Top 10 Venture Deals Dominating MEAPT in 2025

The venture capital landscape in MEAPT ended 2025 on a high note, with six mega-deals (≥ US $100 million) closed in December alone totaling over US $1.3 billion. The month’s top 10 funding rounds stretched across traditional strongholds like fintech, healthtech, and AI, as well as more niche verticals like automotive rentals and gaming, highlighting the widening spectrum of investor interest. December also saw the region’s second-largest deal of the year: UAE-based fintech company Zelo closed a staggering US $715 million round, cementing its position as one of the most well-capitalized startups in MEAPT to date.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 funding rounds of December 2025 across MEAPT.

#1- Zelo (United Arab Emirates), FinTech, US $715 Million Funding Round

Founded by Deepak Sekar, Dhanush Arjun and Siddhartha Agarwal in 2020 as eFunder to address critical financing challenges faced by growing small businesses, Zelo operates as a subsidiary of IHC, the Middle East’s most valuable publicly listed company and a major global investment powerhouse. Backed by IHC’s extensive value networks, Zelo benefits from exceptional financial strength and deep ecosystem connectivity, enabling it to deliver faster, more efficient, and highly dependable financial services. Zelo has to date funded over 12,000 transactions worth $225 million across many sectors including oil and gas, construction, infrastructure and retail. It is targeting $1 billion in gross financing volume in 2026. Its rapid growth and market impact have been recognized by both public and private institutions, including its selection as a Future 100 Startup by the UAE Ministry of Economy and its designation as a Rising Star in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 program.

In December 2025, Zelo raised US $715 million in capital from its parent, IHC. Zelo aims to inject greater liquidity into B2B supply chains, with the goal of strengthening their resilience and supporting the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By improving cash flow within these networks, the company seeks to bolster GDP growth through more dynamic and stable commercial ecosystems. According to CEO Dhanush Arjun, this backing from IHC is expected to accelerate the formation of anchor partnerships, enabling Zelo to broaden its reach across supply chain networks as it scales its financing solutions for SMEs.

#2 - Syremis Therapeutics (Israel), HealthTech, US $165 Million Series A

Founded by Elisabeth Kogan, Elena Kagan, and Menashe Levy in 2025, Syremis Therapeutics is a clinical‑stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing next‑generation treatments for serious mental health and neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar depression. Rooted in emerging and clinically validated biological mechanisms such as muscarinic M1/M4 agonism and next‑generation NMDA antagonism, its lead program ST‑905 is a dual M1/M4 muscarinic agonist for schizophrenia and related disorders while ST‑901 is a novel NMDA antagonist advancing through IND‑enabling studies for affective disorders.

In December 2025, Syremis Therapeutics closed a US $165 million Series A financing led by Dexcel Pharma and Third Rock Ventures. This funding round marks the company’s first institutional raise and will support the advancement of its neuropsychiatric pipeline toward clinical proof‑of‑concept studies.

#3 - Vega (Israel), Cybersecurity, US $120 Million Series B

Founded by Shay Sandler & Eli Rozen in 2024, Vega is building an AI‑native Security Analytics and Investigation platform designed to give security operations teams complete visibility and threat detection across all enterprise data without costly migrations or legacy SIEM limitations. Rather than analyzing data in place without forced migration, Vega's approach rethinks traditional security analytics by enabling analysis where the data lives, reducing cost and complexity for modern enterprises.

In December 2025, Vega closed a US $120 million Series B financing round led by Accel, bringing its cumulative funds raised to US $185 million. The fresh capital will be used to accelerate product development, scale go‑to‑market efforts globally, and deepen integrations with enterprise customers as Vega expands its AI‑driven security analytics and investigation platform.

#4 - LAGRIDE (Nigeria), Automotive, US $100 Million Debt Financing

Established in 2021, Lagride is a Lagos State Government‑backed automotive and e‑mobility platform focused on transforming urban mobility and driver success in Nigeria’s commercial capital. Lagride is intentionally designed to help drivers evolve from operators into owners, and ultimately into investors and partners managing multiple vehicles and teams of people. Its Drive-To-Own program is designed to move drivers from short-term rental models into gradual vehicle ownership based on performance and repayment history. Lagride recently expanded its fleet of vehicles with 100 electric vehicles in a move targeted at capturing at least 70% of the e-hailing market in Lagos.  According to the company, the 100 EVs were part of the broader plans to roll out over 3,000 EVs over the next three years to support the state’s shift to cleaner and smarter mobility.

In December 2025, Lagride secured a US $100 million financing facility from United Bank for Africa (UBA) to expand its Drive-To-Own program. The financing reflects growing interest from financial institutions in structured mobility platform, and is structured to support the transition of about 3,500 drivers from daily rental arrangements into longer-term asset ownership and small business operations within the city’s transportation sector.

#5 - Port (Israel), Artificial Intelligence, US $100 Million Series C

Founded in 2022 by Zohar Einy (CEO) and Yonatan Boguslavski, Port is an artificial intelligence and software startup emerging from the founders’ platform engineering experience building internal developer portals for complex engineering environments. The company develops an Agentic Engineering Platform that helps enterprises orchestrate, govern, and automate software development workflows by empowering AI agents to manage tasks across the software development lifecycle, from ticket resolution to incident remediation. Port's user base has expanded eightfold since its Series A funding just one year ago following a 7x year-over-year increase in revenue, with customers including leading brands like LG, British Telecom and GitHub. Additionally, Port announced the integration of LLMs into its platform, enabling organizations to enhance their developer experience with generative AI.

In December 2025, Port secured a US $100 million Series C financing round led by General Atlantic, bringing its total capital raised to US $158 million. The new funds will accelerate the development and adoption of its AI‑driven Agentic Engineering Platform, deepen enterprise integrations, and support global expansion as organizations increasingly look to automate complex engineering workflows with agentic AI.

#6 - Quantum Art (Israel), Quantum Computing, US $100 Million Series A

Founded by Dr. Tal David, Dr. Amit Ben Kish, and Ozeri as a spin-off from the Ozeri group at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Quantum Art has a mission to build scalable full‑stack quantum systems based on trapped‑ion qubit technology. The startup brings together deep expertise in quantum physics, large‑scale hardware engineering, and system architecture to develop multi‑core, scalable quantum processors designed thar tackle complex computational problems exceeding the capabilities of classical computers. Quantum Art recently announced its plan to reach Quantum Advantage by 2027 and build a 1 million-qubit system by 2033. According to the team, this architecture will perform up to 100 times more operations per second, run 100 times more tasks in parallel, and use 50 times less space than competitors, making it faster, more efficient, and better suited for advanced algorithms with strong error correction.

In December 2025, Quantum Art raised US$100 million in a Series A round led by Bedford Ridge Capital, bringing the company’s total capital raised to US $124 million. This funding aims to accelerate product development and cement Quantum Art's position among a growing cohort of startups vying for leadership in the emerging quantum computing market.

#7 - Duve (Israel), Management Software, US $60 Million Series B

Founded in 2015 by David Mezuman, Jeremy Atlan, and Shai Tam, Duve is transforming how hotels and accommodations manage the guest experience. Its AI‑powered guest management platform unifies every stage of the guest journey from pre‑arrival communication and digital check‑in to in‑stay messaging, mobile keys, upsells, and post‑stay engagement into a single connected system that replaces fragmented hotel tools. Duve’s AI agents are trained on real hotel data and integrate directly with property systems to deliver context‑aware responses in real time, helping properties improve efficiency, reduce wait times, and boost guest satisfaction. The platform now serves over one million guests per month across more than 1,000 hotel brands in 70+ countries, including global chains and independent properties.

In December 2025, Duve closed a US $60 million Series B funding round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, bringing its total capital raised to US $85 million. The new funds are earmarked for expansion including new offices in the UK, Germany, and Singapore among other global markets as well as strengthening its AI infrastructure and product capabilities, deepening integrations with hotel property systems, and enhancing predictive personalization to elevate guest journeys worldwide.

#8 - Rewaa (Saudi Arabia), Artificial Intelligence/ E-commerce, US $45 Million Series B

Founded in 2018 by Mohammed Alqasir and Abdullah Aljadhai, Rewaa provides a cloud-based solution that interlaces online and physical store inventory. While offering point-of-sale (POS) and accounting modules for an integrated platform, Rewaa aims to become the retailers’ tech partner by providing advanced technical solutions to manage inventory, sales, and payments. The company has processed over $2 billion in transaction value to date, making it one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in MENA, serving more than 7,000 retailers in Saudi and abroad, and creating over 250 jobs.

In December 2025, Rewaa announced a US $45 million series B round led by Wa'ed Ventures, Idrisi Ventures, and Unity Ventures, bringing its cumulative funds raised to nearly US $86 million. The investment round supports Rewaa’s expansion strategy through the integration of artificial intelligence technologies to simplify business management for small and medium-sized enterprises and support retailers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

#9 - Act Security (Israel), Cloud Security, US $40 Million Series A

Founded by Jonathan Langer, Itay Kirshenbaum, Stephen Goldberg, and Ilai Fallach in 2025, Act Security is developing a cloud and data center security platform designed to protect modern cloud infrastructure, workloads, and enterprise environments from evolving threats. Having previously built Medigate, a medical device security platform acquired by Claroty for about US $400 million, Act Security’s team combines deep technical expertise with real‑world cybersecurity experience, positioning the company to address one of the fastest‑growing attack surfaces as cloud adoption accelerates.

In December 2025, Act Security closed a US $40 million Series A round led by Notable Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to US $60 million. Raised only months after its Seed round, this round underscores strong investor confidence in Act Security’s mission and early execution in a critical segment of the cybersecurity landscape. The new funds will be used to scale its cloud security platform development, expand its engineering and operations teams, and accelerate go‑to‑market efforts as organizations seek stronger defenses for cloud and data center environments.

#10 - TaleMonster Games (Turkey), Gaming, US $30 Million Series A

Founded by a team that has worked together for years at Peak Games as part of the most successful projects in the gaming sector, TaleMonster aims to bring a different breath to mobile games and create a lasting culture by offering players an evolving experience full of surprises. Not content with a single hit game, the team wants to produce multiple remarkable titles in the long run. Match Valley, the first example of this vision, stands out as a game where users spend an average of 52 minutes per day.

In December 2025, TaleMonster raised US $30 million Series A round led by Arcadia Gaming Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its cumulative fundraising to US $37 million. The team will use this investment to scale Match Valley’s growth and accelerate development of its next game slate.