New Delhi, June 20 -- Egyptian fintech company Octane led startup fundraising activity in the Middle East and North Africa region this week, as it raised growth capital to support its regional expansion.

Funding activity in the region remained largely dominated by early-stage funding rounds. The UAE-based proptech Prop-AI, Saudi AI company Darwinz AI (TheDar.AI), and Algerian HR Tech Talenteo raised pre-seed capital while Lebanese fintech XFOLIO and the UAE-based infrastructure provider for stablecoin SaturnX raised seed funding.

Meanwhile, the UAE-based fintech startup OCTA, which recently raised a pre-seed round, secured an eight-figure credit facility to scale its operations.

Octane

The Egyptian fintech startup raised $5.2 million in a funding round led by Shorooq Partners, Algebra Ventures, and SC Holding to fuel its regional expansion plans.

The Cairo-based startup, co-founded by Amr Gamal and Ziad Eladawy in 2022, offers a digital platform that consolidates all fleet-related expenses, including fuel, maintenance, spare parts, and petty cash, into a single closed-loop digital wallet. The real-time controls and analytics give fleet operators clear visibility, typically trimming avoidable fuel and mileage costs by double-digit percentages.

Octane aims to use the new funding to expand its regional footprint, acceptance network, and AI capabilities, including fraud detection and route optimisation.

Prop-AI

The UAE-based proptech startup secured $1.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Plus VC to scale its business. The round also saw participation from Joa Capital, Select Ventures, Oraseya Capital, Plug & Play, and angel investors from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Founded in 2023 by Ranime El Skaff and Christian Kunz, the Prop-AI platform uses AI and machine learning to automate property search, evaluation, and decision-making for buyers, investors, and professionals.

Prop-AI plans to use the fresh funds to deepen regional data integrations, enhance its AI infrastructure, launch new enterprise tools, and scale across the MENA region and Europe.

XFOLIO

Lebanese fintech XFOLIO raised $2 million in seed funding from Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) to launch new products.

Founded by Anis Rahal in 2024, XFOLIO is a next-generation treasury and wealth management platform that enables financial institutions, family offices, and wealth managers to consolidate, automate, and visualise both bankable and non-bankable assets.

Currently operating across Europe and the Middle East, XFOLIO unifies portfolio management and treasury automation in a single cloud-based solution, with integrations across banks, ERPs, CRMs, and data providers. It supports a wide range of asset classes, including stocks, bonds, real estate, art, and collectibles.

The company plans to use the funds to launch AI-powered recommendation tools and cross-bank trading capabilities.

Darwinz AI

Darwinz AI (TheDar.AI), a Saudi-Egyptian company behind the AI co-pilot platform dima, which enhances productivity for PR professionals, marketers, and brand managers, raised $325,000 in seed funding, led by Flat6Labs KSA and Glint Ventures.

Founded in Egypt in 2021 by Emad Elazhary and Mohy Aboualam, TheDar.AI operates across six countries. It launched its flagship product, dima, in September 2024.

It plans to use the new capital to accelerate product development, expand its team in Riyadh and prepare for a global launch.

Talenteo

Algerian HR-tech firm Talenteo has secured investment from Tunisia-based venture capital firm 216 Capital to accelerate expansion.

Founded in 2022 by Tarik Metnani and Louai Djaffer, Talenteo offers a comprehensive SaaS platform for human resources and payroll management to support African SMEs and midsized companies.

The platform helps HR teams reduce time spent on repetitive tasks while enhancing strategic decision-making in a rapidly evolving legal and economic landscape.

The firm aims to utilize the fresh six-figure investment to facilitate its entry into Tunisia, accelerate product development, and fuel expansion across the Francophone Africa.

SaturnX

SaturnX, a UAE infrastructure provider for stablecoin-based cross-border payments, raised $3 million in seed funding led by White Star Capital to support geographical expansion. The round also saw participation from institutional investors.

Founded in 2024 by Mirnas Brescic, SaturnX acts as an API layer for B2B money transmitters and financial platforms.

SaturnX aims to use funding to support its expansion into Southeast Asian corridors such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, strengthening its regulatory compliance, and building out its enterprise-grade API platform to meet rising demand for digital dollar transfers in emerging markets.

OCTA

The UAE-based fintech startup OCTA, which raised a pre-seed round in October last year, secured $20 million in a credit facility from Sukna Fund for Direct Financing (SFDF).

Founded in early 2024 by Jon Santillan, Nupur Mittal, and Andrey Korchak, the OCTA platform automates the process of collecting payments for SMEs, which helps improve cash flow management and reduces the challenges related to accounts receivable. Its automation facility covers invoicing, payments, collections, and now embedded credit.

The OCTA platform essentially syncs with the business' accounting software, tracks invoices, and assigns each customer a collection score. Based on that, it automates reminders and follow-ups and even provides financing options. OCTA recently expanded into the Saudi market.

The additional capital will accelerate OCTA's plans to become a foundational layer for contract-to-cash automation in Saudi Arabia and the wider region.

In October last year, the startup raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round, which was co-led by Quona Capital and Sadu Capital, and saw participation from Sukna Ventures, Plus VC, 500 Global, and other angel investors.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.