MENA Startups
Bahrain-Based customizable cake ordering platform Lola Secures $1.3M Funding to Accelerate GCC Expansion
The Bahrain-based foodtech startup aims to scale operations in Saudi Arabia and beyond, redefining personalized cake ordering.
Lola, a customizable cake ordering platform, has raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed funding round, backed by Plus VC, Vision Ventures, and strategic angel investors. The investment will fuel Lola’s expansion in Saudi Arabia and across the GCC, reinforcing its position as a leading personalized gifting and foodtech brand in the region.
Lola : A New Era of Customizable Cake Ordering
Founded in 2023 by Othman Janahi, Lola revolutionizes cake ordering with a tech-driven, highly personalized mobile app, allowing users to design cakes in under a minute with thousands of customization options.
Since launching in Bahrain in September 2023, Lola has experienced rapid expansion, entering Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July 2024 and later the UAE in December 2024. The new funding will support the company’s logistics optimization, team expansion, and platform enhancements, setting the stage for further growth.
“We are thrilled to have investors who believe in our vision. Their strategic insights will be invaluable as we drive forward,” said Othman Janahi, Founder and CEO of Lola.
Expanding Across Saudi Arabia and the GCC
With Saudi Arabia as its primary market, Lola is now preparing to expand into Jeddah and the Eastern Province, with further regional expansion planned across other GCC countries.
“Lola is not just about cakes—it’s about baking memories. We are committed to redefining personalization in the gifting industry, ensuring every celebration is unique,” Janahi added.
Investor Confidence in Lola’s Growth Potential
The investment community sees Lola as a game-changer in the foodtech and gifting space.
“Lola is solving a real-life problem with an innovative, tech-enabled solution. The ability for customers to visualize and customize cakes effortlessly transforms the experience,” said Kais Al Essa, CEO of Vision Ventures.
“Lola seamlessly integrates technology and personalization, revolutionizing how people celebrate special moments,” commented Hasan Haider, Managing Partner at Plus VC.
Redefining Personalized Gifting Through Technology
Lola’s competitive edge lies in its ability to:
- Offer fully customizable cakes with thousands of design options
- Provide a seamless mobile ordering experience
- Ensure accurate design replication for bakeries
- Create an interactive, fun, and efficient cake selection process
With strong market traction, a scalable business model, and cutting-edge personalization features, Lola is set to reshape the future of digital gifting and cake customization across the Middle East.
MENA Startups
Saudi-based AutoTech Startup Autobia Raises $12M Series A to Expand B2B Auto Parts Platform and Logistics Infrastructure
The Artal Capital-led round will support Autobia’s logistics expansion, dynamic pricing technology and embedded financing services across Saudi Arabia.
The funding will support the company’s expansion across Saudi Arabia, strengthen its supply chain and logistics infrastructure, and accelerate the development of its proprietary pricing and inventory financing solutions.
Founded in 2021 by Emad Daghriri and Ahmed Aloufi, Autobia is building a digital platform that connects automotive spare parts wholesalers and retailers with suppliers while integrating procurement, delivery and flexible payment options.
Autobia Secures $12M to Scale Its B2B Marketplace
The Series A follows Autobia’s $2.5 million seed round in 2023, led by Sadu Financial with participation from Wa’ed Ventures.
The latest investment will help the company expand its geographic coverage and improve the infrastructure supporting automotive parts distribution across the Kingdom.
Unlike conventional e-commerce marketplaces focused primarily on product listings and transactions, Autobia combines sourcing, inventory procurement, logistics and embedded financial services within a single platform.
The company aims to address operational challenges faced by spare parts retailers and wholesalers, including fragmented supplier networks, inventory availability, delivery coordination and working capital constraints.
Expanding Logistics and Embedded Financing
Autobia plans to allocate part of the new funding to strengthening its supply chain and logistics capabilities as it expands into additional Saudi markets.
The platform allows merchants to source spare parts from suppliers, manage orders and arrange deliveries through an integrated procurement process.
Embedded financing is another component of Autobia’s business model. The company provides flexible, scheduled installment options for inventory purchases, helping merchants spread procurement costs over time.
It also enables retailers to manage end-customer payments through licensed payment providers and buy-now-pay-later services.
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Ahmed Aloufi said expanding access to embedded financial services remains central to Autobia’s strategy, particularly in helping merchants manage working capital limitations and pursue growth with greater flexibility.
Investing in Dynamic Pricing Technology
Beyond geographic expansion, Autobia will invest in proprietary dynamic pricing technology and broaden its installment-based inventory purchasing solutions.
The pricing tools are intended to help the platform respond to changing market conditions and improve how merchants manage procurement decisions across a diverse range of automotive parts.
These investments form part of Autobia’s broader strategy to build an integrated technology infrastructure for the automotive aftermarket rather than operate solely as a transactional marketplace.
Co-founder and CEO Emad Daghriri said the company’s ambition extends beyond digitizing spare parts purchases to providing traditional businesses with the market intelligence, operational efficiency and tools needed to compete and grow.
Investors Target Saudi Automotive Aftermarket Opportunity
Artal Capital led the investment alongside AlJazira Capital and Wa’ed Ventures, backing Autobia’s approach to combining technology, logistics and financial services.
Wassim Makhoul, Head of Alternative Investments at Artal Capital, described the automotive aftermarket as a substantial market with unmet needs. He highlighted Autobia’s combination of technology, operational capabilities and embedded financing as central to its growth potential.
Artal Capital aims to support the founders’ ambition to establish Autobia as a core infrastructure provider for automotive aftermarket services in Saudi Arabia and the wider region.
The financing comes as Saudi Arabia continues developing its digital commerce, logistics and financial technology sectors under Vision 2030.
Autobia will now focus on expanding its domestic operations, strengthening distribution capabilities and developing financial and pricing tools to support automotive parts merchants.
MENA Startups
TiE Women MENA Names Five Regional Winners to Compete for MENA Title at GITEX Global 2026
Five women founders from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the wider MENA region will advance to the TiE Women MENA finals at GITEX Global 2026 in December.
TiE Dubai has named five regional winners of the seventh edition of its TiE Women MENA program, selecting women-led startups across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the wider Middle East and an Emirati-focused track.
Following virtual regional finals held from September 8 to 17, Naglaa Mohamed, Co-Founder of Egypt-based P-Vita; Lea Mehaweg, Co-Founder and CEO of Saudi Arabia-based Maison Safqa; and Anuscha Iqbal, Co-Founder and CEO of UAE-based Qanooni AI, won their respective country tracks. Rowan Alawi, CEO of Trase, took the Rest of MENA category, while Aisha Alyassi, Founder and Brand Director of SCULP, won the Emirati track.
The five founders will compete for the MENA title at the program’s finals during GITEX Global 2026 in December.
More Than 250 Women-Founded Businesses Apply
TiE Women MENA attracted more than 250 licensed, women-founded businesses this year, up from almost 200 applications in 2025. The cohort spanned sectors including AI and SaaS, AgriTech and FoodTech, HealthTech, sustainability and fashion.
Of the applicants, 228 founders were shortlisted and 46 advanced to the regional finals. Each track selected one winner and two runners-up based on criteria including product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, team strength, competitive advantage, financial objectives and operational and technical viability.
Finalists also worked with dedicated mentors to refine their pitches and prepare their businesses for the regional competition.
The 2026 cohort reflected a strong focus on AI, with founders applying the technology to legal services, construction, livestock health, prenatal care and community platforms. Sustainability-focused companies included ventures addressing agricultural waste, textile reuse and water conservation, while several startups developed products around women’s mobility, mental wellbeing and maternal health.
Winners Head to GITEX Global 2026
At Expand North Star during GITEX Global 2026, each regional winner will receive a dedicated pod to showcase their business and connect with investors and other ecosystem stakeholders.
The five founders will continue receiving one-to-one mentorship ahead of the December final, with support focused on their pitches, go-to-market strategies and investor materials.
Carlina Marani and Shameema Parveen, Co-Chairs of TiE Women MENA 2026, said this year’s candidates stood out for both the quality of their pitches and the range of industries represented. They highlighted businesses spanning AI-powered water conservation and fetal health to sustainability and Emirati food products.
Aisha Alyassi described winning the Emirati track as an important milestone for SCULP, saying the program had encouraged her to expand her ambitions, refine the company’s vision and connect with other women founders.
Addressing MENA’s Female Funding Gap
The program comes as women-founded startups continue to receive a small share of venture funding across the region. According to figures provided by TiE Dubai, female-founded startups secured just $2.5 million in the first half of 2026, representing 0.14% of the region’s $1.7 billion in venture funding.
TiE Dubai said its program aims to narrow that gap through mentorship, funding access, visibility and regional networking.
Over the past four years, TiE Women MENA has supported more than 1,000 women-led businesses, curated over 350 pitches and awarded AED 380,000 in equity-free prize money. Globally, TiE Women has received more than 11,000 applications across 62 countries and accelerated over 500 women-led startups.
The MENA program is run by TiE Dubai and powered by Nokia, alongside partners TECOM, Dubai Internet City and in5 Innovation Centers.
MENA Startups
UAE Launches Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, Connecting 150 AI Startups With Global Investors
The two-day AI event will connect more than 150 startups with over 200 investors managing $100 billion in assets, while showcasing emerging enterprise AI technologies.
Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026 will bring more than 150 AI startups to the UAE capital on October 6 and 7, showcasing technologies spanning enterprise software, industrial safety, customer experience and sovereign AI.
Held at the ADNEC Centre, the event will bring together more than 400 global technology companies and startups. Its Ai StartX Everything showcase will connect founders with more than 200 investors from 30 countries representing $100 billion in assets under management.
Among the companies exhibiting are startups from Portugal, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the US, with products focused on moving AI deeper into enterprise operations.
Enterprise AI Moves Into Critical Workflows
Portuguese AI-native software assurance company VisionHammer will showcase technology designed to diagnose and resolve problems within enterprise software while retaining human oversight.
Its platform can identify the root cause of an incident, generate and test a fix, and submit a pull request for approval. In one production deployment, VisionHammer said it reduced average incident resolution time from around five hours to four minutes.
The company will present CodeScan, which analyses code security with every release, and Assessment, a system for mapping and diagnosing enterprise software environments. Co-founder and COO Tiago Silva said demand is increasingly centred on AI that can operate reliably in critical systems while maintaining human control and auditability.
Singapore-headquartered Ailytics, meanwhile, will demonstrate AilyssaX, a vision-language-model-powered platform that converts existing CCTV networks into real-time industrial safety and operational intelligence.
Ailytics said it has completed more than 400 deployments across over 15 countries, with customers including Changi Airport Group, DHL, Laing O’Rourke and Obayashi. Following its recent Series A round, the company is expanding into the Middle East.
Gulf Startups Showcase Arabic and Sovereign AI
Saudi-based Lucidya will showcase its AI Agent and provide an early look at Agentic Workflows designed to automate customer journeys across enterprise systems.
The company said its Agentic CX Platform supports 17 Arabic dialects with more than 92% accuracy and uses billions of data points to interpret customer and market signals. Lucidya is also ISO/IEC 42001 certified and compliant with PDPL, GDPR and SOC 2.
Dubai-registered MetisJean will launch Jean 1001, its sovereign operating system for enterprise AI. The platform runs within a customer’s own infrastructure, makes its reasoning traceable to source material and records actions on an immutable, audit-ready ledger.
MetisJean said Jean can reduce token consumption by up to 90% in some applications. Founder and CEO Alexander Haywood said the company intends to build sovereign enterprise AI in the Gulf before taking the technology to international markets.
US-based Newrunio will also introduce Personal Super-Intelligence (PAI) 1.2 globally for the first time. The screen-aware floating AI agent operates within a user’s existing digital environment, providing contextual suggestions and executing tasks without requiring users to continually switch between applications.
Connecting AI Founders With Global Capital
Beyond product demonstrations, Ai StartX Everything will connect startups with investors, sovereign funds, enterprise buyers and technology companies through its Investor Programme.
The programme includes the Supernova AI Global Pitch Competition, where five finalists will pitch to investors and industry leaders for equity-free prizes.
Organised by inD, with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement as Host Partner and Mubadala company Solutions+ as Global Partner, Ai Everything Abu Dhabi will also feature ATRC, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Hub71 alongside global technology companies including AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft, Mistral AI and ASUS.
-
MENA Startups7 days agoUS Agentic Coding Platform Replit Acquires Analytics Startup Atta to Add Interactive Data Visualizations to AI Chat
-
News1 week agoQatar Development Bank Opens Applications for MANARAT, Offering Ready-Built Facilities to Help Manufacturers Adopt Industry 4.0 Technologies
-
Asia Startups6 days agoIndian HRTech Startup Scooter Raises $160K Pre-Seed Funding to Expand Sales Hiring Platform and Streamline Candidate Assessments
-
Asia Startups6 days agoIndian Experience-Tech Startup Alive App Raises $1M Seed Funding to Expand Experience Supply and Technology Capabilities
-
Asia Startups6 days agoIndian Startup SiMa.ai Raises $150M Series C to Scale Physical AI Platform and Develop Next-Generation Hardware
-
MENA Startups5 days agoUAE Launches Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, Connecting 150 AI Startups With Global Investors
-
MENA Startups5 days agoTiE Women MENA Names Five Regional Winners to Compete for MENA Title at GITEX Global 2026
-
Euro Startups6 days agoPortugal-Based InsurTech Startup FRANK Raises €2.9M to Expand AI-Powered Platform for Automating Administrative Tasks Globally
You must be logged in to post a comment Login