Week 46: Africa and Middle East Funding Led by Yoco

Startups across Africa and the Middle East attracted about $258.6 million in disclosed funding this week, up from $233.5 million last week.

More than half of it, $150 million, came through two credit facilities, Yoco’s $100 million and Ejari’s $50 million, while Israeli AI and cybersecurity startups took $96 million of the remaining $108.6 million. 

The Week’s Largest Startup Funding Rounds 

Here are the biggest disclosed startup funding rounds across Africa and the Middle East this week. 

/1. Yoco, $100M, Fintech, South Africa 

Yoco, the TPG-backed payments company based in Cape Town, has secured a $100 million (about R1.6 billion) credit facility from Chicago-based private credit firm Victory Park Capital. It is the startup’s first debt raise and will fund Yoco Capital, the company’s embedded finance arm, which gives merchants cash advances based on their card sales and recovers repayment automatically from daily sales.

Yoco, which serves more than 200,000 small and independent businesses, says it has disbursed over R6.5 billion to more than 40,000 merchants since 2018 through partner lenders, and the new facility lets it fund more of that lending itself.  

/2. Bay, $50M, Cybersecurity, Israel 

Tel Aviv-based AI security startup Bay came out of stealth with $50 million in total funding, nine months after it was founded. It builds a trust layer for enterprises that run AI agents, checking each action an agent proposes before it executes and then allowing it, blocking it or sending it to a person for approval.  

The total combines a $37 million Series A led by Battery Ventures, with Micron Ventures, M12 and Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport joining, and a previously undisclosed $13 million seed round led by YL Ventures and Striker Venture Partners.

/3. Ejari, $50M, Proptech, Saudi Arabia 

Riyadh-based Ejari has expanded its Shariah-compliant Murabaha warehouse financing facility with California-based private credit provider Partners for Growth (PFG) to $50 million (SAR 187.5 million). The capital is dedicated to financing the rental transactions behind Ejari’s Rent Now, Pay Later (RNPL) service, which pays landlords their annual rent upfront while tenants repay in monthly instalments.  

The facility builds on a financing relationship that began in 2024, though Ejari has not disclosed the facility’s previous size, how much has been drawn or the repayment terms.

/4. Dreeze, $33M, Cybersecurity, Israel 

Dreeze, a B2B enterprise software (SaaS) startup, has emerged from stealth with a $33 million seed round led by Norwest and Bessemer Venture Partners, with Claltech participating. The Tel Aviv company was founded in 2025 by Ziv Kedem, Oded Kedem and Avi Raichel, who previously built the backup and recovery companies Kashya and Zerto.  

Its Application Revival platform maps what a cloud application depends on, backs those resources up, and restores the whole application, including its data, in the right order after an outage or cyberattack. The platform is generally available on AWS, with Microsoft Azure in early access and general availability planned for early 2027. 

/5. Plurai, $13M, AI Infrastructure, Israel 

Plurai has raised a $13 million seed round led by Team8, with U&I, Velocity and Mercer participating. The startup builds a simulation layer for AI agents by creating a digital twin of a company’s systems and tools, mapping the paths an agent can take, and testing it against edge cases before it reaches customers.  

Co-founders Ilan Kadar and Elad Levi previously worked at self-driving technology company Nexar, and borrowed that approach for agents. Kadar says the longer-term plan is to use the data gathered in simulation to post-train smaller open-weight models tailored to individual customers. 

/6. Lumepay, $6M, Fintech, South Africa 

South African fintech Lumepay has disclosed a $6 million pre-seed round backed by founder-led angel investors and local fintech backers. The funding went towards building the infrastructure, banking relationships and licences needed to support its cross-border payments business. 

The company serves SMEs, corporates, and institutional clients, combining traditional payment infrastructure with stablecoin rails. With its payments platform now launched, the company has begun expanding beyond South Africa, entering Kenya after receiving clearance from the Central Bank of Kenya.

/7. enza, $6M, Fintech, UAE 

enza, an Abu Dhabi-based payments infrastructure provider for banks and fintechs across Africa, has closed a $6 million Seed+ round led by 4DX Ventures. British International Investment joined as a new investor, while existing backers Quona Capital and Algebra Ventures increased their stakes.  

The money will fund expansion into new African markets, additional regulatory licences and payment products for banks. Founded in 2023, enza operates in 12 African countries and follows a $6.75 million seed round in 2025.