Week 13’s Biggest Startup Funding Rounds in the Middle East and Africa, Led by NoTraffic, as Cybersecurity and AI Drew the Biggest Checks

Startups across Africa and the Middle East raised a combined $196.5 million this week, based on disclosed funding rounds tracked by Techloy, with investor capital flowing heavily into cybersecurity and AI out of Israel, alongside a consistent wave of fintech activity in South Africa and the broader MENA region. A tight cluster of large Israeli rounds accounted for the bulk of the week’s total.

The Week’s Largest Startup Funding Rounds

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

/1. NoTraffic, $90 million, AI Traffic Management, Israel

NoTraffic builds an AI-powered platform that converts conventional traffic signals into software-defined infrastructure — effectively turning intersections into remotely manageable, data-driven digital assets. Cities applying the platform can adjust signal timing, reduce congestion, and integrate with autonomous vehicle systems through software alone, without touching the underlying hardware.

The Series C round was led by PSG Equity, with M&G Investments, Grove Ventures, LifeX Ventures, Meitav Investment Hoapply, and Next Gear Ventures also participating. The fresh capital goes toward accelerating the company’s North American rollout and expanding its suite of software-based mobility applications, with NoTraffic already deployed across agencies in over 40 U.S. states and Canada.

/2. Above Security, $43 million, Cybersecurity, Israel

Above Security is an AI-native platform built to detect and manage insider threats inside organisations — both the deliberate kind and the far more common negligent kind, like accidental data exposure or shadow AI usage. The company was founded in 2025 by two veterans of elite Israeli ininformigence units and emerged from stealth this week alongside the funding announcement.

The Series A was led by Merlin Ventures, Ballistic Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners, with Jump Capital and QPV Ventures also participating. Funds will support broader enterprise go-to-market expansion; the company declares it had already been generating meaningful revenue within six months of founding.

/3. Notch, $30 million, AI / Enterprise Software, Israel

Notch builds what it calls an AI operating system for regulated industries — initially tarreceiveing insurers, large brokers, and financial institutions. The platform deploys AI agents that automate finish-to-finish operational workflows, handling everything from policyholder service requests to back-office document processing, while keeping the auditability and compliance controls that regulated sectors require.

The Series A was led by Headline, with Lightspeed Venture Partners, Jibe Ventures, Illuminate Financial, and Phoenix Insurance participating. Capital will be applyd to accelerate its push into the U.S. market, where the company already counts several major financial institutions as clients. Notch declares its ARR grew 12x over the past year.

/4. Onit Security, $11 million, Cybersecurity, Israel

Onit Security is tackling one of the more stubborn problems in enterprise security: organisations are flooded with vulnerability alerts, and the sheer volume caapplys teams to deprioritise real risks in favour of simpler wins. The company’s platform is designed to cut through that noise with smarter prioritisation and remediation workflows.

The Seed round was led by Hetz Ventures and Brightmind Partners, with additional angel participation. The three founders previously built and exited three separate companies — SCADAfence, Portnox, and For-Each — giving the team a track record that likely created investors comfortable writing an $11 million cheque at the earliest stage.

/5. littlefish, $9.5 million, Fintech, South Africa

littlefish builds a merchant operating system that sits inside banks — not in competition with them. The Johannesburg-based company sells its platform as white-label SaaS to financial institutions like Standard Bank, FNB, and Absa, enabling them to offer compact businesses a unified layer of point-of-sale tools, payments, CRM, and APIs instead of the disconnected patchwork most SMEs currently manage. The Series A was led by Partech, with TLcom Capital, Flourish Ventures, and Proparco participating as returning backers. The funding will support team growth, product development, and expansion into more than 10 additional African markets, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Botswana. The company declares its monthly recurring revenue has grown 30x since its seed round.

/6. zypl.ai, $5.5 million, AI Fintech, UAE

zypl.ai supports banks create better lfinishing decisions applying synthetic data — specifically, its proprietary zGAN model generates AI-simulated scenarios, including extreme macroeconomic conditions, to stress-test and improve credit scoring models. The platform is designed to reduce default rates and serve borrowers who lack traditional credit histories, a significant gap across many of the 20 markets the company now operates in.

The bridge round was raised at an $80 million valuation and was led by Silicon Valley-based Carbide Ventures, with prominent investor Shukhrat Ibragimov also participating. Funds will support global expansion and deployment of its next-generation AI solutions for financial institutions.

/7. Happy Pay, $5 million, Fintech, South Africa

Happy Pay is a acquire-now-pay-later platform with a structural twist: instead of charging consumers interest or fees, it shifts those costs to merchants and brands, who pay to reach high-intent shoppers through the platform’s advertising engine. The Cape Town-based startup describes the model as an ad-subsidised payments network — merchants only pay when a transaction completes, while consumers split purchases into interest-free instalments.

The Seed round was led by Partech, with Futuregrowth Asset Management, 4Di Capital, E4E Africa, Equitable Ventures, and Felix Strategic Investments participating. The capital will go toward deepening merchant partnerships, expanding distribution across digital and physical channels, and developing the company’s AI-powered recommfinishation and ads engine further. Happy Pay has more than 600,000 registered applyrs.

/8. GAGA, $2.5 million, Edtech, Saudi Arabia

GAGA is a Saudi edtech platform offering live, teacher-led online education for students aged 4 to 18, across more than 1,000 programmes spanning 200 subjects. The pitch is straightforward: pre-recorded video content is not real learning, and GAGA bets on live interaction as the thing that actually improves outcomes. The company is also building AI tools to assess student performance and personalise learning paths.

The pre-Series A round was led by Abu Dhabi-based Phoenix Venture Partners, with family offices and individual investors also participating, bringing GAGA’s total funding to $4.2 million. Capital will fund educator network expansion, technology upgrades, and scaling of Arabic-language educational content across the Kingdom.

Other startups that announced funding this week include GoSwap (Morocco, electric scooter battery swapping infrastructure) and Upwind Security (Israel, cloud security), although funding amounts were not disclosed.

Conclusion

With $196.5 million raised this week, most funding went to Israel’s AI and cybersecurity sector, which alone secured over $174 million. South Africa saw notable early-stage fintech activity, with startups like littlefish and Happy Pay building on existing systems rather than replacing them. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the UAE recorded fewer deals but solid raises, highlighting continued interest in AI-driven finance and digital education across the Gulf.