VC React MENA E56: HUMAIN Launches AI-OS! BRKZ $30M Debt Round. Tabby's $4.5B Premium Secondary Sale

VC React Podcast:

Every week, we bring you insights and reactions from top VCs, LPs, and Angel Investors, reacting to the latest news on MENA startups, funds, and investment rounds.

Hosts:

• Ahmad Takatkah, VCpreneur.
  Sign up to VCpreneur Newsletter on https://www.vcpreneur.com/

• Jamie Lane, FWDstart.
  Sign up to FWDstart Newsletter on https://www.fwdstart.me/

Available on:

• Youtube: VC React Podcast

• Spotify: VC React Podcast

• Apple: VC React Podcast

Guests:

1. Salma Al-Zu'bi, Investment Principal @ Hikma Ventures
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salmazubi/
- Company Website: https://www.hikma.com/

2. Tamer Alsalah, Managing Director @ Endeavor Jordan
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamer-al-salah-20a60616/
- Company Website: https://jordan.endeavor.org/

This Week On The VC React Podcast:

News of the week brought to you by FWDstart:

• Saudi’s HUMAIN just launched its own AI operating system! — no icons, no apps, just voice and text. Aramco and Qualcomm are in! Is this too ambitious too soon? Is it a PR stunt? or exactly the kind of aggressive moonshot the region needs to lead in AI?

• BRKZ raises $30 million in growth debt from Stride Ventures — yet another debt deal in Saudi. No equity, no hype — just solid, scalable capital for a real economy sector: construction. And what did they feed them in Careem to make such an active and successful Careem mafia?

• Tabby hits a $4.5 billion valuation in a secondary sale. Is this just investor FOMO driving up paper valuations? or global investors finally deploying capital into the region, not just raising from here, by starting with debt, now secondaries, and then growth & early VC? And when is it acceptable to do secondaries as an early stage startup?

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