it has announced. Founded in 2020, the Circle app offers deliveries of groceries and other essentials from “dark stores” across Kuwait. It aims for delivery in less than 20 minutes. The company says it has grown its revenue sevenfold in just […] May 26, 2025
Finance Tighter Dubai rules tipped to drive crypto market expansion Fresh digital asset regulations in the UAE may encourage further tokenisation and the rollout of more complex cryptocurrency products, analysts have said. Tokenisation is the creation and trade of digital tokens that are backed by real-world assets – such as real estate, gold or art — on a blockchain. It enables direct and verifiable peer-to-peer […] May 26, 2025
Tech Qatar-backed Builder.ai collapses with sales in doubt A British technology startup funded by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has collapsed after an internal investigation identified potentially bogus sales. In 2023 the QIA sovereign wealth fund led a $250 million late-stage funding round for Builder.ai and, together with Microsoft, was one of its biggest investors. The company raised more than $450 million over its […] May 23, 2025
Tech Stargate UAE data centre to come online in 2026 The first phase of a massive new data centre agreed during Donald Trump’s visit to the UAE will come online in 2026. Stargate UAE is planned to be a 1 gigawatt data centre cluster capable of training AI models. The project is a collaboration between UAE-backed G42, ChatGPT creators OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Softbank Group and […] May 23, 2025
Finance Abu Dhabi VC EQIQ to increase Iraq tech investments Abu Dhabi technology-focused venture capital fund EQIQ says it plans to increase the value of its investments in Iraq as the country seeks to recover from more than four decades of war and economic sanctions. Last year, tech startups in Iraq raised less than $3 million in 10 deals, according to entrepreneurship ecosystem development platform […] May 23, 2025
Analysis Banking and Finance Fintech lenders go where banks fear to tread Financial technology companies in the Middle East like Egypt’s Money Fellows are increasingly stepping in to offer financing options to population groups and businesses that traditional banks ignore or cannot lend to. The share of loans given to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East and North Africa averages less than 8 percent […] May 23, 2025
Economy Qatar offers $1bn of incentives to boost business investment Qatar is offering $1 billion of incentives to encourage local and international business investment in the gas-rich Gulf state. Under the programme, Qatar will cover up to 40 percent of local expenses for five years, according to a statement on Wednesday. Business setup costs, construction, office leases, equipment and employee-related expenses can be claimed, Invest […] May 21, 2025
Analysis Artificial Intelligence Thirsty for data: water scarcity challenges Gulf’s AI ambitions Water scarcity could complicate the Gulf’s ambitious plans to build ever-larger and more powerful data centres, experts say. “Water accessibility can significantly limit data centre capacity, particularly as cooling demands increase with higher density workloads and rising ambient temperatures,” Rasheed Ahmad, technical director at American Water and Environmental Solutions, tells AGBI. Saudi Arabia’s new AI […] May 20, 2025
Aviation Qatar Airways announces record profit but risks remain State-owned Qatar Airways announced record profits in the year to March 31 after carrying more passengers and using its seat capacity more efficiently. Net income jumped almost 30 percent to QAR7.9 billion ($2.2 billion) in the 2024-25 fiscal year, an increase of more than QAR1.7billion on the year before. Passenger numbers rose almost 8 percent […] May 19, 2025
Energy Adnoc says UAE and US to invest $440bn in energy The UAE and US will spend a combined total of $440 billion in the energy sector by 2035, the head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has said. The US is expected to invest $60 billion in UAE energy projects, a panel at the UAE-US economic dialogue said during US President Donald Trump’s visit […] May 16, 2025
Markets Gulf sovereign wealth funds tap secondaries market The Middle East’s sovereign wealth funds are using the surging secondaries investment market to take strategic stakes in emerging technologies, experts have told AGBI. A secondaries investment is the acquisition of interests in already formed private market funds or a portfolio of direct investments from existing investors. Global secondaries transactions rose almost 50 percent last […] May 16, 2025
Analysis Banking and Finance Rise of Middle East fintechs gives banks a run for their money The growth of fintech in the Middle East is driving traditional banks to refocus on better serving their customers and invest in their own dedicated subsidiaries as the sector eats into their market share, industry experts say. In the three months to March 31, fintech funding accounted for almost 60 percent of all venture capital […] May 13, 2025
Analysis Finance VC funding in decline for female-led Mena startups Startups led by women in the Middle East and North Africa are at risk of being left far behind when it comes to raising venture capital funds, data shows. Since 2020 their share of the total has declined every year from 2.2 percent to less than 0.5 percent in 2023, before bouncing back up – […] May 12, 2025
