Zest Wire | 18-February-2026

Read our exciting recap from Step, Plus: Pitchbook's AI funding by vertical, and more.

February 18, 2026

This week’s agenda

📆 What’s new at Zest?

💰 Capital activity across MENA private markets

🤝 M&A highlights

📖 What we’re reading

🎤 Global leadership insights

Let’s dive in!

A strong week for Zest at STEP Dubai 2026

Over two high-energy days, we spent most of our time in the Investor’s Lounge, meeting founders, clients, partners, and ecosystem leaders, with great conversations across private markets.

On stage, Zuhair joined a key panel on how AI is reshaping venture capital with a clear takeaway: AI should amplify teams, not replace them; execution scales, but judgment and trust still matter. We also partnered with Jenin to serve artisanal Palestinian olive oil and zaatar ice cream, a fun moment that sparked plenty of conversations at the lounge.

Market moves: Capital activity across MENA

  • 🇪🇬 Breadfast raises $50 million from international institutional investors to scale its vertically integrated model across sourcing, private label production, fulfillment, and last-mile logistics.

  • 🇸🇦 Madfu raises $25.5 million led by Afaq Capital to expand its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) operations across Saudi Arabia.

  • 🇸🇦 SiFi (Simplified Financial Solutions) raises $20 million led by Ra'ed Ventures to scale its spend management platform for finance teams.

  • 🇦🇪 iBloxx Studios raises $5.4 million from undisclosed investors to launch its blockchain-enabled shooter game StrayShot.

  • 🇦🇪 Smart Bricks raises $5 million led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to build the AI infrastructure layer for global real estate investing.

  • 🇦🇪 InvestSky raises $4 million led by Emkan Capital to support its expansion into the Saudi Arabian market.

  • 🇦🇪 Omnispay raises $2 million led by Infinity Value Capital Group to expand its AI-native SME finance platform.

  • 🇦🇪 QuicKart raises $1.5 million led by Orbit Ventures to accelerate its farm-to-home fresh produce delivery model.

M&A highlights

🇦🇪 AlgoDriven, the leading, Dubai-based automotive artificial intelligence and data platform, announces it has been fully acquired by the San Francisco-based, Emergence, in a 100% cash transaction. Source.

🇦🇪 Ascentium, a leading global business services platform headquartered in Singapore, has acquired Clara, the largest licensed corporate service provider in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). Source.

Vertical applications dominate private market AI funding in Q4 2025

Vertical applications dominated the AI landscape globally in Q4 2024, capturing the highest capital inflow with $22.9 billion in deal value across a staggering 1,151 deals.

The unprecedented concentration in global AI dealmaking has rapidly shifted toward the application layer, as evidenced by a surge in vertical AI deal activity (such as legal, healthcare, and industrial agents) as investors aggressively price in the expectation of tangible, sector-specific utility over generalist model building.

Read the full report on AI investing trends here.

Private capital’s new playbook

Secondary sales shift from founder windfalls to employee-retention tools | TechCrunch

AI startups like Clay and ElevenLabs are using early liquidity to keep their best talent.

Social media: Exerting its influence on private markets | PEI

Amid a fundraising lull, social media influencers could become a more appealing source of growth capital.

The rise of non-sponsored growth credit | PEI

A founder-first shift in the growth capital market offers a compelling opportunity to lenders.

3 charts: Nuveen's acquisition of Schroders | PitchBook

It creates a $414 billion pool of private capital, allowing the combined entity to compete with the very largest alternative managers.

AI deal activity and deployment

MENA AI funding hits USD 858 mn in 2025, led by the UAE and Saudi Arabia | Enterprise AM

AI-native firms secured USD 589 mn, amounting to 69% of all AI funding.

Abu Dhabi’s MGX co-leads in $30bn Series G funding of Anthropic | Arabian Business

The fast-growing AI company is now valued at $380bn; NVIDIA and Microsoft join the funding as part of their partnership announced last year.

The Middle East is becoming the next big supplier of AI capacity | Fast Company

As AI workloads surge, regional policy, capital, and engineering are reshaping where new infrastructure is built.

Sovereign and structural shifts

PIF wants more skin in the diversification game at the Private Sector Forum | Enterprise AM

The fund now expects the private sector to move from “execution” to “value creation.”

MENA 2026 Economic & Transformation Outlook | Forbes Middle East

As global economic growth moderates and geopolitical risks persist, the MENA region’s entry into 2026 is characterized by diversification and transformation efforts, investment, and structural reforms.

Exclusive: Sara Al Nuaimi On Why Sharjah's Startup Jump Isn't Luck. It's Governance. | Forbes Middle East

Sharjah’s startup rise isn’t built on hype. Sara Al Nuaimi, CEO of Sheraa, is focused on the practical work - making it easier for founders to start, test ideas, and build real companies on the ground.

Private equity moves in the region

KKR Opens Abu Dhabi Office, Expands Middle East Presence

The move comes as Abu Dhabi strengthens its position as a global capital hub, supported by rising US-UAE trade flows and sustained investment cooperation across high-growth sectors such as artificial intelligence, infrastructure, healthcare and energy.

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