Welcome to our weekly edition of Seed Watch- a segment of Market Insyte Digest focused on sharing some of the latest and most intriguing Pre-seed & Seed funding news grabbing the headlines in the startup world. Find out the top 3 deals from this week that caught our eye.
Startup Name: Mal
Industry: Fintech
Region: UAE
Amount (USD): $230 million
The problem it is solving: Mal is addressing limited access to ethical, Shariah-compliant financial services, particularly for underbanked communities. Traditional banks often lack Islamic finance offerings and digital-first capabilities, while many digital banks do not align with Islamic principles. Mal aims to bridge this gap by combining AI-native banking infrastructure with ethical, inclusive Islamic finance.
What the Funds Will Be Spent On: Accelerating product and platform development. Advancing licensing and regulatory approval processes across multiple jurisdictions. Executing its go-to-market strategy ahead of its 2026 launch. Supporting a phased regional expansion starting in the UAE, then into the Middle East and Asia
Startup Name: Proxima
Industry: Biotechnology
Region: United States
Amount (USD): $80 million
The problem it is solving: Traditional drug discovery focuses on targeting single proteins, which often fails to address complex diseases driven by disrupted protein networks. Proxima is tackling the lack of effective tools and structural data needed to design proximity-based medicines that can rewire cellular pathways, including diseases involving so-called “undruggable” proteins.
What the Funds Will Be Spent On: Expanding its structural biology and data platform (NeoLink). Advancing machine learning and generative AI research for molecular design. Funding internal drug development programs. Supporting partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies
Startup Name: Enodia Therapeutics
Industry: Biotechnology
Region: France
Amount (USD): $25 million
The problem it is solving: Many protein-targeting therapies lack selectivity and can disrupt essential biological functions. Enodia Therapeutics is addressing this by developing a small-molecule platform that precisely modulates the SEC61 translocon, enabling targeted protein degradation upstream in the secretory pathway while minimising unintended physiological damage.
What the Funds Will Be Spent On: Advancing its lead small-molecule program toward preclinical candidate selection. Further development and validation of its ML-enabled discovery platform. Strengthening proteomics, structural validation, and translational research capabilities. Laying the groundwork for future IND-enabling studies