Zest Your Equity | 8-August-2025

This week’s agenda 📜

• Zest terms and concepts ✍️

• Who’s raising? 💰

• M&A activity 💼

• What we’re reading 📖

Let’s dive in 👇

Terms and concepts (Stakeholder edition) ✍️

Consolidation vehicle: A legal structure used to merge existing stakeholders into a single line on a company’s cap table, streamlining ownership, while simplifying secondary transactions and reserved matters. 

Capitalization table (“cap table”): A document listing all of a company’s securities (shares, options, SAFEs) and who owns them, showing ownership percentages, dilution, and equity value.

Reserved matters: Companies around the world use a structure called “reserved matters” to identify certain situations that would require approval from a specific group of people at the company, often requiring a minimum number of Board Directors or a specified ownership percentage of the preferred shareholders.

Reserved matters are meant to protect the interests of certain stakeholders on certain decisions and can include decisions like changing the rights of existing shares of the company, approving the business’ annual budget, or changing the company’s auditor.

There are generally two types of reserved matters: Shareholder Reserved Matters and Board Reserved Matters. 

Shareholder reserved matters are intended to protect the interests of the shareholders of the company and are negotiated between the lead investors of a fundraising round and the company. Shareholder reserved matters can include, but are not limited to:

• Changing any rights related to existing shares of the company

• The issuance of a new class of shares

• Changes to the employee option pool

• Changes to the company’s auditors

Board reserved matters are intended to protect the interests of the company itself. These reserved matters require the approval of the majority of elected board members and can include a number of different circumstances, including:

• Approving or changing the company’s annual budget or business plan

• Changing compensation policies for the company’s senior-level employees

• Approving employee option awards

• Entering into a certain amount of indebtedness

The goal is to have an effective governance structure that fairly represents the stakeholders involved in a business to arrive at the most optimal decision-making outcome. 

Read more about reserved matters here.

Who’s raising? 💰

• 🇦🇪 UAE-based B2B fintech Alaan has raised $48 million in a Series A funding round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) and joined by Pioneer Fund, 885 Capital, Y Combinator, 468 Capital, and angel investors.

• 🇸🇦 Calo, the Saudi Arabia-headquartered foodtech startup, secured $39 million in a Series B extension led by AlJazira Capital, bringing its total Series B raise to $64 million after a $25 million round in 2024 led by Nuwa Capital. The extension was oversubscribed.

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia's e-commerce fulfilment company Salasa has raised $30 million in a Series B round led by Artal Capital, with participation from SVC, Wa’ed Ventures, 500 Global, Alsulaiman Group, and other strategic investors.

• 🇪🇬 Egypt-based digital procurement platform Suplyd has raised $2 million in a pre-Series A round led by 4DX Ventures, Camel Ventures, and Plus VC, with participation from Seedstars and existing investors.

• 🇪🇬 Egypt-based Saas provider Wuilt has raised $2 million in a funding round led by follow-on investment from Flat6Labs and MTF VC, with participation from Hub71, JIMCO (Abdul Latif Jameel’s VC arm), Purity Tech, and a group of other angel investors.

• 🇮🇶 Iraq-based logistics aggregator Boxy has closed a $1.5 million pre-seed investment provided by EQIQ, as part of EQIQ’s venture-building strategy to address key market gaps and scale Iraq’s digital infrastructure.

• 🇸🇦 Deep.SA, a Saudi-based artificial intelligence startup, has successfully raised $1.2 million (SAR 4.5 million) in a pre-seed funding round.

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia-based voice AI startup Sawt has closed a $1 million pre-seed round led by T2 and STV’s newly launched AI Fund. The funding will support Sawt’s goal to reinvent customer service in the region using intelligent voice agents.

M&A activity 💼

• F&B giant Almarai is now the sole owner of water bottling firm Pure Beverages Industry Company (PBIC) for over SAR 1 bn, it said in a Tadawul disclosure on Thursday. Source.

• Ades International Holding, a subsidiary of Tadawul-listed Ades Holding, has agreed to take over Dubai-based and Oslo-listed offshore drilling contractor Shelf Drilling in a SAR 1.4 bn (USD 379 mn) merger. Source.

• Buruj Cooperative Ins. entered into a binding merger agreement with the Mediterranean and Gulf Ins. and Reins (Medgulf), marking a significant consolidation move in the local ins. sector. Source.

• Dubai-based Al-Futtaim Group is in the process of acquiring a 49.95% stake in Tadawul-listed Cenomi Retail in a transaction worth as much as SAR 2.5 bn (USD 667 mn). Source.

Want to learn more? Schedule a time with our team below!